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NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT · WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2012 · VOL. CXXXIV, NO. 87 · yaledailynews.com
INSIDE THE NEWS MORNING EVENING
SUNNY SNOW
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CROSS CAMPUS A protest. The Yale chapter of the Student Global Health and AIDS Coalition staged a demonstration on Cross Campus Tuesday afternoon to raise awareness of the federal goverment’s move to cut funding for syringe exchange programs. The students distributed pens that looked like syringes, and one even dressed up as a syringe. Change in America. The Yale College Democrats posted an album to Facebook Tuesday night featuring pictures of Yalies on Cross Campus holding a whiteboard with their idea of what “change is.” Answers ranged from “campaign finance reform” to “supporting Planned Parenthood” to “Not Mitt.”
NETWORKING ART PROJECT CREATES ‘RIPPLES’
EDUCATION REFORM
LOVE WEEK
M. CLUB RUGBY
Gov. Dannel Malloy prepares to push package in Hartford
PSYCH PROFESSOR URGES FOCUS ON MARRIAGE
Elis prepare for sevens tournament in Las Vegas and shot at national title
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Shared Services under fire STREAMLINING OF ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES CONDEMNED AT LAST WEEK’S FACULTY MEETING BY GAVAN GIDEON AND ANTONIA WOODFORD STAFF REPORTERS Faculty protested the ongoing University-wide push to centralize administrative services — an effort they say harms departments and their staff — at last Thursday’s Yale College faculty meeting. Over the past few years, Yale has
implemented a business model called “Shared Services” to reduce costs and share resources across departments, University President Richard Levin said. During that time, Shared Services has shifted administrative operations from business managers and clerical staff in individual departments to more general “operations managers” headquartered at Sci-
Board of Governors
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launch of the class of 2012’s Senior Class Gift, 41 percent of seniors have donated a total of $17,000. The gift fund will hold Trivia Night tonight at Anna Liffey’s at 8 p.m.
The city released its grand list on Tuesday, revealing 2.7 percent net new growth in taxable property over 2011, according to a press release. Under the current tax rate, that totals $6 million in new tax revenue for the city.
Hold up, trolls. The New Haven
Independent announced it would not be publishing reader comments as its editors re-evaluate the website’s role in “convening civic debate” in light of a souring tone on the comment boards, the site’s editor wrote in a piece posted to the site on Tuesday.
JAMES LU/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
NHPD Chief Dean Esserman has implemented changes to the department’s strategy. BY JAMES LU STAFF REPORTER
More Ivy hazing. In late
More money, more problems?
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Yale-NUS defines admin roles
One week in. A week after the
January, Dartmouth senior Andrew Lohse wrote an opinion article in the school’s paper describing various disgusting hazing practices among the university’s fraternities. In response to Lohse’s piece, more than 100 Dartmouth professors signed a faculty letter late last week calling on the university’s administration to take a stronger stance on hazing.
ence Park. But most professors interviewed, some of whom attended last week’s meeting, said they feel administrators are imposing an across-theboard system without first recognizing the needs of individual departments or consulting the faculty. “You cannot bring a cookie-cutter operation from outside and impose it in an uncouth and brutal manner,” said Dimitri Gutas, a professor in the Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations Department.
NHPD chief ushers in changes
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on our experiences,” Levin said. “Of course, once we hire a president, he or she may want to reorganize it.” Administrators at Yale and NUS launched an international search last summer for the inaugural president of Yale-NUS, which is expected to conclude by the summer. The three vice presidents of Yale-NUS will handle the main aspects of the college — academics, administration and fundraising — but University Vice President and
A new initiative within the New Haven Police Department highlights a recalibration of policing strategy under the leadership of Chief Dean Esserman. For the past month, the Elm City’s top public safety officials have met every Tuesday morning at the NHPD’s Union Avenue headquarters for “CompStat” meetings, a new means for coordinating crime reduction and prevention introduced by Esserman, who was appointed to lead the department in October. At the meetings, the managers of each of New Haven’s 10 policing districts report crime trends to the rest of the department and other local, state and federal officials with the goal of identifying patterns and brainstorming crime-fighting solutions. By bringing together law enforcement agencies at multiple levels, along with probation and parole officers, the meetings allow the department to proactively police, ensure accountability and track ongoing results, Esserman said. “[CompStat is] a format of accountability, an inter-agency effort at tracking patterns of crime, tracking criminals and establishing protocols in crime reduction,” said NHPD spokesman David Hartman. Pioneered by William Bratton when he headed the New York City Transit Police Department and then the New York Police Department, CompStat — short for comparative statistics or computer statistics — uses district crime data to devise
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BY TAPLEY STEPHENSON STAFF REPORTER Though Yale-NUS is in the midst of recruiting faculty and students, the jointly-run liberal arts college has yet to solidify plans for the upper echelons of its administration. Current plans for the Yale-NUS administration call for six top officials — the president, three vice presidents and two deans. Since the college will open in less than two years, administrators at Yale and
the National University of Singapore have staggered the hiring process in order to prioritize the most pressing positions. Only three of the six posts have been filled as a result, but even once those remaining appointments have been made, University President Richard Levin said the still-to-be-hired president of Yale-NUS will have the power to evaluate and rework the final administrative structure. “We established what seemed like a sensible administrative structure within the college based
Streetcar named New Haven.
The New Haven Urban Design League held a meeting last Thursday at the New Haven Free Public Library that drew 50 people, including Ward 6 Alderwoman Dolores Colon, to discuss the proposed streetcar, the New Haven Independent reported Tuesday. Movers and shakers. The Yale College Council announced three new representatives in a Tuesday email — Leandro Leviste ’15 of Timothy Dwight, Nathan Kohrman ’15 of Saybrook and Allegra Gordon ’14 of Branford. THIS DAY IN YALE HISTORY
1962 Members of the Congress of Racial Equality stage two sit-ins in New Haven to protest the Board of Aldermen’s rejection of the Fair Housing Law. Submit tips to Cross Campus
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CA R E E R D EV E L O P M E N T
Music School hires first career strategist
T
he Yale School of Music helps to cultivate the artistic passions of its students. But with the creation of a new career strategies position, the YSM acknowledges that aspiring musicians may need help attaining careers, too. AKBAR AHMED reports. This past Saturday, the stage of Morse Recital Hall played host to a conversation instead of a symphony. Three experts in the field of music — a Yale School of Music alumnus, the executive producer of National Public Radio Music and the project architect of the YouTube Symphony Orchestra — spent two hours discussing the opportunities technology creates
for young musicians hoping to advance their careers. Saturday Seminars such as last weekend’s are a new feature at the Music School this year and part of a larger push by the school’s first-ever coordinator of career strategies, Astrid Baumgardner. The School hired Baumgardner to the position last semester after its summer session,
the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, had employed her for two years to help guide students’ professional plans, festival director and associate Music School dean Paul Hawkshaw said. With her appointment, the Music School established its first ever career strategies office. As major orchestras nationwide, such as the bankrupt Philadelphia Orchestra, face funding challenges, the number of young artists securing positions in traditional ensembles is falling. Instead, musicians today need to take a new approach if they want to succeed in the field. Enter Baumgardner. “It used to be a lot easier to find jobs as a music graduSEE MUSIC SCHOOL PAGE 6
JAMES LU/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Astrid Baumgardner became the Yale School of Music’s first career strategies coordinator when she was hired last semester.
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YALE DAILY NEWS · WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
OPINION
.COMMENT “Never forget that beneath the rainbows are brownshirts …” yaledailynews.com/opinion
GUEST COLUMNIST H A R RY L A R S O N
G U E ST C O LU M N I ST T E O S OA R E S
Don’t let Open Yale Courses close Unsurprisingly, my math textbook was written by an MIT professor. More surprisingly, the lectures I watch to learn the material are taught by that same professor. The Internet — and the willingness of elite universities to broadcast classes on it — can profoundly change the college experience and how learning is structured more generally. Besides my math class, another one of my classes has been posted to Open Yale Courses, rendering my physical presence at lecture more of a polite formality than an educational necessity. I’ve even begun listening to two other lectures that I wouldn’t have time to take. As the News reported (“Open Yale seeks stability,” Jan. 23), the grants that have been funding Open Yale Courses will end next year. Ensuring the continuation and expansion of the program should be an immediate priority for Yale’s administration. A concerted effort to attract donors for a program that offers anyone anywhere a chance at some part of a Yale education should produce results. Even if the donations don’t add up to much, Yale could fund the program directly. Its benefits to current students — not to mention to prospective students, alumni and the outside world — make it worthwhile. Securing funding for Open Yale Courses, however, is only the most pressing part of a much larger challenge. Yale and its peer institutions around the world need to think creatively about how Open Yale Courses or the broader collection of college courses available online can enhance and redefine our educational landscape. Knee-jerk reactions against online education as a fake or cheap substitute for real learning will only ensure a continued misallocation of resources that could be used for research and education. To go back to the example of my math course: I get more out of the online MIT lectures than I do out of Yale’s. Part of that is convenience, but, more importantly, I find the MIT lectures to be clearer and better taught. The two courses use similar textbooks written by the same professor and are taught at similar levels of difficulty. Some students may prefer Yale lectures, but the two classes are more similar than they are different. Our current system offers students flexibility — students can find free, online versions of introductory courses offered at comparable difficulty levels at similar institutions. They can decide whether they learn more from physically attending the course or from learning the same material from a professor who happens to teach elsewhere. Yet the educational value of choosing between two or five
‘REXMOTTRAM08’ ON ‘TRUE LOVE WEEK INTERRUPTED BY “KISS-IN”’
or even 10 versions of the same course isn’t that large, considering that most colleges use similar textbooks to teach their introductory courses. This is especially true of math and science disciplines, in which students must learn a large body of established material before getting to areas of contention, confusion and debate. It is less true for social science or humanities classes, in which disagreement may arise on the first day. But even in the humanities, universities will often offer only one inevitably subjective lecture course on Shakespeare, with the understanding that there already exists a corpus of opinions and scholarly research to which students should be exposed. It used to be necessary for professors at every college to plow through the same introductory materials. Technology has changed that. Instead of wasting resources duplicating each other’s efforts, why can’t colleges agree to share their large lectures? Colleges could work together to perfect a curriculum for certain classes that cover the same material, allowing the best possible professors to teach introductory lectures — after all, the best person at teaching linear algebra might teach at MIT, while the best teacher in another discipline might teach at Yale or Harvard. Having developed a single core that will prove sufficient for most students, individual universities could devote more resources to tutoring support systems. Teaching assistants could still grade work and hold section. Professors would still be available for office hours. Having eliminated redundancies, colleges could devote more money, professors and classrooms to seminars, which truly vary from college to college. Students wouldn’t worry as much about conflicts in their schedules and could complete courses at a faster or slower pace than is customary, allowing students who wish to get through prerequisites quickly to do so, while allowing others to take the time they need to learn the material. Online education, which critics have said alienates students from their education and undermines institutional character, could have the opposite effect. The truly alienating big lecture class could be eliminated, replaced by personalized systems of educational support, expanded seminar offerings and an online collaboration offering the best of several colleges. Instead of detracting from the Yale experience, a move toward a more universal university could enhance it. HARRY LARSON is a sophomore in Jonathan Edwards College. Contact him at harry.larson@yale.edu .
At home in the workplace Are you firm-minded and not warmhearted? Not an applauder, but a dissector? An analyzer and not a sympathizer, and more of a judge than a peacemaker? If so, you may be on your way to a summer internship with a multibillion-dollar asset management firm. Good luck. I didn’t know much about Bridgewater when I submitted my application. Dubbed the world’s “largest and indisputably weirdest hedge fund” by New York Magazine, Bridgewater is a quirky place. Its employees function in a wholly horizontal environment and abide by a principle of radical openness. No Bridgewater employee — from a first-year junior associate to C-level career executive — is exempt from a colleague’s criticism. Because of its wacky corporate culture, the hedge fund has become fodder for writers. In a 2011 feature, The New Yorker described Bridgewater’s CEO and founder Ray Dalio as someone who “likes to go places and kill things.” But despite the firm’s idiosyncrasies, there’s a method to its madness: In 2010, its main fund made returns on the order of
38 percent, a figure which sounds terribly impressive even if I have no idea what it actually means. Given the previous sentence, it should come as no surprise that Bridgewater declined my candidacy for its summer program. But my inanity, I think, explains only half of my application’s failure. The firm ascribes its success to its unique culture, so it recruits only individuals who would feel at home in its Serengeti-like environment. All candidates take a Myer-Briggs personality test, which weeds out softies like me. Two weeks after my rejection (delivered in four sentences, and not even complex ones), another email from Bridgewater appeared in my inbox. It asked me to evaluate its recruitment process, since, “As you know, at Bridgewater we consistently use feedback as means for improvement!” I considered crafting a scathing response that would expose my rejection’s injustices: the firm’s blindness to my qualifications, the needless hostility of its interviewers, the insufficiency of its application process to accurately measure my potential as an employee. Radical openness?
Sign me up. None of those indictments, however, would be true. I am, after all, as qualified to work in finance as the goldfish in Bernie Madoff’s cell, and Jon and Pete, my interviewers, were actually quite pleasant people. But most importantly, Bridgewater knew best whether I’d be happy at their firm. Collectively, Yalies rank among the brightest, most qualified worker-wannabes in the country. Getting a job, I think, is not so much a measure of our aptness as human beings but a matter of finding a home in the workplace. Qualifications are important, sure: Even the most softhearted hedge fund wouldn’t hire me in its right mind. But fit is important, too: 40 hours per week (or 84, for the financially inclined) is no small measure of time. Yet too often in job hunting we tie our success to an overarching ideal of self-worth. Résumés cease to be career placement tools and become highlight reels of our lives. We take interview invitations as validations of our whole selves, while rejection emails bear the weight of a marriage proposal
refused. We lose sight of the fact that, really, it’s nothing personal. Part of the blame belongs to prospective employers. Increasingly, firms market themselves not as mere workplaces but as communities of people with hobbies and personal lives. Annie from McKinsey is an avid runner, while Candy at Morgan Stanley is a veteran dragon boat paddler. These firms hire people whole, and we feel wholly rejected when they toss our résumés into a trash can. But we’re part of the problem, too. Yalies are a particularly competitive bunch, and nothing delights us more than an acceptance letter (though an open carrel at Bass is a close second). For us, life is a parade of applications, and acceptance is an indicator of self-worth. If we don’t look past that binary system of acceptances and rejections, we’ll miss an important fact: Bridgewater had it right. In the end, I’m more warmhearted than firm-minded. TEO SOARES is a junior in Silliman College. Contact him at teo.soares@yale.edu .
Prostitution’s real criminals It’s Sex Week, so it seems a fitting time for a crime column to turn to a discussion of sex crimes. “Argh! Isn’t there anywhere we can escape discussions of sex?” you might groan to yourself. I sympathize, but nope, sorry, not this week. The least I can do is offer up a one-liner to ease you into it. As the comedian Steve Martin once said, “I believe that sex is one of the most beautiful, natural, wholesome things that money can buy.” Prostitution. It’s the subject of many jokes and for most of us quickly conjures up historical and cultural references: It’s the world’s oldest profession. It’s Julia Roberts in “Pretty Woman” or Thomas Jane in “Hung.” It’s Las Vegas. But that is not the reality of prostitution. The selling and buying of a person’s body should be a relic of a more unjust past. And, Thomas Jane aside, let’s be clear that prostitutes today are overwhelmingly women and thus the thriving of the sex trade constitutes a serious obstacle to gender equality. A society that accepts women as just another commodity is one that has let the usually healthy forces of capitalism go too far. Tens of thousands of women sell their bodies every day in this country. Are there call girls who sell themselves willingly and safely? Yes. But they are the exception. Most prostitutes get hooked into
the trade early in life because of domestic abuse, drug addiction, poverty and desperation. Consent COLIN ROSS loses its meaning under such Gangbuster coercive circumstances. Prostitution is also inherently tied to human trafficking, even in the United States. Thousands of young girls, American and foreign, are sold by traffickers to pimps around the country to fulfill the demand created by the buyers of sex. The sex business is built on misery and hardship, and it always has been. As Victor Hugo wrote in 1862, “They say that slavery has disappeared from European civilization. That is incorrect. It still exists, but now it weighs only on women, and it is called prostitution.” Prostitution is illegal practically everywhere in America, even Las Vegas (it’s only legal in rural Nevada). But in the campaign against modern-day slavery, we have somewhat incomprehensibly decided that the best way to fight it is to target the slaves. Thousands of women are arrested for prostitution every year. But they are the victims of the sex trade, not its perpetrators. The real criminals — the
pimps and traffickers who organize the business and the men who purchase sex — are arrested much less frequently. The sex trade goes on, free to find new slaves. It’s the same story here in New Haven. Police have not arrested a man for buying sex — a “john” — in the past 18 months, but they have arrested several dozen women (and a few men) for selling it. New Haven Police Lieutenant Jeff Hoffman coordinates the department’s antiprostitution efforts. He told me that about once every other month, officers set up a sting to catch street prostitutes, usually arresting roughly four to eight by the time the sting is over. Virtually all the women arrested are addicted to drugs, usually heroin or crack cocaine. Some will be diverted into mandatory drug treatment. Others, who have already failed treatment from a prior arrest, will be headed to jail. The type of prostitution the NHPD is working against — streetwalking — is among the worst. Like outdoor drug dealing, it signals to a neighborhood’s residents and criminals that moral standards have been lost and the police are not in control. Most residents welcome the stings as a way to reclaim their streets. But the success is usually temporary. As Hoffman noted, the areas plagued by street prostitution — certain parts of the Dwight and Fair Haven neighborhoods — have stayed the same for
the past few years. Hoffman said that just as police target drug dealers more than drug users, they target prostitutes because they’re the ones selling the illicit product and creating the supply side of the problem. But if no man were willing to buy sex, supply would have no demand and prostitutes would be forced out of business. If the NHPD redirected its stings to ensnare johns, as it has done in the past, and established a real and lasting deterrent, streetwalkers could soon find a dwindling number of customers. That’s what happened in Sweden in 1999 when the country criminalized the buying of sex and decriminalized its selling. Over a decade later, experts estimate that street prostitution has dropped by half and the country has become a much less attractive destination spot for human traffickers. Things are as they should be: Victims get help and criminals get jail. Police can already choose what to aggressively target and what not to, as demonstrated by their toleration of johns for far too long. “We reserve the right to do it,” Hoffman said when asked about targeting johns. It is time for police in New Haven and all over America to exercise that right. COLIN ROSS is a senior in Berkeley College. His column runs on Wednesdays. Contact him at colin.ross@yale.edu .
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No academia is objective The addition of ethnicity, race and migration as Yale’s 78th standalone major has prompted criticism from campus conservatives, who claim that the major will only enhance the dangerous brew of politics and academia. In a way, they are correct. The project of ER&M — which questions conventional views of nationality and identity — contributes a political perspective that is largely ignored by most thinkers within and without the ivory tower. But ER&M’s critics err when they assert that the major — along with others broadly thought of as area studies — is different in kind from anything else the university offers. Indeed, nearly all of Yale’s 79 majors are inherently and inextricably linked to a political worldview. It is curious that global affairs, Yale’s 77th standalone major, did not elicit claims of politicization. After all, the major rests on the idea that Americans ought to understand the world through the lens of benevolent developers helping ameliorate the plight of impoverished nations. Its methodology, which includes a cap-
stone project where students consult on how best to solve problems of economic development and international security, is grounded in the notion that America should solve the world’s major dilemmas. This idea is hardly objective. Neither are the fundamental beliefs about government on which political science rests or the concepts about the utility of markets that are largely accepted throughout the Economics Department. History — often written by the victorious and the privileged — makes controversial claims about the best ways to understand the past. And while the sciences may be the least political of Yale’s disciplines — politics, after all, concerns itself with humans and society in a way that chemistry does not — we see in the national debates over the beginning of life and origins of humanity that even their claims cannot be divorced from the hyperpolitical world in which Yale exists. If the political message of economics is less obvious than that of WGSS, it is only because we are more acculturated to the former.
Politics cannot be divorced from the classroom, and those who assume it can tend to do so in only the cases where the political perspective has been most marginalized from mainstream discourse. Queer theory is no more dogmatic or bias-inducing than the idea that democracy is worth valuing — it merely has fewer adherents. So we should be at least as critical of GLBL 366: “Promoting Democracy in Developing Countries” as we are of WGSS 339: “Feminist Fictions.” Pedagogy is a particularly potent brand of politics because it is so hard to question. A literature professor, in constructing a syllabus, makes a host of political claims hard for any of her students to counter, simply because the power dynamics of the classroom dictate that learning takes place within that class’s political framework. This reality should not scare us. We come to Yale to learn, and learning cannot be extracted from the political environment in which it takes place. By embracing the politics of the classroom — politics that will be there whether we
like it or not — we make it easier to understand the basic worldviews and methodologies that majors exist to organize. So all courses of study — not just ER&M and global affairs, but also sociology and English — should be more up-front about the politics behind their academic approaches. Classes like “Introductory Microeconomics” should start by divulging the assumptions behind the course, and only students who find those claims worth studying should take the class. Professors should think harder and divulge more about how their politics affects their syllabi and lectures. That way, we can move beyond the misguided idea that the academy should or even could be a space hermetically sealed from subjectivity and ideology, and we can graduate from Yale with a superior understanding of how politics shapes every aspect of our world. JOSHUA REVESZ is a junior in Calhoun College. Contact him at joshua.revesz@yale.edu .
YALE DAILY NEWS · WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
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PAGE THREE TODAY’S EVENTS WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8 12:00 PM “Mind-Body Intervention for Adults at High Risk for Type 2 Diabetes.” Kyeongra Yang of the Department of Health and Community Systems at the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing will speak. Free, but register in advance. Email shannon. romanos@yale.edu. Yale School of Nursing (100 Church St. South), Arnstein Conference Room. 4:00 PM “Vessels of Influence: The Formation of the Porcelain Industry in Japan.” The Council on East Asian Studies presents the 13th annual John W. Hall Lecture in Japanese Studies with Nicole Coolidge Rousmaniere, director of the Sainsbury Institute in Norwich, England. Luce Hall (34 Hillhouse Ave.), auditorium. 4:30 PM “Ottoman Studies: How Dark Is the History of the Night, How Black the Story of Coffee, How Bitter the Tale of Love: The Changing Measure of Leisure and Pleasure in Early Modern Istanbul.” Cemal Kefadar, professor of Turkish studies at Harvard University, will speak. Sponsored by the Hellenic Studies Program and the Çagatay Fund at the Council on Middle East Studies. Hall of Graduate Studies (320 York St.), Room 211. 6:00 PM “The Gun on My Teacher’s Thigh: Theorizing Organizational Adaptation in Wartime.” Attend a workshop with Sarah Parkinson, a postgraduate associate at the University of Chicago, as a part of the Program on Order, Conflict, and Violence workshop series. Rosenkranz Hall (115 Prospect St.), Room 005. 7:00 PM “Don’t Let There Be Blood: Repealing the Syringe Exchange Ban.” A panel of experts will discuss the politics of syringe exchange with a focus on the recently reinstated ban on federal funding for syringe exchange programs. Co-sponsored by the Student Global Health and AIDS Campaign and AIDS Walk New Haven. Linsly-Chittenden Hall (63 High St.), Room 101.
“You’d be surprised how difficult it is relinquish a cell phone.” ADRIEN BRODY ACTOR
Gov. to push education reforms BY BEN PRAWDZIK STAFF REPORTER Gov. Dannel Malloy has indicated that he plans to make good on his promise to enact education reform — he has announced a series of legislative proposals over the past week aimed at improving and expanding schooling opportunities in Connecticut. Malloy’s proposals, if enacted by the state’s General Assembly convening for its legislative session today, would affect students in levels ranging from preschool to professional job training programs. Last Thursday, Malloy proposed allocating an additional $12 million of the state budget to boost the quality and accessibility preschool education in the state. The next day, the governor announced that he will propose legislation to change the Connecticut Technical High School (CTHSS) system to tailor its curricula to the needs of the state’s employers so that students will be better prepared for employment upon graduation. On Monday, Malloy put forth a legislative proposal to improve lowachieving schools and increase charter and magnate school funding.
We made a promise to our kids that education will prepare them for college or the workforce. DANNEL MALLOY Governor, Connecticut
CORRECTIONS TUESDAY, FEB. 7
The article “Elis sweep weekend at home” misreported the score for the women’s fencing team’s match against Drew University. The score was 26–1, not 21–6. The headline for the article “Suit alleges bias in elite admissions” referred to a suit alleging racial bias in admissions to elite universities. It is in fact a complaint filed with the U.S. Department of Education, not a lawsuit.
YCC begins cell phone loan program BY JANE DARBY MENTON STAFF REPORTER The Yale College Council launched a new initiative last week that allows students with lost or damaged cell phones to borrow phones for up to two weeks. While the program’s phones enable students to place and receive calls, they are not equipped with texting or Internet capabilities. Since the initiative’s announcement Jan. 31, four of the nine phones available have been checked out from the Technology Troubleshooting Office in Bass Library. “This program is geared towards making the lives better and easier for students for whom cell phones are indisposable,” YCC President Brandon Levin ‘13 said. “Either you’re stuck without a cell phone for a week, or you get one from the YCC.”
Since college is very much a social experience as much as an academic one, we’ve sort of conditioned ourselves to feel the need to be connected 24/7. DANIEL TAHARA ’14 This idea was first proposed along with the YCC’s Netbook Loaner Program, which launched last year, Levin said, but due to budgeting constraints and an expected higher demand for laptops, the YCC decided to introduce the Netbooks first. Following upon the success of the Netbook Loaner program, whose 10 available netbooks are all currently checked out to students, Levin said the YCC chose to also offer cell phones this semester. He added that whether the program expands will depend on the popularity of the program and the size of next year’s
YCC budget. Patrick Toth ’14, the YCC member heading the project, said the cell phones provided are Samsung Gusto flip phones on the Verizon network and are connected to Yale’s corporate cell phone plan. Each cell phone has its own number, Toth said, and students are not able to transfer their SIM cards or contacts to the temporary phones. Students who damage or fail to return the phones will have to pay the cost of the phone, he added. Six out of 12 students interviewed said that they would consider taking advantage of the new program if they lost their phone, but others said that they would rather wait to get their own phone and avoid unnecessary hassle. Students who said they may use the service said they thought the initiative would benefit students by keeping them connected to their family and friends. Heshika Deegahawathura ’15 said after losing his phone earlier this year, he recognized the difficulties of not having a phone. Daniel Tahara ’14 agreed, saying he “feels lost” without his phone. “Since college is very much a social experience as much as an academic one, I think we’ve sort of conditioned ourselves to feel the need to be connected 24/7,” Tahara said. “Being out of contact for more than a short period literally puts you behind.” But Jackson McHenry ’15 said he would not feel comfortable using an unfamiliar phone. Luis Fernando Schachner ’15 added that he did not know any numbers by heart and would not benefit from a phone without his contacts. Other YCC programs introduced this year include Bluebook by YCC, Durfee’s $7 meal deals and online grade notifications. Contact JANE DARBY MENTON at jane.menton@yale.edu .
“We made a promise to our kids that education will prepare them for college or the workforce,” Malloy said in a Feb. 6 press release. “Transforming our educational system — fixing the schools that are falling short and learning from the ones that are graduating high-achievers — will help us develop the skilled workforce that will strengthen our state and our economy.” In his preschool proposal, Malloy called for a $4 million “investment” to provide 500 additional spots in the state’s preschool education programs, $3 million to provide professional development opportunities earlier to students prior to college and $5 million to create a statewide “Tiered Quality Rating and Improvement System” (TQRIS) that will allow parents to access information on early childhood school programs. Connecticut’s lack of such a system was part of the reason why the state lost out on funding from the fed-
SARAH SULLIVAN/SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER
Gov. Dannel Malloy plans to introduce a package of education reforms in the state legislature’s next session, which begins today. eral grant competition known as Race to the Top in March 2010, according to a Feb. 2 press release from the governor’s office. Race to the Top, started by President Barack Obama’s administration in 2009, awards funding to state and local K-12 programs that implement certain education reforms. “Investing in early childhood is critical to prepare young children to succeed and close the achievement gap,” said Maggie Adair, executive director of the CT Early Childhood Alliance, a Connecticut-based education advocacy group. “The governor’s plan demonstrates his passion and commitment to building a solid foundation for young children in Connecticut.” To address state vocational schools, Malloy announced on Friday that he will ask the Department of Education, in collaboration with the Board of Regents, Department of Labor and Department of Economic and Community Development to lead the process of revamping
CTHSS programming and benchmark student performance standards against national and global models in technical training. The centerpiece of Malloy’s Monday proposal affecting low-achieving schools is a new organization called the “Commissioner’s Network,” a system of supports and interventions designed to improve chronically low-performing schools to be established within the next year. The governor announced on the same day a proposed increase in per-pupil funding for charter schools by $11.1 million, which would bring the per-pupil funding for charter schools from $9,400 to $11,000. In the Elm City, more than 73 percent of New Haven students enter kindergarten with preschool experience, according to City Hall spokeswoman Elizabeth Benton ’04. Contact BEN PRAWDZIK at benjamin.prawdzik@yale.edu .
Med School Student Council elected BY MARIANA LOPEZ-ROSAS STAFF REPORTER Starting this month, the Yale School of Medicine will have new leaders at the helm of its student government. Elections for the School of Medicine Student Council took place on Jan. 27., and medical students elected Joel Winer MED ’15, Dipankan Bhattacharya MED ’18, Apoorva Tewari ’11 MED ’15 and Amanda Wallace MED ’15 as president, vice president, treasurer and communications officer, respectively. The position of communications officer is new to the Council this year, and will be instrumental to the Council’s goals of launching a website or a blog, according to current vice president Sasha Gupta MED ’14. “We’re very excited on the upcoming board,” Gupta said. “They are a group of very capable individuals who will do great things for the school.” Gupta said the new position of communications officer represents the current board’s hope that the new board will “redefine” the way the Council interfaces with students and faciliates interaction between classes. She added that the Council envisions creating a website or blog with a “unified calendar” of social events. But the position’s actual duties have not yet been officially defined — that will be left open for the new members of the Council to decide, Gupta said. The Council has relied on virtual communications with the student body in the past, with successful results, according to Council members. Alexander Marzuka MED ’13, one of two Council representatives of this year’s graduating class, said the group relies on emails and surveys to hear students’ voices, and has been pleased with the rate of response. He added that sending out surveys allows the Coun-
cil to provide data to School of Medicine administrators when advocating for a new policy. For instance, he said, the Council’s use of this data helped them persuade administrators to provide iPads to all students at the School, rather than only firstyear and second-year students as originally planned. The Student Council has traditionally been responsible for voicing student concerns to school officials and organizing annual events such as Commencement and Second Look Week — a week in April when admitted students are invited to visit the school before they decide whether to attend. Whitney Sheen MED ’12, copresident of this year’s graduating class, said in the past the Council has been involved in voicing students’ concerns about campus safety. After some students were robbed at gunpoint, she said, the Council’s work resulted in the Medical School increasing the number of nearby security guards, improving lighting and providing latenight transportation around campus. As a member of the Student Council for the past four years, Sheen said that one of its goals is “get everyone together and support each other socially,” by organizing events such as Switch Weekend, a social gathering that marks the end of one rotation and the start of another. Marzuka said one of this year’s achievements was securing Ben Carson ’73 MED ’77, a renowned Johns Hopkins neurosurgeon and Presidential Medal of Freedom awardee, as this year’s Commencement speaker. Aside from the Council’s main officers, each class chooses its representatives officials independently in April. Contact MARIANA LOPEZROSAS at mariana.lopez-rosas@yale.edu .
ZEENAT MANSOOR/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
The Med School’s Student Council elected its new leaders last week.
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FROM THE FRONT
331
Shifts mark Esserman’s tenure
Instances of larceny in New Haven in August 2011 According to the NHPD website, there were 331 cases of larceny reported in New Haven for the month of August 2011. There were 460 reported cases in August 2010.
Faculty protest business model SHARED SERVICES FROM PAGE 1
JAMES LU/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Since he was appointed in October, NHPD Chief Dean Esserman has brought new initiatives to the department — including weekly meetings with law enforcement agencies at multiple levels — as part of a shift toward community policing. ESSERMAN FROM PAGE 1 coordinated and systematic responses, Hartman said. Esserman served under Bratton at the Transit Police Department in New York — he was named a member of “Bratton’s Brigade” in 2007 by the magazine Governing — and brought similar strategies to Providence, R.I. when he served as chief of the city’s police department from 2003-’11. At Tuesday’s meeting, crime data from each of the city’s policing districts, as well as citywide statistics, were projected in front of a packed fourth-floor meeting room at the NHPD headquarters. The officials in attendance included Yale Police Department Chief Ronnell Higgins, Chairman of the Board of Police Commissioners Richard Epstein and newly elected Ward 18 Alderman Salvatore DeCola. To kick off the meeting, the citywide crime data for 2012 so far was posted: Violent crimes are down 28.7 percent compared to the numbers from this time last year, with a 29.9 percent drop in robberies and assaults falling 16.7 percent. No homicides have been recorded in 2012, while by this time last year, three people had been murdered. “It is Feb. 7 and New Haven does not have a homicide,” Esserman said. “No other big city in Connecticut can say that.” After attendees examined the overall crime data, each of the 10 district managers discussed last week’s statistics for their respective areas, starting with Lt. Rebecca Sweeney-Burns, who oversees the downtown district. She reported that the walking beats assigned to patrol officers in her district had been received positively by local businesses, a view Esserman echoed, adding that
he had walked a beat downtown for an hour before Tuesday’s meeting. As the district managers presented data on criminal activity in their respective districts, including an identification of each crime’s perpetrator, Esserman discussed his plans to revive the community policing model he helped bring to New Haven as NHPD assistant chief in the early 1990s.
[CompStat is] a format of accountability, an inter-agency effort at tracking patterns of crime, tracking criminals and establishing protocols in crime reduction. DAVID HARTMAN Spokesman, New Haven Police Department Whenever the department “picks up a pattern [of similar crimes in a specific area], we move quickly,” Esserman said, by moving officers to the neighborhood. In addition, officers on the walking beat must “not just walk, but talk,” so that they get to know local business proprietors and other “good people” in their neighborhoods, he said. The department’s newly strengthened partnership with the state probation and parole departments was also on display Tuesday. Not only have probation and parole officers begun to move into the NHPD headquarters, but their work has also been integrated into the CompStat meetings. At the meeting, Esserman asked about each criminal’s probation status after they were
identified. Hartman said this new emphasis on probation and parole is a result of the city’s concern about recidivism. Mayor John DeStefano Jr. repeatedly stressed last year that around 70 percent of New Haven’s crime comes from either the narcotics trade or the prison re-entry population. Throughout the meeting, Esserman invited comments from the members of the YPD in attendance — including Higgins and Assistant Chiefs Steven Woznyk and Michael Patten. When discussing downtown crime issues, Higgins spoke about the recent spate of noise complaints and incidents of public urination by University of New Haven and Quinnipiac students in the area between Toad’s Place and Mory’s. “Since the YPD and NHPD share some of the same geography, crime problems and interests, it makes sense to coordinate our efforts beginning with communication,” Higgins said. “The CompStat format also brings many nontraditional public and private partners into the process and brings more resources to bear on problemsolving efforts, and, being a weekly meeting, gives opportunities to discuss and analyze problems in a timely fashion.” Higgins added that YPD district managers Lts. Bill Holohan and Joe Vitale work with and communicate directly with their NHPD counterparts, both in and out of the CompStat process, to identify and solve crime issues by sharing resources and strategies. CompStat meetings take place at 10 a.m. every Tuesday at the NHPD headquarters. Contact JAMES LU at james.q.lu@yale.edu .
Thursday’s meeting drew roughly 200 faculty members — far more than typically attend — and forced it to relocate from Connecticut Hall to Linsly-Chittenden. Though Shared Services was only one item on the agenda at the faculty meeting, debate on the issue prompted two consecutive votes to extend the meeting by 30-minute intervals. Faculty meetings can only be extended through a vote of approval by at least two-thirds of those in attendance. After Vice President for Finance and Business Operations Shauna King gave a presentation on the progress of Shared Services, about 20 professors — many of whom are department chairs, directors of undergraduate studies or directors of graduate studies — took turns criticizing the business model. Professors present said faculty expressed their frustrations with the system, such as the unresponsiveness of non-departmental business managers and the detrimental effects the reorganization has had on administrative staff. The meeting was chaired by Yale College Dean Mary Miller. Levin and Provost Peter Salovey were also in attendance. Levin said the University has had a Shared Services unit in the sciences for at least a decade. Because administrators found that effort to be successful, Levin said they decided to extend the initiative across Yale to improve resource allocation.
[Shared Services] was supposed to be streamlining and simplifying our lives. BENJAMIN FOSTER Professor, Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations Department Salovey deferred comment for this story to King, who did not respond to multiple requests for comment Tuesday evening. But even though Shared Services was introduced University-wide a few years ago, professors said the administration has still failed to justify the initiative adequately, which they called ill-suited to individual departments’ needs. “[Shared Services] was supposed to be streamlining and simplifying our lives, and what it’s done is made it much more complicated,” said Benjamin Foster, a professor in the Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations Department. “Everything takes about two times as long. We resent the down-skilling of departmental administrative personnel … We don’t see how that can be more efficient or cheaper.” English professor Jill Campbell said in a Tuesday email that the changes she has seen from Shared Services have not made visible improvements to business management. Campbell said administrators have reduced salaries of some administrative jobs and down-
graded some clerical positions so that they only last 10 months per year. Gutas said the secretarial job of the Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations Department’s only staff member was reduced to a 10-month position beginning last semester, meaning there will no longer be someone to handle administrative duties throughout the summer. The Office of Finance and Business Operations has not demonstrated how this type of reorganization reduces costs for the University, Campbell said, especially as Yale has simultaneously increased spending on non-departmental business administration. She added that plans for improving services such as grant administration and financial transactions have not been clearly explained to faculty members. Miller said in a Monday interview that she feels there is “a lot of confusion” among faculty about what Shared Services entails. Professors said their understanding of the Shared Services model is that it tasks operations managers with overseeing the business responsibilities of six to eight departments, and they expressed concern that one person could not handle this workload. Faculty members also said they are concerned that cuts will be made to clerical positions. Within the English Department, 44 graduate students and seven faculty members have signed a petition in support of the department’s three clerical staff, who have been asked “to justify their jobs as part of an aggressive process of departmental restructuring,” according to the petition. Presented to Salovey on Monday, the petition stated that efforts to centralize administrative work could result in cuts to staff and threaten the department’s “institutional autonomy.” Italian Languages and Literatures Department Chair Giuseppe Mazzotta said he feels the Shared Services model is particularly inappropriate for language departments, which rely on departmental staff with specialized language skills to communicate with professors in foreign countries. While his department has not experienced any cuts thus far, Mazzotta said he would resist potential future changes. The Classics Department, on the other hand, has experienced restructuring from Shared Services. The department has had an off-site business manager since the previous business manager retired in January 2010, department chair Christina Kraus said. She said the switch was not as damaging as she anticipated, but has led to “a couple of strongly negative effects” such as doubling her administrative work and making it harder to plan departmental initiatives. Yale College faculty meetings are held on the first Thursday of every month. Contact GAVAN GIDEON at gavan.gideon@yale.edu and ANTONIA WOODFORD at antonia.woodford@yale.edu .
YALE DAILY NEWS · WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
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NEWS
“Don’t have sex, because you will get pregnant and die! Don’t have sex in the missionary position, don’t have sex standing up, just don’t do it, okay, promise?” COACH CARR “MEAN GIRLS” CHARACTER
Love Week speaker champions marriage BY SARAH SWONG CONTRIBUTING REPORTER W. Brad Wilcox, director of the University of Virginia’s National Marriage Project, offered students tips on Tuesday for finding successful marriages, which he said are vital to achieving personal happiness. In a True Love Week event in Linsly-Chittenden Hall, Wilcox told a group of about 15 students Tuesday that marriage is often a more potent contributor to happiness than educational attainment or economic stability. But he said society often neglects to prepare young adults for courtship and marriage, leaving them “clueless and confused.” “Marriage is especially challenging because there are no institutional rules to guide people through courtship and within marriage,” he said. Wilcox, who teaches psychology at the University of Virginia, said commitment to both a partner and the institution of marriage itself leads to security, fidelity and “sexual bliss.” In searching for a partner, Wilcox recommended that people avoid “stonewallers” who retreat from conflict and “naggers” who are too quick to criticize. He also suggested that young people not rely on “the physical and romantic rush,” which “will not last and will not sustain through the challenges of marriage.” Instead, couples should seek “homogamy,” or shared interests and values. “You want to think about the one you want to spend a long afternoon with when you’re old and wrinkly,” he said. He advised students against cohabitation before marriage, since he said it is linked to a higher risk of divorce and conflict, he said. Cohabiting partners often are “not on the same page” because they live together with different motives, he said, and
also develop an “easy come, easy go” attitude that undermines commitment. Other couples view cohabitation as a premarital test drive, but this “consumer mindset” of constant evaluation hurts marriage, he said. He said casual sex with multiple partners is associated with higher risk of depression for women, adding that depression may make women more likely to seek multiple partners. Sex in marriage, as opposed to casual sex, is most likely to lead to sexual satisfaction and is more likely to be “emotionally safe,” he said. “What happens outside the bedroom influences what happens inside the bedroom,” he said. Delaying marriage may also lead to unhappiness, he said. Studies show the happiest marriages occur between ages 23 and 28 because adults have matured enough without being too set in their ways, he said, and marrying earlier also reduces the chance of moving between relationships, preventing cynicism that may hurt the marriage. Once people find a partner, he said generosity, commitment, shared faith and quality time are the top predictors for marital happiness, Wilcox said. Still, while Wilcox said marriage is key for happiness, he said relying on one’s spouse for happiness burdens marriage with high expectations. Believing in an external source “larger than oneself,” such as God, reduces the pressure on the relationship, he said. Grace Hirshorn ’15, who attended the talk, said she thought Wilcox offered “practical tips” that can be applied to all types of relationships. “So many of us will end up married, so it’s important for us to keep these things in the back of our minds,” she said.
ITS tests Classesv2 site for smartphones BY LIZ RODRIGUEZ-FLORIDO STAFF REPORTER
MARIA ZEPEDA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
W. Brad Wilcox, a psychology professor at the University of Virginia, urged students to recognize the importance of marriage in living a happy life. But Travis Heine ’14 said the presentation relied too heavily on statistics and “lacked rhetorical force.” True Love Week, sponsored by Undergraduates for a Better Yale College, is holding seven events
between Feb. 5-14 as an alternative to Sex Week 2012, which is running from Feb. 4-14. Contact SARAH SWONG at sarah.swong@yale.edu .
Information Technology Services is testing a new mobile Classesv2 website that allows students to check syllabi and course readings on their smart phones. Between Jan. 26 through Feb. 3, over 600 students opted to evaluate the alpha version of the site through a survey on Classesv2, said David Hirsch, associate director of Yale’s Center for Media and Instructional Innovation and project head for ClassesV2 mobile. Depending on student interest, Hirsch said access to the site may be extended to students beyond those testing it. He added that within a few weeks the center will determine whether to further development and offer a beta version to the student body after reviewing data and comments of testers. “We know that students want more mobile access to University services in general,” he said. “What we don’t yet know is which services are most important. We have not historically had a lot of input from students on development of Classesv2.” The current alpha mode offers access to six tools from Classesv2: the syllabus, announcements, resources, gradebook, schedule and signup, Hirsch said. In designing the site, Hirsch said the Center tried to include elements of Classesv2 that students would realistically use on their mobile devices, adding that the mobile view is not built for tasks such as data entry. “We know the mobile environment is not the easiest environment to do complicated transactions,” said Hirsch. “We
are focusing on tools that would share info with students that they might want to access while in transit.” In an effort to be as “inclusive” as possible, the team did not create individual applications for iPhone, Android and Blackberry, Hirsh said, but instead made the mobile view compatible with all smartphones that have Internet browsing capability.
We have not historically had a lot of input from students on development of Classesv2. DAVID HIRSCH Associate director, Yale Center for Media and Instructional Innovation Owen Barrett ’15, a current user of the alpha version, said he used to load the regular Classesv2 site on his smartphone, but the mobile view makes using the site much easier. “The mobile version of the site succeeds… by making navigation between classes much easier and small-screen-friendly,” said. Chinmay Jaju ’15, who did not know about the survey signup, said he thought the new platform for the site was a great improvement since students often need to access class information on the way to class. The center first began developing the mobile view late last fall, Hirsch said. Contact LIZ RODRIGUEZFLORIDO at liz.rodriguez-florido@yale.edu .
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YALE DAILY NEWS · WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
FROM THE FRONT
“Analyzing what you haven’t got as well as what you have is a necessary ingredient of a career.” ORISON SWETT MARDEN AMERICAN WRITER
Baumgardner seeks to aid ‘self-discovery’ MUSIC SCHOOL FROM PAGE 1 ate,” said Baumgardner, who has consulted for arts organizations like the American Composers Orchestra and The Juilliard School. “Now, you have to be more entrepreneurial, more in charge of your job search.” Music School Dean Robert Blocker said in an email to the News that the school had wanted to initiate a career strategies program for some time, but that this only became possible with the reworking of the 2011-’12 budget to include a part-time faculty position. Seven months in, as orchestra staffs continue to dwindle, Baumgardner remains focused on helping the Music School’s graduates design contemporary, unique ways to approach their futures.
‘CREATIVE, AUTHENTIC SELVES’
Establishing a stable career in today’s music world requires evaluating oneself honestly, faculty and students at the school said. Guiding students toward greater self-knowledge is central to Baumgardner’s approach. “She helps me re-evaluate where I am in my educational pursuit … and where I want to go with my career,” Alan Pawlowicz MUS ’12 said. He added that meeting with Baumgardner during her weekly office hours has helped him develop both long-term and short-term visions for his career, leaving him more certain of his trajectory than before. “I help people build on their successes — that’s what I’m good at,” Baumgardner said. Baumgardner, now in her late 50’s, practiced as a litigator for over 20 years before realizing law was not her passion. While
working for French law firm Gide Loyrette Nouel, Baumgardner, who majored in French at Mount Holyoke College, said she became interested in the arts, especially music. In 2000, she left law altogether and became deputy executive director of the New York branch of Alliance Francaise, a global organization that promotes French culture. But, in 2008, Baumgardner said, the company downsized, and she started her own business as both a life coach and an independent consultant to arts nonprofits. Baumgardner has also chaired the board of the American Composers’ Orchestra, an orchestra dedicated to encouraging emerging composers, since 2002. Michael Geller, chief executive of the orchestra, said in an email that her background in various professional fields, ranging from career coaching to legal practice, gives her a “unique” set of experiences to share with artists seeking to establish themselves. Blocker said the Music School’s decision to hire Baumgardner stemmed in part from her understanding of the current music climate. In today’s economy, Baumgardner said, she sees that talented, young musicians face greater difficulties in acquiring traditional orchestra jobs, as the number of open spots has fallen while the ranks of aspiring musicians auditioning have swelled. Accordingly, she said, she aims to prepare students for a different kind of market by encouraging them to “tap into their creative, authentic selves.” Baumgardner has been a “tremendous force” in helping Pawlowicz define his identity as a musician, he said, including his priorities and his problem areas. Hawkshaw said that he was
impressed that Baumgardner goes beyond just preparation for the musical profession to give students individualized perspectives on their place in the modern music scene. “She’s asking people to think about where they see themselves in the world and where their careers are going and what they have to contribute,” he said. Baumgardner has helped students see that they can define success in their own ways, Arash Noori MUS ’12 said. This spring, Noori enrolled in Baumgardner’s course “Creating Financially Sustainable Careers in the Arts,” in which she discusses tactics to help working musicians and hosts guests such as successful Music School alumni.
Our students are supertalented. … I help them discover their brand, what makes them unique. ASTRID BAUMGARDNER Coordinator of Career Strategies, Yale School of Music “She made me think about the fact that success is so relative with something like music,” Noori explained. “It’s not just about playing 200 concerts a year — maybe you want to play a smaller number, have a balanced life, teach and arrange.”
EQUIPPED WITH NEW SKILLS
But a strong contemporary skill set demands more than an understanding of oneself — another part of Baumgardner’s role involves helping Music School students learn how to build strong connections with others.
Admin structure detailed YALE NUS FROM PAGE 1 Secretary Linda Lorimer said the Yale-NUS president will also have the power to hire additional personnel that report directly to him or her. Though administrators have outlined the six main positions within the Yale-NUS administration, the president, vice president for development, and dean of students have yet to be hired. Yale-NUS has already appointed Doris Sohmen-Pao as vice president for administration and advancement, and Lily Kong as the school’s acting vice president for academic affairs. Sohmen-Pao formerly served as a trustee at Princeton University and director of Singapore Management University’s MBA program, while Kong is the current vice president for university and global relations at NUS. Yale-NUS has staggered its administrative appointments to prioritize the immediate needs of the college, such as faculty and student recruitment, Lorimer said. As such, Levin said Yale-NUS first hired Charles Bailyn as dean of faculty in 2010 to jump-start faculty and student recruitment, and then brought on Kong last summer and Sohmen-Pao in November. “Imagine starting this up,” Lorimer said. “We’re in the midst of hiring faculty, so you have to have someone who can do that, then you need a vice president for administration since you’re actually beginning to recruit students and put together a budget. Fundraising for endowments serves you well in the future and
has a very important function, but the other functions have to be started right away, and actually are underway.” The search for a dean of students is ongoing, but the hunt for a vice president for development will not begin until YaleNUS selects a president. Lorimer said administrators expect the president and vice president for development to work together closely, and felt the development appointment was less pressing than the other two vice presidencies.
We established what seemed like a sensible administrative structure within the college based on our experiences. RICHARD LEVIN University President Though Lorimer said she expects most administrative appointments to be longterm, Bailyn has already served for three years and is expected to step down by the end of the 2013-’14 academic year. Kong is only serving as acting vice president for academic affairs, and Levin said it will be up to the Yale-NUS president to determine when Kong’s successor will be found. Lorimer said Kong will have duties similar to those of a provost, overseeing academic affairs
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and the offices of the dean of students, dean of faculty, international experience and career counseling. The college’s nonacademic affairs — other than fundraising — will be overseen by Sohmen-Pao, who will supervise the offices of human resources, finance, admissions and financial aid, Lorimer said. Though NUS President Tan Chorh Chuan is currently handling Yale-NUS fundraising efforts, the vice president for development will eventually assume that responsibility, Lorimer added. Ronald Ehrenberg, director of the Cornell Higher Education Research Institute, said plans for the relatively small Yale-NUS administrative structure are reasonable and avoid the “title inflation” found at many universities and corporations today. While academics, administration and fundraising could all theoretically fall under deanships, Ehrenberg said he thought the vice president titles would help establish the importance of those administrators in the new college — especially when soliciting donations. Ehrenberg added that it is logical for the Yale-NUS president to have the final say in determining the college’s administrative structure. “A business plan is merely a plan and if a new leader wants to change it, that makes sense,” he said. Yale-NUS is scheduled to open in fall 2013. Contact TAPLEY STEPHENSON at preston.stephenson@yale.edu .
Baumgardner said that over the course of her career she has observed changes in the field that require corresponding change in how young talents prepare for careers. The market crash was a turning point, she said. “It hit home that things were really changing,” she added. Noori said he and his peers have come to see entrepreneurship, strategizing and seeking guidance as critical parts of their professional training. “Just being very good at your instrument is not really a guarantee [for a] career,” he added. The typical music school graduate today, Baumgardner said, “does more than one thing.” Many individuals, she continued, freelance instead of having one steady employer, playing for between four and five ensembles and teaching on the side. Baumgardner emphasized that this change is not necessarily negative. “There are way more places to perform music, with young musicians and composers looking for different venues,” Baumgardner said, adding that the mushrooming of new media channels makes it easier to have new music heard. Noori said that Baumgardner forces students to think in a structured, goal-oriented way. He explained that Baumgardner tells students to outline small goals each semester that will build toward their larger ambitions. She describes the ideal short-term target as SMART: specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-bound. “She forces you to have a plan staring at you,” he said. Pawlowicz said that these skills are a necessary supplement to a Music School education. “[Baumgardner] teaches us simple skills that one, as a musician, needs, but that we don’t all
have, like learning how to network, create a newsletter,” Pawlowicz said. “It’s all the skills that we’re not actually taught in our other courses, so she’s filling in a gap in the educational system.” Blocker said the new career strategies program will make Music School students more prepared for auditions, interviews and teaching, as well as better at presenting themselves via digital media. Under Baumgardner, the office has introduced the Saturday Seminar program, a new alumni mentoring system, an opportunity for each student to develop a digital portfolio on the School’s website and a webpage that serves as a job-search hub. Similarly, Blocker said, peer institutions in the music world are also making efforts toward developing structured career placement offices. Baumgardner said that she presents the changes in the music industry as an opportunity rather than a problem. She recalled one Music School student she met last summer at the Norfolk festival who was unsure about the direction in which to take his career. After speaking with him about his experiences with fellow musicians, she said, she helped him realize that he had a knack for connecting with people. Now, she said, he has a newfound sense of confidence and awareness that the jobs that will suit him best are those in which he can work within a group. “Our students are super-talented, but some don’t know why they’re great,” Baumgardner said. “I help them discover their brand, what makes them unique.” Contact AKBAR AHMED at akbar.ahmed@yale.edu .
CA R E E R ST R AT E G I E S A T T H E YA L E SCHOOL OF MUSIC CAREER COACHING APPOINTMENTS
Students that want advice catered to their personal needs and ambitions are encouraged to make appointments with Astrid Baumgardner to discuss their goals and skills. DIGITAL PORTFOLIOS
In order to promote their work and qualifications, Music School students and alumni can set up personal portfolio websites tied to the Music School’s website. Quality control and underscoring one’s connection to the Music School are draws of this program. ONLINE JOB SEARCH
Logging in through the Music School website, students now have access to a range of resources including a job bank, career materials and other forms of guidance. SATURDAY SEMINARS
Arts professionals come to the Music School on specific Saturdays throughout the school year to discuss issues facing the modern musician.
YALE DAILY NEWS · WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
PAGE 7
BULLETIN BOARD
TODAY’S FORECAST
TOMORROW
A slight chance of snow showers after 4pm. Mostly cloudy with a high near 38.
FRIDAY
High of 43, low of 26.
High of 46, low of 29.
MIDWESTERN NERD AT YALE BY ERAN MOORE REA
ON CAMPUS THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 9 4:30 PM “Life After Yale: The Modern Asian-American.” Do you ever wonder how your cultural interests and current activism might translate into a career someday? Interested in social justice, civil rights or public sector work? Come to this conversation with civil rights attorney Chiraag Bains ’03 and and judge Ramey Ko ’02 to hear two alumni’s thoughts about ethnicity, law and contemporary civil rights. Linsly-Chittenden Hall (63 High St.), room 101. 6:30 PM “Prometheus: Poem of Fire.” Documentary and concert featuring the music of Alexander Scriabin and the Yale Symphony Orchestra. Presented in conjunction with the “No Boundaries” series. Free to the general public. Whitney Humanities Center (53 Wall St.), auditorium.
SCIENCE HILL BY SPENCER KATZ
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 10 12:00 PM “Autism, Aspergers, and a New Clinical Definition: A Discussion with Dr. James McPartland.” McPartland, assistant professor and associate director of the Developmental Electrophysiology Laboratory at the Yale Child Study Center, will speak to the Public Health Coalition over lunch. Branford College (74 High St.), small dining room. 6:o0 PM The 10th Annual Southeast Asia Spring Festival. Celebrate the cultures of Southeast Asia with dance, music and magic performances and food. Luce Hall (34 Hillhouse Ave.), common room.
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 11
THAT MONKEY TUNE BY MICHAEL KANDALAFT
11:00 AM World Micro-Market Valentine’s Day Sale. Stop by between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. to buy jewelry, chocolate, stuffed animals, purses, and more! World Micro-Market sells handicrafts from disadvantaged artisans in developing countries. Dwight Hall (67 High St.), chapel.
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CROSSWORD Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Lewis ACROSS 1 Organic fuel 5 Beggar’s returns 9 Out-and-out 14 Soprano Gluck 15 Tree nursery? 16 Winnebagos’ kin 17 *Vaudeville headliner 19 Actress Kelly 20 Anaheim team, to fans 21 Splotch 23 Fishing gear 24 *Count Basie’s theme song 28 Garment border 29 Michael of “Caddyshack” 32 Marbles competition 36 Get out in the open 38 Singsong syllables 39 *Too-small quantity 43 Open mic performer, often 44 Bruins legend 45 “My love __ a fever, longing still”: Shakespeare 46 Deeply rooted 48 Gandalf portrayer McKellen 50 *1959 Monroe classic 57 “Go team!” 59 Well out of range 60 It may be captioned 61 Hoover rival 63 What many sports cars lack, and, in a way, what the ends of the starred answers are 66 Bench clearer 67 Pitcher Pettitte with a record 19 post-season wins 68 Out of the cage 69 Less hardylooking 70 Early Iranian 71 “America’s Next Top Model” host Banks DOWN 1 Logical start?
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By Jack McInturff
2 Online mortgage broker 3 More than enough 4 It’s not done 5 “State of Wonder” novelist Patchett 6 Country expanse 7 “A Fuller Spectrum of News” network 8 Bit of rhubarb 9 Middle of nowhere, metaphorically 10 Hugs, symbolically 11 Cult classic of 1990s TV 12 It passes between Swiss banks 13 Would-be One L’s hurdle 18 Author Sholem 22 Eye of el tigre 25 Tilt 26 Fail to mention 27 Overseas thanks 30 Lab coat speck? 31 Chow 32 Year Elizabeth I delivered her “Golden Speech” 33 Caddie’s suggestion 34 Jaw-dropping news
Tuesday’s Puzzle Solved
2/8/12
SUDOKU HARD
1 4 6 8 7
(c)2012 Tribune Media Services, Inc.
35 Veep before Gerald 37 Letter after pi 40 Motel convenience 41 “Gymnopédies” composer Satie 42 Scot’s bluff 47 Dict. offering 49 Small bites 51 NFLer until 1994 52 Castle with many steps?
2/8/12
53 Museum concern 54 White with age 55 Weasel-like swimmer 56 Where captains go 57 Frolic 58 Field of expertise 62 GPA reducer, usually 64 Put in 65 Deli choice
6 7 3
5 4 5 1 4 3 9 1 5 2 7 8 9 4 3 1 6 4 8 9 5 2
PAGE 8
YALE DAILY NEWS · WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
YALE DAILY NEWS · WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
PAGE 9
ARTS & CULTURE
“An opera begins long before the curtain goes up and ends long after it has come down … it stays part of my life long after I’ve left the opera house.” MARIA CALLAS OPERA SINGER
Creating ripples through artistic community
THIS WEEK IN THE ARTS THURS. FEB. 9 SAT. FEB. 11 JULIUS CAESAR A Yale School of Drama production of Shakespeare’s tale of Roman tragedy, directed by Ethan Heard DRA ’13. Iseman Theater, 1156 Chapel St.
BY ROBERT PECK STAFF REPORTER
5:30 - 8:30 P.M. THURS. FEB. 9
In the four months since its opening, an artistic initiative spreading throughout a bare Chapel Street building has grown to connect dozens of regional artists. Since October 2011, the “Ripple Effect” art project housed at 756 Chapel St. has woven a web of creative interaction between artists in the Greater New Haven area. The project, which will continue until March, allows artists to “tag” and “poke” one another through works in a diverse range of media using the building’s three stories as a canvas. When one artist references another in his or her work, the tagger sends a letter inviting the referenced artists to add to the project, continuing an ever-growing chain of “ripples.” To date, 40 artists have contributed. The project is the brainchild of Debbie Hesse, director of artistic services and programs for the Arts Council of Greater New Haven. Hesse said she created the project to bring together artists from multiple disciplines and regions. “I would never be able to reach so many people from different [areas] of the region, from more urban artists to family collaborations from West-
NEW MUSIC FOR THE CELLO A concert of student-composed inspired by the architecture of the Yale University Art Gallery, where the pieces will be performed. Yale University Art Gallery, 1111 Chapel St.
THURS. FEB. 9 FEB. 18 HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH A senior project for Brennan Caldwell ’12 produced collaboration with Sex Week at Yale, “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” gives the stage to Hedwig Schmidt (Caldwell), a German transsexual with a botched sexchange. Yael Zinkow ’12 co-stars.
port and Madison to serious installation artists,” Hesse said. “I love being able to just set up the parameters and allow the project to create itself.” Hesse said she had the idea for Ripple Effect several years before the project’s inception. She said she wanted to create a project that had a strong, driving concept while remaining processoriented. She added that using terminology like “tag” and “poke” was a nod to social networks like Facebook and Twitter, which she hopes will help to clarify the exhibit’s interactive structure. Arts Council Executive Director Cynthia Clair said she is pleased with the response the project has garnered in the arts community. “Ripple adds another layer of activity to a mostly vacant space on Chapel,” Clair said. “Artists have responded to the space with a phenomenal range of work.” Two such artists, David Sepulveda and Steve DiGiovanni, contributed a series of “wire jam” figures, made by twisting long lengths of metal wire into intricate shapes, to the building’s first floor. DiGiovanni said the creative process became playful as the ad-hoc, improvisational atmosphere of the building inspired him and Sepulveda. He said he wished the project could remain open longer, so that the collection could continue to grow.
Arts Council helps connect artists, donors BY LIZ RODRIGUEZ-FLORIDO STAFF REPORTER
Hesse said the environment of the building plays an important role in the creative process. Ripple Effect’s host building at 756 Chapel St., which currently houses a men’s clothing store on the first floor, was built in 1877 in an Italianate Victorian style. In the past, it has been home to numerous businesses including a barbershop, a dentist’s office, soda bottling machinery and a restaurant. Insook Hwang, a local artist who contributed a wall drawing titled “Hi Love Kiss” to the building’s second floor, said in an email that she believes the energy of the building, now filled with art, will contribute to the development of businesses downtown. “I feel this show will make a good example of how art and business can help each other, because we made the space full of people and energy,” she said. “At the opening, I was really happy to see people smiling at my works, which is my purpose in art: making people happy.” In addition to the Ripple Effect display, 756 Chapel St. also accommodates performances and events through other community arts projects. Contact ROBERT PECK at robert.peck@yale.edu .
Calhoun Cabaret, Calhoun College
7 - 9:15 P.M. FRI. FEB. 10 THE SWORD AND THE SCREEN The fourth in a series of screenings of Japanese samurai films from the National Film Center of the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo. Whitney Humanities Center, 53 Wall St.
7 P.M. TUES. FEB. 14 SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE For lovebirds looking for a date on the cheap (and those without a special someone in their life): a screening of John Madden’s now-classic 1998 film starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Joseph Fiennes. Whitney Humanities Center, 53 Wall St.
FEB. 6 - MAY. 4 MASSIMO SCOLARI: THE REPRESENTATION OF ARCHITECTURE Massimo Scolari, a former professor at the Yale School of Architecture, contributes his architectural drawings to a new exhibit at Rudolph Hall. Rudolph Hall, 2nd Floor Gallery, 180 York St.
JAN. 23 - JUN. 29 SHAKESPEARE AT YALE REP A collection of photographs and posters from the archives of the Yale Repertory Theater, the exhibit traces Shakespeare’s presence at the Rep since its foundation.
ROBERT PECK/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
The “Ripple Effect” project fosters collaborations between New Haven artists.
Drawn by hand, Scolari exhibit captures spirit of architecture BY NATASHA THONDAVADI STAFF REPORTER A new exhibit explores the artistic canon of renowned School of Architecture professor Massimo Scolari by highlighting the beauty possible in architectural drawings. “Massimo Scolari: The Representation of Architecture” opened at Rudolph Hall on Monday. With the goal of emphasizing the school’s focus on the importance of freehand drawing, the exhibit was timed to coincide with the spring symposium on the same subject that will take place later this week, Architecture School Dean Robert Stern ARC ’65 said. The show, open until May 4, traces Scolari’s work chronologically through the gallery while revealing motifs that unite the 54 images, said Director of Exhibitions Brian Butterfield ARC ’11, who curated the show in partnership with Scolari himself. “The prevalence of computer design raises the problem of whether or not we need hand drawing in the design process,” Scolari said. “But I think freehand drawing is a very fundamental step.” Scolari explained that digital drawing requires the architect to impose precision on a design, which detracts from the gradual process of elaborating on an incomplete impression. If architects lack paper and pen to flesh out their ideas, he said, the bounds of creativity are limited.
Stern said he thought displaying Scolari’s work would successfully showcase these ideas, since Scolari’s drawings are “incomparable” in quality and concern themselves with the artistic representation of architecture, rather than purely technical concerns. Unlike the two shows held by the school earlier this year, “Massimo Scolari” involved the featured architect heavily in its design and curation, Stern said. The close relationship between the architect and the exhibit resulted in a different final product than the school would have created on its own, Butterfield said. “So much of his work is abstract and has historical themes that are represented in his drawings but are absent from his text,” Butterfield said. “So the fact that he can go through and group everything, creating whatever narrative he intends, is fantastic.” Scolari was insistent that his drawings be displayed consistently throughout the show, Butterfield said, with each image mounted on a uniform black background fixed to a gray mount. With a large, open room, two side platforms and rough walls mimicking Rudolph Hall’s exterior, the second-floor exhibition space is flexible, Butterfield said, allowing curators to construct a variety of display structures within each show. The architect, however, chose the singular display method to convey that his work over the past 40 years has been part of the same
A new partnership between the Arts Council of Greater New Haven and online fundraising platform Kickstarter aims to broaden support for New Haven artists beyond those who know them personally. Last week, the Arts Council launched its curator page on Kickstarter, expanding visibility of New Haven artists in need of funding. The Arts Council’s Executive Director Cynthia Clair said that while she had known about Kickstarter for years, the Arts Council decided to launch the partnership after discovering last month that the city of Portland, Ore. uses the site to promote local artists. Through Kickstarter, artists pitch their current projects online and put up a fundraising goal. Visitors can elect to pledge a dollar amount, and if the artist’s goal is met within a set time frame, the donation becomes a reality. Other groups that host similar pages on Kickstarter include the Sundance Film Festival, YouTube, the New Museum in New York City and the Rhode Island School of Design. Clair said that a partnership with Kickstarter appealed to the Arts Council because it is a triedand-true platform. Rather than reinventing the wheel for artistic promotion, she said, the Arts Council chose to use a known brand to support New Haven’s creative community. As the partnership has only been live for a week, she added that it is difficult to measure the success of the Arts Council’s affiliation with Kickstarter. Pantochino Productions, a non-profit theater group based in New Haven, raised about $14,000 through Kickstarter
JOY SHAN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
The Art Council’s recently launched Kickstarter page will amplify the online fundraising power of local arists. before becoming one of the artistic groups featured on the Arts Council’s curator page, Pantochino producer and director Bert Bernardi said in an email. The sum was enough to cover the expenses of the group’s first production, “Cinderella Skeleton: The Musical,” Bernardi said. “[It was] amazing to [reach] people who we didn’t know at all — who found our Kickstarter page, watched our video and found it interesting enough to support,” Bernardi said. He added that the production company supplemented the publicity from Kickstarter with constant
messages posted on Facebook and Twitter in order to maintain the project’s momentum. New Haven filmmaker Gorman Bechard said in an email that he has raised just under $100,000 through Kickstarter for his documentary film on the 80s band “The Replacements” titled “Color Me Obsessed.” He began fundraising in 2009, but said that searching for support took longer than the actual production of his project. While he is not affiliated with the Arts Council’s curator page on Kickstart, Bechard said the found Kickstarter an effective fundraising
tool as an independent artist. “[Kickstarter is] a dream come true for the artistic community,” Bechard said. “It gives you total freedom. And the buzz begins long before your film is finished.” The Arts Council’s curator page on Kickstarter currently features four artistic groups including Elm City Dance Collective, Pantochino Productions, musician Dave Ramos and the 9Realms fantasy film series. Contact LIZ RODRIGUEZ-FLORIDO at liz.rodriguez-florido@yale.edu .
Opera singer Rosen MUS ’12 to take Met stage
thread and ought to be viewed as one set of images. The first wing of the exhibit contains Scolari’s first drawings, including several pictures he created for competitions. On prominent display is an issue of Skyline Magazine for which Scolari drew the cover — about 20 rough sketches of buildings. A set of adjacent architectural models based on the sketches and created specifically for the show bring Scolari’s drawings to life, Butterfield said. The middle and largest section of the show considers the main body of Scolari’s work. An enormous black glider — a smaller replica of one of Scolari’s sculptures in Venice — hangs above gallerygoers’ heads. As one of several motifs that shows up repeatedly in viewing the entire set of drawings, the image of the glider appears several times in the middle portion of the show, Butterfield said. The final wing of the exhibition contains drawings from the last two decades, which feature more futuristic themes. Butterfield said that many of the pictures are dominated by space-age imagery. Scolari will give a talk in conjunction with the exhibit titled “Representations” in Rudolph Hall on Thursday evening. Contact NATASHA THONDAVADI at natasha.thondavadi@yale.edu .
ANNIE ROSEN
Annie Rosen ’08 MUS ’12 will perform on the Metropolitan Opera’s stage on March 18 for the National Council Auditions.
Whitney Humanities Center, Gallery, 53 Wall St.
BY YANAN WANG STAFF REPORTER
JAN. 31 - MAR. 31
The Metropolitan Opera’s National Council Auditions Program is one of the most prestigious competitions for aspiring young opera singers. The contest holds auditions in 14 regions across the United States and Canada, attracting the most talented emerging singers in the field. This year, Annie Rosen ’08 MUS ’12 won first place in the New England Regional Auditions in Boston. Rosen, who currently studies opera at the School of Music, will take the stage at the Met for the next round of the competition, the National Council Auditions, on March 18.
MALCOLM MORLEY IN A NUTSHELL: THE FINE ART OF PAINTING 1954-2012 A show at the Yale School of Art featuring the work of British photorealist artist Malcolm Morley. 32 Edgewood Ave.
FEB. 2 - MAY 27 MAKING HISTORY: ANTIQUARIES IN BRITAIN Drawing on its own collection and materials borrowed from the Society of Antiquaries of London, a new exhibit at the Yale Center for British Art celebrates Britain’s material history.
QWhen did you start singing opera?
A
Yale Center for British Art, 1080 Chapel St.
KAMARIA GREENFIELD/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
School of Architecture professor Massimo Scolari’s exhibit highlights the importance of free-hand drawing. The show opened at Rudolph Hall on Monday and will remain on view until May 4.
I attended a singing summer camp when I was 17 and 18, but before that it was mostly choral singing. I started officially singing opera in my sophomore year of college, when my friend Bryan dragged me to audition for an opera that was being put on by the Opera Theater of Yale College. The role I sang for was a male character called The Director, and I basically did the prologue
of the show. I got up there, and I sang an aria for about three to four minutes by myself. I had never done anything like that before.
QHow with
did you get involved the competition?
A
If you’re a young opera singer, you know about the Met competition. There aren’t that many reasons not to do it, because one of the best things about it is that you can receive feedback from the judges. I’ve done it for three years now. The first time, it was my second year out of [college], and I had never really done a competition. I was really nervous. That was how I ended up at Yale’s School of Music, actually, because Doris [Yarick Cross], the head of Yale opera and my voice teacher, came to listen to the district audition. She heard me, she asked me to audition for Yale Opera, and now I’m here!
do you feel about your upcoming QHow performance at the Met in March?
A
It’s very much on my mind. I’ve just been trying to stay in the right
frame of mind. Opera is not a competition — it’s art. I’m trying to remember that the frame of this is not real; the reality of it is the performance. But not thinking about it is really hard — it’s seductive, you know? But in this competition, and in any competition, what the judges are looking for is simply a performer who has something to say.
QWhere
do you like to sing?
A
I like singing under the echoey bridges behind Central Park, and in any — and I mean any — shower.
Q
What are you working on right now?
A
I’m playing Dora Bella in “Cosi Fan Tutti” [opening Friday]. It’s about two sisters, and I’m the younger sister. Our boyfriends decide to test whether we’re faithful to them, so they pretend to go to war and come back as “other men” to seduce us. So we totally fall for it and end up falling in love with the other sister’s boyfriend in the span of 24 hours.
choose any opera to QIfstaryouin,could what would it be, and why?
A
I’m going to give you two answers, and one’s going to be a real answer and one’s going to be a fake answer. Something I could kind of do right now is that I would like to be Romeo in Bellini’s version of “Romeo and Juliet” (“I Capuleti e i Montechhi”). The fake answer is that I want to be Tosca in “Tosca.”
about opera makes it so comQWhat pelling to you?
A
I love the intensity of it. I love that even when it’s really trashy and awful, it’s never trivial. Even when it’s trivial, it’s never trivial. It’s about people living their lives intensely, and crazy and interesting things always result from that. What it expresses and the way it expresses it is not something that can be accomplished with other art forms. Contact YANAN WANG at yanan.wang@yale.edu .
PAGE 8
YALE DAILY NEWS · WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
YALE DAILY NEWS · WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
PAGE 9
ARTS & CULTURE
“An opera begins long before the curtain goes up and ends long after it has come down … it stays part of my life long after I’ve left the opera house.” MARIA CALLAS OPERA SINGER
Creating ripples through artistic community
THIS WEEK IN THE ARTS THURS. FEB. 9 SAT. FEB. 11 JULIUS CAESAR A Yale School of Drama production of Shakespeare’s tale of Roman tragedy, directed by Ethan Heard DRA ’13. Iseman Theater, 1156 Chapel St.
BY ROBERT PECK STAFF REPORTER
5:30 - 8:30 P.M. THURS. FEB. 9
In the four months since its opening, an artistic initiative spreading throughout a bare Chapel Street building has grown to connect dozens of regional artists. Since October 2011, the “Ripple Effect” art project housed at 756 Chapel St. has woven a web of creative interaction between artists in the Greater New Haven area. The project, which will continue until March, allows artists to “tag” and “poke” one another through works in a diverse range of media using the building’s three stories as a canvas. When one artist references another in his or her work, the tagger sends a letter inviting the referenced artists to add to the project, continuing an ever-growing chain of “ripples.” To date, 40 artists have contributed. The project is the brainchild of Debbie Hesse, director of artistic services and programs for the Arts Council of Greater New Haven. Hesse said she created the project to bring together artists from multiple disciplines and regions. “I would never be able to reach so many people from different [areas] of the region, from more urban artists to family collaborations from West-
NEW MUSIC FOR THE CELLO A concert of student-composed inspired by the architecture of the Yale University Art Gallery, where the pieces will be performed. Yale University Art Gallery, 1111 Chapel St.
THURS. FEB. 9 FEB. 18 HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH A senior project for Brennan Caldwell ’12 produced collaboration with Sex Week at Yale, “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” gives the stage to Hedwig Schmidt (Caldwell), a German transsexual with a botched sexchange. Yael Zinkow ’12 co-stars.
port and Madison to serious installation artists,” Hesse said. “I love being able to just set up the parameters and allow the project to create itself.” Hesse said she had the idea for Ripple Effect several years before the project’s inception. She said she wanted to create a project that had a strong, driving concept while remaining processoriented. She added that using terminology like “tag” and “poke” was a nod to social networks like Facebook and Twitter, which she hopes will help to clarify the exhibit’s interactive structure. Arts Council Executive Director Cynthia Clair said she is pleased with the response the project has garnered in the arts community. “Ripple adds another layer of activity to a mostly vacant space on Chapel,” Clair said. “Artists have responded to the space with a phenomenal range of work.” Two such artists, David Sepulveda and Steve DiGiovanni, contributed a series of “wire jam” figures, made by twisting long lengths of metal wire into intricate shapes, to the building’s first floor. DiGiovanni said the creative process became playful as the ad-hoc, improvisational atmosphere of the building inspired him and Sepulveda. He said he wished the project could remain open longer, so that the collection could continue to grow.
Arts Council helps connect artists, donors BY LIZ RODRIGUEZ-FLORIDO STAFF REPORTER
Hesse said the environment of the building plays an important role in the creative process. Ripple Effect’s host building at 756 Chapel St., which currently houses a men’s clothing store on the first floor, was built in 1877 in an Italianate Victorian style. In the past, it has been home to numerous businesses including a barbershop, a dentist’s office, soda bottling machinery and a restaurant. Insook Hwang, a local artist who contributed a wall drawing titled “Hi Love Kiss” to the building’s second floor, said in an email that she believes the energy of the building, now filled with art, will contribute to the development of businesses downtown. “I feel this show will make a good example of how art and business can help each other, because we made the space full of people and energy,” she said. “At the opening, I was really happy to see people smiling at my works, which is my purpose in art: making people happy.” In addition to the Ripple Effect display, 756 Chapel St. also accommodates performances and events through other community arts projects. Contact ROBERT PECK at robert.peck@yale.edu .
Calhoun Cabaret, Calhoun College
7 - 9:15 P.M. FRI. FEB. 10 THE SWORD AND THE SCREEN The fourth in a series of screenings of Japanese samurai films from the National Film Center of the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo. Whitney Humanities Center, 53 Wall St.
7 P.M. TUES. FEB. 14 SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE For lovebirds looking for a date on the cheap (and those without a special someone in their life): a screening of John Madden’s now-classic 1998 film starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Joseph Fiennes. Whitney Humanities Center, 53 Wall St.
FEB. 6 - MAY. 4 MASSIMO SCOLARI: THE REPRESENTATION OF ARCHITECTURE Massimo Scolari, a former professor at the Yale School of Architecture, contributes his architectural drawings to a new exhibit at Rudolph Hall. Rudolph Hall, 2nd Floor Gallery, 180 York St.
JAN. 23 - JUN. 29 SHAKESPEARE AT YALE REP A collection of photographs and posters from the archives of the Yale Repertory Theater, the exhibit traces Shakespeare’s presence at the Rep since its foundation.
ROBERT PECK/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
The “Ripple Effect” project fosters collaborations between New Haven artists.
Drawn by hand, Scolari exhibit captures spirit of architecture BY NATASHA THONDAVADI STAFF REPORTER A new exhibit explores the artistic canon of renowned School of Architecture professor Massimo Scolari by highlighting the beauty possible in architectural drawings. “Massimo Scolari: The Representation of Architecture” opened at Rudolph Hall on Monday. With the goal of emphasizing the school’s focus on the importance of freehand drawing, the exhibit was timed to coincide with the spring symposium on the same subject that will take place later this week, Architecture School Dean Robert Stern ARC ’65 said. The show, open until May 4, traces Scolari’s work chronologically through the gallery while revealing motifs that unite the 54 images, said Director of Exhibitions Brian Butterfield ARC ’11, who curated the show in partnership with Scolari himself. “The prevalence of computer design raises the problem of whether or not we need hand drawing in the design process,” Scolari said. “But I think freehand drawing is a very fundamental step.” Scolari explained that digital drawing requires the architect to impose precision on a design, which detracts from the gradual process of elaborating on an incomplete impression. If architects lack paper and pen to flesh out their ideas, he said, the bounds of creativity are limited.
Stern said he thought displaying Scolari’s work would successfully showcase these ideas, since Scolari’s drawings are “incomparable” in quality and concern themselves with the artistic representation of architecture, rather than purely technical concerns. Unlike the two shows held by the school earlier this year, “Massimo Scolari” involved the featured architect heavily in its design and curation, Stern said. The close relationship between the architect and the exhibit resulted in a different final product than the school would have created on its own, Butterfield said. “So much of his work is abstract and has historical themes that are represented in his drawings but are absent from his text,” Butterfield said. “So the fact that he can go through and group everything, creating whatever narrative he intends, is fantastic.” Scolari was insistent that his drawings be displayed consistently throughout the show, Butterfield said, with each image mounted on a uniform black background fixed to a gray mount. With a large, open room, two side platforms and rough walls mimicking Rudolph Hall’s exterior, the second-floor exhibition space is flexible, Butterfield said, allowing curators to construct a variety of display structures within each show. The architect, however, chose the singular display method to convey that his work over the past 40 years has been part of the same
A new partnership between the Arts Council of Greater New Haven and online fundraising platform Kickstarter aims to broaden support for New Haven artists beyond those who know them personally. Last week, the Arts Council launched its curator page on Kickstarter, expanding visibility of New Haven artists in need of funding. The Arts Council’s Executive Director Cynthia Clair said that while she had known about Kickstarter for years, the Arts Council decided to launch the partnership after discovering last month that the city of Portland, Ore. uses the site to promote local artists. Through Kickstarter, artists pitch their current projects online and put up a fundraising goal. Visitors can elect to pledge a dollar amount, and if the artist’s goal is met within a set time frame, the donation becomes a reality. Other groups that host similar pages on Kickstarter include the Sundance Film Festival, YouTube, the New Museum in New York City and the Rhode Island School of Design. Clair said that a partnership with Kickstarter appealed to the Arts Council because it is a triedand-true platform. Rather than reinventing the wheel for artistic promotion, she said, the Arts Council chose to use a known brand to support New Haven’s creative community. As the partnership has only been live for a week, she added that it is difficult to measure the success of the Arts Council’s affiliation with Kickstarter. Pantochino Productions, a non-profit theater group based in New Haven, raised about $14,000 through Kickstarter
JOY SHAN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
The Art Council’s recently launched Kickstarter page will amplify the online fundraising power of local arists. before becoming one of the artistic groups featured on the Arts Council’s curator page, Pantochino producer and director Bert Bernardi said in an email. The sum was enough to cover the expenses of the group’s first production, “Cinderella Skeleton: The Musical,” Bernardi said. “[It was] amazing to [reach] people who we didn’t know at all — who found our Kickstarter page, watched our video and found it interesting enough to support,” Bernardi said. He added that the production company supplemented the publicity from Kickstarter with constant
messages posted on Facebook and Twitter in order to maintain the project’s momentum. New Haven filmmaker Gorman Bechard said in an email that he has raised just under $100,000 through Kickstarter for his documentary film on the 80s band “The Replacements” titled “Color Me Obsessed.” He began fundraising in 2009, but said that searching for support took longer than the actual production of his project. While he is not affiliated with the Arts Council’s curator page on Kickstart, Bechard said the found Kickstarter an effective fundraising
tool as an independent artist. “[Kickstarter is] a dream come true for the artistic community,” Bechard said. “It gives you total freedom. And the buzz begins long before your film is finished.” The Arts Council’s curator page on Kickstarter currently features four artistic groups including Elm City Dance Collective, Pantochino Productions, musician Dave Ramos and the 9Realms fantasy film series. Contact LIZ RODRIGUEZ-FLORIDO at liz.rodriguez-florido@yale.edu .
Opera singer Rosen MUS ’12 to take Met stage
thread and ought to be viewed as one set of images. The first wing of the exhibit contains Scolari’s first drawings, including several pictures he created for competitions. On prominent display is an issue of Skyline Magazine for which Scolari drew the cover — about 20 rough sketches of buildings. A set of adjacent architectural models based on the sketches and created specifically for the show bring Scolari’s drawings to life, Butterfield said. The middle and largest section of the show considers the main body of Scolari’s work. An enormous black glider — a smaller replica of one of Scolari’s sculptures in Venice — hangs above gallerygoers’ heads. As one of several motifs that shows up repeatedly in viewing the entire set of drawings, the image of the glider appears several times in the middle portion of the show, Butterfield said. The final wing of the exhibition contains drawings from the last two decades, which feature more futuristic themes. Butterfield said that many of the pictures are dominated by space-age imagery. Scolari will give a talk in conjunction with the exhibit titled “Representations” in Rudolph Hall on Thursday evening. Contact NATASHA THONDAVADI at natasha.thondavadi@yale.edu .
ANNIE ROSEN
Annie Rosen ’08 MUS ’12 will perform on the Metropolitan Opera’s stage on March 18 for the National Council Auditions.
Whitney Humanities Center, Gallery, 53 Wall St.
BY YANAN WANG STAFF REPORTER
JAN. 31 - MAR. 31
The Metropolitan Opera’s National Council Auditions Program is one of the most prestigious competitions for aspiring young opera singers. The contest holds auditions in 14 regions across the United States and Canada, attracting the most talented emerging singers in the field. This year, Annie Rosen ’08 MUS ’12 won first place in the New England Regional Auditions in Boston. Rosen, who currently studies opera at the School of Music, will take the stage at the Met for the next round of the competition, the National Council Auditions, on March 18.
MALCOLM MORLEY IN A NUTSHELL: THE FINE ART OF PAINTING 1954-2012 A show at the Yale School of Art featuring the work of British photorealist artist Malcolm Morley. 32 Edgewood Ave.
FEB. 2 - MAY 27 MAKING HISTORY: ANTIQUARIES IN BRITAIN Drawing on its own collection and materials borrowed from the Society of Antiquaries of London, a new exhibit at the Yale Center for British Art celebrates Britain’s material history.
QWhen did you start singing opera?
A
Yale Center for British Art, 1080 Chapel St.
KAMARIA GREENFIELD/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
School of Architecture professor Massimo Scolari’s exhibit highlights the importance of free-hand drawing. The show opened at Rudolph Hall on Monday and will remain on view until May 4.
I attended a singing summer camp when I was 17 and 18, but before that it was mostly choral singing. I started officially singing opera in my sophomore year of college, when my friend Bryan dragged me to audition for an opera that was being put on by the Opera Theater of Yale College. The role I sang for was a male character called The Director, and I basically did the prologue
of the show. I got up there, and I sang an aria for about three to four minutes by myself. I had never done anything like that before.
QHow with
did you get involved the competition?
A
If you’re a young opera singer, you know about the Met competition. There aren’t that many reasons not to do it, because one of the best things about it is that you can receive feedback from the judges. I’ve done it for three years now. The first time, it was my second year out of [college], and I had never really done a competition. I was really nervous. That was how I ended up at Yale’s School of Music, actually, because Doris [Yarick Cross], the head of Yale opera and my voice teacher, came to listen to the district audition. She heard me, she asked me to audition for Yale Opera, and now I’m here!
do you feel about your upcoming QHow performance at the Met in March?
A
It’s very much on my mind. I’ve just been trying to stay in the right
frame of mind. Opera is not a competition — it’s art. I’m trying to remember that the frame of this is not real; the reality of it is the performance. But not thinking about it is really hard — it’s seductive, you know? But in this competition, and in any competition, what the judges are looking for is simply a performer who has something to say.
QWhere
do you like to sing?
A
I like singing under the echoey bridges behind Central Park, and in any — and I mean any — shower.
Q
What are you working on right now?
A
I’m playing Dora Bella in “Cosi Fan Tutti” [opening Friday]. It’s about two sisters, and I’m the younger sister. Our boyfriends decide to test whether we’re faithful to them, so they pretend to go to war and come back as “other men” to seduce us. So we totally fall for it and end up falling in love with the other sister’s boyfriend in the span of 24 hours.
choose any opera to QIfstaryouin,could what would it be, and why?
A
I’m going to give you two answers, and one’s going to be a real answer and one’s going to be a fake answer. Something I could kind of do right now is that I would like to be Romeo in Bellini’s version of “Romeo and Juliet” (“I Capuleti e i Montechhi”). The fake answer is that I want to be Tosca in “Tosca.”
about opera makes it so comQWhat pelling to you?
A
I love the intensity of it. I love that even when it’s really trashy and awful, it’s never trivial. Even when it’s trivial, it’s never trivial. It’s about people living their lives intensely, and crazy and interesting things always result from that. What it expresses and the way it expresses it is not something that can be accomplished with other art forms. Contact YANAN WANG at yanan.wang@yale.edu .
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YALE DAILY NEWS · WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
AROUND THE IVIES
“It’s dark and freezing and everyone’s wearing bulky coats, so you can do some serious subway flirting before you realize the guy is homeless.” LIZ LEMON “30 ROCK” CHARACTER
B R O W N D A I LY H E R A L D
C O L U M B I A D A I LY S P E C TAT O R
MBTA may cut access
Times editor to keynote Barnard graduation BY SAMMY ROTH AND EMILY NEIL SENIOR STAFF WRITERS
LISA HEUNG/BROWN DAILY HERALD
Despite a fare increase in 2007, MBTA usage has continued to increase. BY MORGAN JOHNSON SENIOR STAFF WRITER The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority may eliminate commuter rail service weekdays after 10 p.m. and weekends, according to proposals released last month by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation Board Finance Committee. These changes, which would affect students who travel between Providence and Boston, would take effect in July. “It’s really harmful to so many of us who rely on a low-cost transportation option in the greater eastern Massachusetts area,” said Jesse McGleughlin ‘14, a Boston native who uses the commuter rail to visit home and commuted weekly last year to do community service work in the city. The MBTA, which controls Massachusetts area subway, bus, ferry and commuter rail systems, released the report following a projected fiscal year deficit of $161 million for 2013 and total debt of $9 billion. The report contains two proposed money-saving scenarios, each to save $165.1 million in annual revenue. The first scenario proposes an average 43 percent increase in current fares and the elimination of 60 bus routes. The second plan includes a 35 percent fare increase but eliminates 220 bus routes. Both plans would eliminate weekend and late-night commuter rail service. The MBTA has held 11 public forums in the past month following the release of the pro-
posals and plans to hold an additional 11 meetings through March 6. B a se d o n BROWN the outcomes of those meetings, the MBTA will make final recommendations before the board votes on the changes in April. The public is welcome to submit comments through the MBTA website, but no meetings are currently scheduled to take place in Rhode Island. Students who use the service expressed concern over the potential changes. “It’s really the only mode of transportation that is convenient and frequent enough to get into Boston for students who don’t have cars,” said Jason Shum ‘14, who uses the commuter rail once or twice a month. “The buses to Boston as I know are quite infrequent,” he said. “Many of us prefer the train to automobiles and count on the affordable costs,” McGleughlin said. “The high prices of Amtrak are not a good solution.” Members of T Riders Union, a group that represents lowincome and transit-dependent communities, have testified against the proposals at the forums and MBTA board meetings. “The highest proportional increases will be forced on the most vulnerable riders through the elimination of senior and student passes,” the union stated in a Dec. 7 press release.
The MBTA proposal also suggests examining a reduction of current senior and student discounts from paying a third to one half of the regular rate. The report also proposes eliminating the acceptance of tokens as fare payment and reducing the expiration of commuter rail tickets from 180 to 14 days after purchase. Since its last fare increase in 2007, the MBTA has attempted to combat its debt through crackdowns on fare-evading passengers, service reduction in winter months and the opening of a new energy-saving wind turbine last October. The MBTA released this year’s fare hike and service reduction proposals despite a 3.2 percent increase in ridership in October 2010 and a record-high 1.35 million trips per weekday last September, according to a Nov. 2 article in the Boston Globe. Similar plans to raise fares and cut service in 2009 were avoided when the MBTA received $160 million in public funding from the state. “The T is trying to plug a growing hole with the same tired idea: balancing the budget on the backs of riders through another fare increase and cuts,” said union member Gwendolyn Vincent in her testimony at the MBTA board meeting in December, according to a press release from the group. “If you ask me, the fee hikes are really just a result of antiquated management systems and costly trains,” Shum said. “Half of the train carts are empty, which is frankly quite stupid in my opinion,” he added.
C O R N E L L D A I LY S U N
Reports of campus theft increase BY DANIELLE SOCHACZEVSKI STAFF WRITER Cornell Police officers are expressing concern regarding what they have identified as a recent uptick in the number of reported thefts on campus. More than 50 cases of grand and petit larceny were reported in the last three months alone, according to CUPD. Deputy Chief David Honan of CUPD said that there were 43 percent more larcenies this year than last year. According to Honan, there were 138 thefts reported between February 2011 and February 2012, as opposed to 96 from February 2010 to February 2011. “Larceny is the most common crime reported to the Cornell University Police,” Honan said in an email Friday. “At the end of last semester, we observed an increase in a short period of time which caused us to warn the community.” The University has seen a slight but steady rise of on-campus theft over the past couple of years. according to Honan. CUPD believes the increase can be attributed to both “more consistent reporting” of crimes as well as “an actual increase in larcenies,” he said.
The most co m m o n ly stolen items are laptops, cell phones, p o r t a ble music players CORNELL and cash, according to CUPD, while other acts of theft have included bicycles, textbooks and furniture. Locker rooms and libraries are among the locations most frequently targeted by thieves.
Students don’t realize that taking food out of the dining halls in Tupperware is definitely stealing. It’s never okay to steal. BRYAN ROBERTS Chef, Cornell Dining According to Steven Miller, a chef for Cornell Dining, the incidence of stealing food is another form of larceny that has increased at Cornell over the last few years. “Food theft is rampant,”
Miller said. “It’s a concern that might drive up the price of the meal plan.” Miller denounced a recent rumor circulating on Facebook, that the University currently charges an additional $50 for each student’s meal plan to compensate for food theft, as harmful and untrue. However, he did say there is a chance that the rise in thefts could lead Cornell Dining to increase prices. Bryan Roberts, also a chef for Cornell Dining, explained that removing food from all-youcan-eat eateries on campus constitutes theft. “Students don’t realize that taking food out of the dining halls in Tupperware is definitely stealing,” he said. “It’s never okay to steal.” According to Honan, CUPD is enlisting the help of the Cornell community to rein in theft, urging students to secure their valuables and homes, and to be proactive about reporting larceny incidents promptly to the police. “This allows us the greatest opportunity to find leads and evidence related to the case,” he said. “It also provides us the opportunity to analyze thefts to determine if there are any patterns we can use to help solve the case or prevent future thefts.”
New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson will deliver the keynote at Barnard’s commencement this May, the college announced on Monday. Abramson became the first woman to hold the top editorial position at the Times in September, when she replaced Bill Keller. Abramson has spent 15 years at the Times, previously serving as managing editor and Washington bureau chief. “From her early days as a reporter to her current post as the paper’s executive editor, she has been unfailing in her convictions and a true inspiration,” Barnard President Debora Spar said in a statement. “I am certain that our graduates will be energized by her words and personal story.” Abramson has also worked at the Wall Street Journal, where she was the deputy Washington bureau chief, and Time magazine, where she covered the 1976 presidential election. Barnard students said it would be exciting to have Abramson at commencement, espe-
cially as a woman who has reached the pinnacle of her profession. “I think it will be interesting to hear what she has to say about being a young woman in the city COLUMBIA and how to make it all the way to the top,” Ellen Watkins, BC ’14, said. “Because she’s really at the top.” Emma Goidel, BC ’12, was not familiar with Abramson before receiving the email announcing her as commencement speaker. But Goidel said she liked what she read about her. “I’m excited. I’m glad that it’s someone who is successful but is not a celebrity, and I think that’s a job a lot of Barnard students might aspire to,” Goidel said. “Hearing her thoughts about how to move through a career path as a woman in New York is probably going to be interesting. I think she’ll be really inspiring.” “I’m sure there’s so many women here who feel, ‘That’s the job I want,’ and to see her speak and get her advice, that will be really special,” Goidel added.
COLUMBIA DAILY SPECTATOR
Barnard’s 2011 graduation. At the school’s 2012 ceremony, New York Times Executive Editor Jill Abramson will deliver the keynote address.
YALE DAILY NEWS · WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
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NATION
T
Dow Jones 12,878.20, +0.26%
S NASDAQ 2,904.08, +0.07% S Oil $98.80, +0.39%
Court rejects marriage ban
S S&P 500 1,347.05, +0.20% T
10-yr. Bond 1.97%, +0.06
T Euro $1.33, -0.05
Romney tries to hold onto lead BY DAVID ESPO AND PHILIP ELLIOTT ASSOCIATED PRESS
LAURA ODA/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Brian Keeton and Jay Dwyer celebrate after a federal appeals court declared California’s same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional.
BY LISA LEFF ASSOCIATED PRESS SAN FRANCISCO — Same-sex marriage moved one step closer to the Supreme Court on Tuesday when a federal appeals court ruled California’s ban unconstitutional, saying it serves no purpose other than to “lessen the status and human dignity” of gays. A three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals gave gay marriage opponents time to appeal the 2–1 decision before ordering the state to allow same-sex weddings to resume. “I’m ecstatic. I recognize that we have a ways to go yet. We may have one or two more legal steps,” said Jane Leyland, who was gathered with a small crowd outside the federal courthouse in downtown San Francisco, cheering as they learned of the ruling. Leyland married her longtime partner, Terry Gilb, during the five-month window when same-sex marriage was legal in California. “But when we first got together, I would have never dreamed in a million years that we would be allowed to be legally married, and here we are.” The ban known as Proposition 8 was approved by voters in 2008 with 52 percent of the vote. The court said it was unconstitutional because it singled out a minority group for disparate treatment for no compelling reason. The justices concluded that the law had no purpose other than to deny gay couples marriage, since California already grants them all the rights and benefits of marriage if they register as domestic partners. “Had Marilyn Monroe’s film been called `How to Register a Domestic Partnership with a Millionaire,’ it would not have conveyed the same meaning as did her famous movie, even though the underlying drama for same-sex couples is no different,” the court said. The lone dissenting judge insisted that the ban could help ensure that children are raised by married, oppo-
site-sex parents. The appeals court focused its decision exclusively on California’s ban, not the bigger debate, even though the court has jurisdiction in nine Western states. Whether same-sex couples may ever be denied the right to marry “is an important and highly controversial question,” the court said. “We need not and do not answer the broader question in this case.”
Had Marilyn Monroe’s film been called “How to Register a Domestic Partnership with a Millionaire,” it would not have conveyed the same meaning as did her famous movie. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals opinion Six states allow gay couples to wed — Connecticut, New Hampshire, Iowa, Massachusetts, New York and Vermont, as well as the District of Columbia. California, as the nation’s most populous state and home to more than 98,000 same-sex couples, would be the gay rights movement’s biggest prize of them all. The 9th Circuit concluded that a trial-court judge had correctly interpreted the Constitution and Supreme Court precedents when he threw out Proposition 8. The measure “serves no purpose, and has no effect, other than to lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians in California, and to officially reclassify their relationships and families as inferior to those of opposite-sex couples,” Judge Stephen Reinhardt, one of the court’s most liberal judges, wrote in the 2-1 opinion. Opponents of gay marriage planned
to ask the Supreme Court to overturn the ruling, which came more than a year after the appeals court panel heard arguments in the case. “We are not surprised that this Hollywood-orchestrated attack on marriage — tried in San Francisco — turned out this way. But we are confident that the expressed will of the American people in favor of marriage will be upheld at the Supreme Court,” said Brian Raum, senior counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal aid group based in Arizona that helped defend Proposition 8. Legal analysts questioned whether the Supreme Court would agree to take the case because of the narrow scope of the ruling. California is the only state to grant gays the right to marry and rescind it. Douglas NeJaime, an associate professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, said the Ninth Circuit’s narrow decision would allow the Supreme Court to uphold the measure without ruling “on marriage for same-sex couples on a national scale.” “In effect, the Ninth Circuit’s decision allows the Supreme Court to continue the incremental, case-by-case trajectory of marriage for same-sex couples in the United States,” NeJaime said in an email. Weddings appeared unlikely to resume anytime soon. The ruling will not take effect until the deadline passes in two weeks for Proposition 8’s backers to appeal to a larger panel of the 9th Circuit. Lawyers for the coalition of conservative religious groups that sponsored the measure said they have not decided if they will seek a 9th Circuit rehearing or file an appeal directly to the Supreme Court. The panel also said there was no evidence that former Chief U.S. Judge Vaughn Walker was biased and should have disclosed that he was gay and in a long-term relationship with another man.
WASHINGTON — Republican front-runner Mitt Romney battled Rick Santorum and Ron Paul on Tuesday in political caucuses in Minnesota and Colorado, hoping to extend his winning streak in the race for the presidential nomination. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich mounted no significant campaign in either state, looking ahead to primaries elsewhere. Romney prevailed in both Minnesota and Colorado in 2008, the first time he ran for the nomination, but the GOP has become more conservative in both states since then under the influence of tea party activists. There were 37 Republican National Convention delegates at stake in Minnesota and 33 more in Colorado. In addition, Missouri held a non-binding primary on Tuesday. The state picks its delegates at caucuses next month. Santorum, a former Pennsylvania senator, campaigned aggressively in all three states, seeking a breakthrough to revitalize a campaign that has struggled since his narrow first-place finish in the Iowa caucuses a month ago. Paul, a Texas lawmaker, has yet to win a primary or caucus. He arrived at a caucus site in Coon Rapids, Minn., in early evening to shake hands with early arrivers, and had to squeeze his way through a crowd of autograph seekers.
Romney began the day the leader in the delegate chase, with 101 of the 1,144 needed to capture the nomination at the Republican National Convention this summer in Tampa. Gingrich had 32, Santorum 17 and Paul nine. Taken together, the number of delegates at stake Tuesday was the largest one-day total yet in the Republican race to pick a rival for President Barack Obama. Even so, the campaigning was a pale comparison to the Iowa caucuses or primaries last month in New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida. Television advertising was sparse; neither Colorado nor Minnesota hosted a candidates’ debate, and there was relatively little campaigning by the contenders themselves until the past few days. The same was true in last weekend’s Nevada caucuses, which Romney won on the heels of a Florida primary victory days earlier. The same pattern holds in Maine, where caucuses finish on Saturday. Not until primaries in Michigan and Arizona on Feb. 28 is the campaign likely to regain the intensity that characterized the first few weeks of the year. Then it roars back to life with a 10-state Super Tuesday on March 6 with 416 convention delegates at stake. Santorum, in particular, hoped to seize the relative lull to redeem the promise of his Iowa victory.
CHARLES DHARAPAK/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Supporters of Republican presidential candidates Ron Paul and Mitt Romney campaign outside of a polling station in Manchester, N.H.
Abortion, birth control grab political spotlight BY CHARLES BABINGTON ASSOCIATED PRESS
REX CURRY/ASSOCIATED PRESS
MoveOn.org organizers deliver a 832,000 signature petition to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure headquarters protesting the foundation’s now-reversed decision to eliminate funding for Planned Parenthood.
DAYTON, Ohio — Political turmoil over abortion and birth control spread suddenly on Tuesday. A high-ranking official resigned from the Komen breast-cancer charity after its backtracking treaty with Planned Parenthood, and Republican presidential candidates blistered the Obama administration for a recent ruling on Catholic hospitals and contraception. The White House made a point of declaring it wanted to ease the concerns of church-affiliated employers — many would be required to provide birth control coverage to their workers under the new rules — but there was no word on how those concerns might be addressed. The two-track drama pumped new furor into longstanding disputes that sometimes take a backseat in political campaigns because the lines are so familiar and firmly drawn. Last week’s Komen-Planned Parenthood dispute stirred many wom-
en’s groups that support legal abortion. And the Obama ruling touched a nerve with moderate Roman Catholics who support contraceptives but also defend their church’s right to run its hospitals and other institutions according to religious convictions. Republican presidential candidates pounced on what they considered a blunder by President Barack Obama. They believe his administration’s ruling will alienate moderate Catholic voters who could prove crucial in November in Ohio, Pennsylvania and elsewhere. There also could be political repercussions from the Susan G. Komen for the Cure controversy. The breast-cancer charity, facing fierce criticism, mostly from women’s groups, quickly overturned its decision to cut off funding to Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood is a major provider of abortions, but it also screens women for breast cancer and other health problems. In Atlanta, Karen Handel, a Komen vice president who played
a role in the fund cutoff decision, resigned Tuesday. A Republican who ran for governor in Georgia, Handel was seen by some as an example of what they felt was an increasing tendency by Komen to bring partisan politics into the charity’s decisions. “I am deeply disappointed by the gross mischaracterizations of the strategy, its rationale and my involvement in it,” Handel said in her resignation letter. Presidential candidate Mitt Romney, for his part, said he supported Komen’s original decision to stop funding Planned Parenthood. The arguments came as the GOP presidential hopefuls campaigned in several states and Republicans voted in Colorado and Minnesota. Each candidate tried to take advantage of the unusually intense focus on reproductive issues. Romney, a Mormon, decried Obama’s “assault on religion,” telling Colorado voters the new contraception ruling was “a real blow ... to our friends in the Catholic faith.”
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YALE DAILY NEWS · WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
WORLD
“Men do not shape destiny, Destiny produces the man for the hour. FIDEL CASTRO FORMER PRESIDENT OF CUBA
Russia amplifies pressure on Syria BY ELIZABETH KENNEDY ASSOCIATED PRESS BEIRUT — Days after blocking a U.S.-backed peace plan at the U.N., senior Russian officials pushed for reforms Tuesday during an emergency meeting with Syrian President Bashar Assad, promoting a settlement to end the uprising without removing him from power. Thousands of flag-waving government supporters cheered the Russians in the Syrian capital of Damascus, while to the north, Assad’s forces pounded the opposition city of Homs — underscoring the sharp divisions propelling the country toward civil war. The violence has led to the most severe international isolation in more than four decades of Assad family rule, with country after country calling home their envoys. France, Italy, Spain and Belgium pulled their ambassadors from Damascus, as did six Gulf nations, including Saudi Arabia. Germany, whose envoy left the country this month, said he would not be replaced. The moves came a day after the U.S. closed its embassy in Syria and Britain recalled its ambassador. Turkey, once a strong Assad supporter and now one of his most vocal critics, added its voice to the international condemnation, with Prime Minis-
ter Recep Tayyip Erdogan saying his country cannot remain silent about massacres in Syria. He said Turkey would “launch a new initiative with countries that stand by the Syrian people instead of the regime.” His comments reflect a growing movement by the U.S., Europe and countries in the region to organize a coalition of nations to back Syria’s opposition, though what kind of support remains unclear. Over the weekend, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called for “friends of democratic Syria” to unite and rally against Assad’s regime. On Tuesday, the Obama administration suggested it might provide humanitarian aid to the Syrian people, but did not specify how or to whom. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov flew into Damascus on Tuesday, accompanied by his foreign security chief, to try to boost a plan that would keep Assad in power, even though many prominent members of the opposition reject that entirely. “It’s clear that efforts to stop the violence should be accompanied by the beginning of dialogue among the political forces,” Lavrov said, according to the Russian news agency ITAR-Tass. “Today we received confirmation of the readiness of the president of Syria for this work.” The visit was also a sign that
Signs of progress as debt talks drag
DIMITRI MESSINIS/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Pedestrians walk across the tram lines in Athens’ Syntagma Square as a 24-hour strike stopped train and ferry services nationwide. BY DEREK GATOPOULOS AND GABRIELE STEINHAUSER ASSOCIATED PRESS ATHENS, Greece — Greece’s private creditors signaled progress late Tuesday on a debt-relief deal but crucial talks between Greek coalition leaders about forcing more austerity upon a hostile public were again postponed. Anger flared on the streets of Athens as more than 20,000 protesters marched through the Greek capital and unions called a general strike Tuesday against the new cuts in jobs and spending. The strike halted trains and ferries, closed down schools and banks and put state hospitals on short staffing. Several hundred protesters clashed with riot police outside Parliament and set fire to a German flag — upset over Germany’s role in demanding more austerity from Athens. “They are committing a crime against the country. They are driving wage-earners into poverty and wiping out pensioners and the unemployed,” said Vangelis Moutafis, a senior member of Greece’s largest union, the GSEE. “They are selling off state assets for nothing. This cannot continue.” G re e k P re m i e r L u ca s Papademos delayed a meeting with his coalition parties till Wednesday, staying in talks until late in the night with top bank negotiators as well as with debt inspectors from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.
Greece is under massive time pressure to secure a new euro130 billion ($170 billion) bailout from its partners in the euro and the IMF without which it will default in March on its massive debts. Representatives of the Institute of International Finance, which has been leading the talks for private bondholders on forgiving Greece part of its debts, had a “constructive meeting” with Papademos, IIF spokesman Frank Vogl said. Papademos and Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos will soon brief the rest of the 17-nation eurozone on the proposed deal, Vogl said — a sign the bond-swap deal could be close. The meeting of eurozone finance ministers could happen as soon as Thursday in Brussels, according to officials, although that will depend on finding agreement in Athens on the terms of the second bailout. Greece has been kept solvent since May 2010 by payments from a euro110 billion ($145 billion) international rescue loan package. When it became clear the money would not be enough, a second bailout was decided last October. As well as passing new austerity measures, the second bailout depends on Greece’s separate talks with banks and other private bondholders to forgive euro100 billion ($132 billion) in Greek debt. The private investors are expected to swap their current bonds for new bonds worth 50 percent less than the original face value, with longer repayment terms and a lower interest rate.
Moscow wanted to get a firsthand assessment of the situation on the ground in Syria — and the raucous welcome the diplomats received from thousands of regime supporters appeared aimed at showing that Assad’s grip is firm, at least in Damascus. Syria has been a key Russian ally since Soviet times, and Moscow remains a major arms supplier to Damascus even as Assad unleashes his forces to crush not only peaceful protesters, but army defectors who are fighting the regime. The U.N. estimates the government crackdown has killed more than 5,400 people since March, making Syria’s conflict one of the deadliest of the Arab Spring. Hundreds more are believed to have died since the U.N. released that figure in January, but the chaos in the country has made it impossible for the world body to update its figures. Tuesday’s visit by Lavrov and intelligence chief Mikhail Fradkov was evidence that Russia does not want to be seen as giving Assad a free hand to crush his opponents in the wake of Saturday’s veto at the U.N. Security Council. Both Russia and China blocked a Western- and Arabbacked resolution supporting calls for Assad to hand over some powers as a way to defuse the 11-month-old crisis. Russia has opposed any U.N.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, left, meets with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus, Syria. call that could be interpreted as advocating military intervention or regime change. Russia and China also used their veto powers in October to block an attempt to condemn the violence in Syria. On Tuesday, Moscow delivered its own message to Syria,
calling on all sides to hold a meaningful dialogue. “Necessary reforms must be implemented in order to address legitimate demands of the people striving for a better life,” Lavrov told Assad, according to ITAR-Tass.” Assad replied that Syria is
determined to hold a national dialogue with the opposition and independent figures, saying his government was “ready to cooperate with any effort that boosts stability in Syria,” according to the Syrian state news agency SANA.
Economic embargo on Cuba turns 50 BY PETER ORSI ASSOCIATED PRESS HAVANA — When it started, American teenagers were doing “The Twist.” The United States had yet to put a man into orbit around the Earth. And a first-class U.S. postage stamp cost 4 cents. The world is much changed since the early days of 1962, but one thing has remained constant: The U.S. economic embargo on communist-run Cuba, a near-total trade ban that turned 50 on Tuesday. Supporters say it is a justified measure against a repressive government that has never stopped being a thorn in Washington’s side. Critics call it a failed policy that has hurt ordinary Cubans instead of the government. All acknowledge that it has not accomplished its core mission of toppling Fidel and Raul Castro. “All this time has gone by, and yet we keep it in place,” said Wayne Smith, who was a young U.S. diplomat in Havana in 1961 when relations were severed and who returned as the chief American diplomat after they were partially re-established under President Jimmy Carter. “We talk to the Russians, we talk to the Chinese, we have normal relations even with Vietnam. We trade with all of them,” Smith said. “So why not with Cuba?” In the White House, the first sign of the looming embargo came when President John F. Kennedy told his press secretary to go buy him as many H. Upmann Cuban cigars as he could find. The aide came back with 1,200 stogies. Kennedy announced the embargo on Feb. 3, 1962, citing “the subversive offensive of Sino-Soviet communism with
which the government of Cuba is publicly aligned.” It went into effect four days later at the height of the Cold War, a year removed from the failed CIA-backed Bay of Pigs invasion meant to oust communism from Cuba and eight months before Soviet attempts to put nuclear missiles on the island brought the two superpowers to the brink of war. Washington already had some limited sanctions in place, but Kennedy’s decision was the beginning of a comprehensive ban on U.S. trade with the island that has remained more or less intact ever since.
We talk to the Russians, we talk to the Chinese … We trade with all of them. So why not with Cuba? WAYNE SMITH Former Chief of Mission, U.S. Interests Section in Havana Little was planned to mark Tuesday’s anniversary, but Cuban-American members of Congress issued a joint statement vowing to keep the heat on Cuba. Supporters of the policy acknowledge that many U.S. strategic concerns from the 1960s have been consigned to the dustbin of history, such as halting the spread of Soviet influence and keeping Fidel Castro from exporting revolution throughout Latin America. But they say other justifications remain, such as the confiscation of U.S. property in Cuba and the need to press for greater political and
personal freedoms on the island. “We have a hemispheric commitment to freedom and democracy and respect for human rights,” said Jose Cardenas, a former National Security Council staffer on Cuba under President George W. Bush. “I still think that those are worthy aspirations.” With just 90 miles (145 kilometers) of sea between Florida and Cuba, the United States would be a natural No. 1 trade partner and source of tourism. But the embargo chokes off most commerce, and the threat of stiff fines keeps most Americans from sunbathing in balmy resorts like Cayo Coco. Cuba is free to trade with other nations, but the U.S. threatens sanctions against foreign companies that don’t abide by its restrictions. A stark example arrived off the coast of Havana last month: A massive oil exploration rig built with less than 10 percent U.S. parts to qualify under the embargo was brought all the way from Singapore at great expense, while comparable platforms sat idle in U.S. waters just across the Gulf of Mexico. The embargo is a constant talking point for island authorities, who blame it for shortages of everything from medical equipment to the concrete needed to complete an eight-lane highway spanning the length of the island. Cuba frequently fulminates against the “blockade” at the United Nations and demands the U.S. end its “genocidal” policy. Every fall, like clockwork, the vast majority of nations agree, and overwhelmingly back a resolution condemning the embargo. In November, 186 countries supported the measure, with only Israel joining the U.S. in opposition.
YALE DAILY NEWS · WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
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SPORTS Bulldogs take shots at titles SUCCESS FROM PAGE 14 From the title perspective, we’re ahead of last year’s pace. The field hockey team, which broke through after 30 years to claim its second title in school history, joined volleyball as fall, 2011 champions. By Feb. 7, 2011, Yale held one Ivy title. As of Feb. 8, 2012, we hold two. Now I know what you’re thinking: that stat means nothing when there’s so much work to be done. And you’re right: projecting all of last year’s champions to repeat is perhaps not wise. But it’s not completely unrealistic. Let’s go step-by-step starting with squash. The men’s team is currently ranked No. 1 nationally, and the women No. 2. Not No. 1 in the Ivy League — the country. Though the men dropped a somewhat surprising match to then-No. 3 Princeton last weekend, it’s important to note that All American superstar No. 2 Hywel Robinson ’13 was injured for that showdown, which caused some last-minute shifts in the Yale ladder heading into a tough road match. Either way, the loss means the Bulldogs need some help from Cornell and Columbia, Princeton’s final Ivy League opponents, if they’re to grab a conference title. Even if they don’t get that help, however, a national title is on the table, and that epic win over then-No.1-for-13-years Trinity will be remembered for many seasons to come.
YALE TEAMS HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO BRING IN MORE IVY TITLES THAN EVER BEFORE. The women are in better shape to repeat. Millie Tomlinson ’14 hasn’t lost a college match yet, and last year’s national individual champion keeps blowing through her competition, leading the undefeated Bulldogs into their toughest match of the season this weekend against No. 1 Harvard. The Crimson present the biggest obstacle between Yale and another Ivy League title, so this Sunday’s matchup at the Brady Squash Center will go along way towards determining whether or not the women’s squash team can add to this year’s title total. Now, on to golf. On the men’s side, the Bulldogs return three of their top-four finishers at last year’s Ivy League Championships, where the team dominated the field by 20 strokes to take home the title. Admittedly, the player not returning is a big deal: 2010-’11 captain and AllIvy pick Tom McCarthy ’11. But even without McCarthy, Yale closed out its fall season with an impressive seventh-place showing at the Northeast Invitational (four spots ahead of last year’s finish), bolstered by the solid play of William Davenport ’15. He turned in a strong fall for Yale, and should help ease the loss of McCarthy. The women, too, lost a great force in their 2010-’11 captain, Alyssa Roland ’11, who was an individual Ivy League Champion as a sophomore. But the celestial sophomore duo of Seo Hee Moon, who has seven wins in her young career, and Sun Gyoung Park, Yale’s top finisher at the NCAA regional last year, should position the Bulldogs to make a run at another title. Harvard and Columbia have bolstered their rosters with some freshmen talent, but Yale will be a formidable
opponent in its title defense. Women’s tennis has reached its highest ranking of 2012 this week, No. 35, thanks in large part to an upset win over thenNo. 21 Notre Dame and a nearmiss against No. 10 Michigan. As scary as it is for the rest of the Ivy League, the Bulldogs look better than last year — and are still improving — which bodes well for their title prospects. But beyond teams that won last season, there are others that could make a run at titles to push Yale to that eight-win mark or beyond in 2012. The men’s fencing team, for one, dropped a heartbreaking title match against Harvard last year by one point. The No. 10 Bulldogs get their chance at revenge this weekend as they host this year’s Ancient Eight Championships. Fencing is a sport to watch. The women have also been dominating of late, turning in convincing wins to build momentum into Saturday’s matches. Men’s lacrosse is always a team to watch, especially considering it comes into the 2012 season ranked 13th in the Inside Lacrosse national poll. The Elis will feature two Major League Lacrosse Draftees this season — Greg Mahony ’12 and 2011 All-American Matt Gibson ’12 — who were drafted last weekend. Yale baseball, which finished second in its division last year, will undoubtedly be hurt by the loss of a senior class that featured first baseman Trey Rallis ’11, last year’s Ivy League Player of the Year. But with a ton of talent in the freshmen class — particularly on the mound — and a lot of talented underclassmen in general, the Bulldogs could surprise some people in the Ivy League this year. Oh, and look out for Yale softball: just saying … Finally, it’s way too early to lose track of the winter sports just yet. Men’s basketball is just a game (okay, a win against No. 21 Harvard) out of first place, and gets another shot at the Crimson, albeit in Cambridge, Feb. 18. Win out, and the Elis will have a share in the Ivy crown and a playoff game with Harvard to decide the bid to the tourney. At 4–2 in conference play, women’s basketball is right in the hunt as well. The team may need some help around the league to chase down 5–0 Princeton, but Harvard (4–1) is well within reach, especially considering the Bulldogs have another trip through the Ivies remaining. Finally, there’s men’s hockey. Their quest for an Ivy League title, though bumpier than Yale fans, used to success, might be willing to tolerate, is far from over. The Bulldogs sit behind just two Ancient Eight teams entering this weekend: Harvard (four points up) and Cornell (nine points up). Yale plays both of those teams in its remaining schedule. Keep in mind that a win in either of those games makes up three points on either team, and the Bulldogs can still pull a title off. It’s not over for Yale hockey just yet. In other words, look out for Yale sports in the coming months, and start counting the Ivy titles as they come in. We’re ahead of schedule in some ways, behind in others, but nevertheless poised to make another push at Yale conference title history. And regardless of how many Championships come to New Haven in 2012, the fact that Bulldog teams are anywhere near duplicating last year’s historic success reveals a trend that means eight won’t be Yale’s highest title total for long. Contact CHELSEA JANES at chelsea.janes@yale.edu .
SPORTS IN CONTENTION FOR 2012 IVYTITLES MEN’S
WOMEN’S
BASEBALL BASKETBALL FENCING GOLF HOCKEY LACROSSE SQUASH
BASKETBALL FENCING GOLF SQUASH TENNIS
PEOPLE IN THE NEWS RICKY WILLIAMS Williams, who was an All-Pro running back, announced that he will retire from pro football after 11 seasons of play. Williams, who was the Heisman Trophy winner in 1998, played in 147 NFL games.
Elis compete outside Ivies
JOEY ROSENBERG/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
Next season, the men’s basketball team will compete in Nevada, Austlin Morgan ’13’s home state. M. BASKETBALL FROM PAGE 14 games, the Elis have often had to agree to play the opposing team twice on its home turf. Often, coaches of teams from smaller conferences reach out to former colleagues at bigger schools to help secure nonconference games. “I think the coaching world is a big fraternity,” Bennett said. “They see each other out on the recruiting trail. Coaches build relationships, and that certainly helps with scheduling.” But when two friends play, one has to lose. “You really don’t want to play your friends too often,” Jones said. “There’s no winner there. My brother [Joe Jones, head coach of Boston University] and I will never play each other. I rely more on assistant coaches at other places like at Wake Forest [to schedule games].” Nonconference games also serve as a recruiting tool. Cornell basketball head coach William Courtney said that since he and other Ivies recruit nationally, the
opportunity for a recruit to play close to home at least once is an incentive. Jones agreed with his Cornell counterpart, adding that it is part of his “recruiting spiel.” He said he tells every recruit that Yale will play in his hometown at least once over his four-year career.
We try to schedule comparable teams, teams we think will be successful in their conferences. WILLIAM COURTNEY Head coach, Cornell men’s basketball “Next year we’re going to Nevada for [Austin] Morgan ’13, St. Mary’s for Jeremiah [Kreisberg] ’14, and this year we went down to Wake Forest for Mike Grace ’13,” Jones said. Bennett added that a game is also being scheduled against Iowa State in the future for guard Jesse Pritchard ’14, a native of
Ames, Iowa. Next year, Courtney said, Cornell will play Vanderbilt for guard Miles Asafo-Adjei of Antioch, Tenn. Scheduling games against mammoth college basketball teams itself serves a recruiting purpose, Courtney said. Playing every year on a big court in front of tens of thousands of fans is alluring to an Ivy League basketball recruit. “Absolutely all of the [Ivy League] schools will use those attractive games against big-name opponents to show recruits,” Courtney explained. Even better than an attractive game against a big-name opponent, though, is a famous win. Although rare for an Ivy League team, a triumph over a squad in the national spotlight sends a powerful statement, perhaps more powerful than an Ivy League title. Such a victory is possible only by taking a chance and scheduling bigname teams. Contact CHARLES CONDRO at charles.condro@yale.edu and JOSEPH ROSENBERG at joseph.rosenberg@yale.edu .
Rugby tackles Nevada M. RUGBY FROM PAGE 14 to finish in 16th,” Lesnewich added. The Bulldogs will look to improve on last year’s seventh place finish in the tournament where they advanced to the quarterfinals before falling, 19–7, to Bowling Green State University. Yale, which finished sixth in the Ivies last fall, will open the tournament with matches against the three other teams in its pool: defending champion Central Washington Univerisity, Weber State University and Indiana University. In order to advance to the elimination round, the Bulldogs will have to finish as one of the top two teams in the pool. Though Finger acknowledged that getting a draw in a competition that includes Central Washington will be difficult, he added that Yale will probably be a school the Wildcats will overlook, which might play to the Bulldogs favor. “We’re going there with the feeling that we can play with anyone,” Morse said. “Sevens is only 14 minutes long, and anything can happen. You get a couple of bounces your way, and you can be knocking off the defending champions, no problem.”
Sevens is only 14 minutes long, and anything can happen. You get a couple of bounces your way, and you can be knocking off the defending champions, no problem. ROB MORSE ’12
Unlike traditional rugby, in which 15 players from each side are on the field and compete in two 40-minute halves, sevens rugby pits just seven players from each team against each other in two seven-minute halves. Because there are half as many players on the field in sevens, teams have more space to move the ball around and find gaps to exploit on the field. The Bulldogs hope their speed will allow them to take advantage of the extra space during the competition. “We have a lot of really fast players that we didn’t have last year,” Finger said. “The forwards we have going are
IAN PIKUL
Rugby, which finished sixth in the Ivy League last year, will travel to Barbados this spring. also strong, so it’s a good combination of players that can set up plays and also guys who are fast enough to score in a lot of different scenarios.” In preparation for the tournament, members of the team have been holding four official practices a week, though many of the players continue to train on their own on off-days. The Elis split their time between training at Payne Whitney Gym and practicing at the Connecticut Sportsplex, an indoor facility in North Branford. Although team members take competing seriously, they enjoy that rugby is not normally as heavy a commitment as a varsity sport. “It becomes a big part of your life at Yale, but as opposed to a varsity sport, it doesn’t dominate it,” Sam Teicher ’12 said. “We do train hard, we work hard, but it’s not all-consuming.” The team is gearing up for two more exciting competitions after Vegas. Each year during spring break the team embarks on an international tour to a rugby-playing country to play some games and bond as a team. This year, the Bulldogs plan to travel to Barbados. The team also concludes its season with a competition against alumni for the Walbridge Wager, which is a trophy named for a former South African captain of the team that features the head
of a Cape Buffalo. During the alumni weekend, the team’s top players face off against a group of younger alums while less experienced players take on an older crowd, players who might be up to 70 years old. “You have guys with humongous beards and top hats,” Lesnewich said. In games such as these unlike the upcoming Vegas tournament, the main focus is on camaraderie rather than competition. The balance of serious competitions and time-honored traditions has made rugby a defining feature of the members’ time at Yale. “It’s sort of just been an awesome experience at Yale,” Morse said. “The last four years, by far the thing I’m going to look back on most is playing rugby. I can’t imagine life at Yale without it. I think a huge portion of the team feels that way.” Yale opens the Las Vegas Invitational with matches against Weber State and Indiana on Thursday at 9:40 a.m. and 12:40 p.m., respectively. The Elis will then faceoff against defending champion Central Washington on Friday at 9:20 a.m. Contact MARIA GUARDADO at maria.guardado@yale.edu .
IF YOU MISSED IT SCORES
NCAA B Kentucky 78 Florida 58
NCAA B Maryland 64 Clemson 62
SPORTS QUICK HITS
MORGAN TRAINA ’15 ECAC ROOKIE OF THE WEEK Traina, a member of the gymnastics team, was honored after excelling this past weekend at New Hampshire. She earned third place in the all-around competiton with a score of 38.1, and finished second overall on the uneven bars. She was first for Yale on beam.
NBA Indiana 104 Utah 99
NHL N.J. Devils 1 N.Y. Rangers 0
y
HALEY WESSELS ’13 ELECTED VOLLEYBALL CAPTAIN Wessels, a middle hitter, was named captain of the women’s volleyball team on Tuesday. She will lead Yale in two offseason tournaments this spring. The Bulldogs will face Boston College on March 24 and then four teams. including Ivy foe Columbia, on April 21.
NHL St. Louis 3 Ottawa 1
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“The first thing is that we want to challenge ourselves. We want to play some people outside the box.” JAMES JONES HEAD COACH, M. BASKETBALL YALE DAILY NEWS · WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
MEN’S BASKETBALL
Scheduling non-Ivy games a puzzle BY CHARLES CONDRO AND JOSEPH ROSENBERG STAFF REPORTERS The men’s basketball team did not spend New Year’s Eve more than 1,000 miles away from New Haven without purpose. On Dec. 31, the team traveled to Gainesville, Fla., to take on No. 7 Florida in a nonconference game. Although the Elis expectedly fell, 90–70, the final score was of little importance. The Bulldogs scheduled the game knowing full well they were the underdogs.
MEN’S BASKETBALL
JOEY ROSENBERG/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
The men’s basketball team took on Hartford in a non-conference game on November 29 and won 74–69.
This year, Ivy League teams took the court against opponents from five of the six major conferences. Yale matched up with Seton Hall of the Big East, the ACC’s Wake Forest and SEC powerhouse Florida. Penn faced Duke of the ACC and Pitt of the Big East. Harvard took part in an ESPN2-televised game with the Big East’s UConn. The Crimson and the Princeton Tigers even defeated the No. 17 Florida State Seminoles. There are reasons why these Ancient Eight hoopsters end up on the court with some of the best basketball teams in the country. Mid-major coaches try to assemble a balanced schedule to prepare their teams for conference play. Put simply, playing good teams can only improve a program. “The first thing is that we want to challenge ourselves,” Yale head coach
James Jones said. “We want to play some people outside the box that are going to try to expose weaknesses … so we can see the kind of issues we have that we can’t see in practice.” Nonconference games are not all marquee matchups, however. Ivy League teams also play Division III minnows. Yale demolished Lyndon State 101–37 and downed St. Joseph’s of Long Island 101–86. Cornell head coach William Courtney said that he schedules Division III schools because it adds a home game to the nonconference schedule. Nonconference schedules are not only filled with extremes. Courtney and Jones said they also play against opposition closer to their level. “We try to schedule comparable teams, teams we think will be successful in their conferences,” Courtney said. “We try not to schedule teams that are not so good so that we don’t get a false sense of ourselves.” Coaches schedule with the another factor in mind as well: money. In order to raise funding for the program, teams play in “guarantee” games against major teams on the road. In exchange for playing away, mid-major teams are compensated by their adversaries. Guarantee games differ from “series” games where teams agree to play at both locations. Yale Assistant Athletic Director Tim Bennett said that in order to get prominent schools to play series SEE M. BASKETBALL PAGE 13
Elis to compete in Vegas
CHELSEA JANES
Season’s success to play out at Ivies This could be one of the best years in Yale sports history. Tragedy and off-field issues have distracted from a year loaded with success and potential — and rightfully so — but with statements made, investigations underway and the facts as straight as anyone can hope to get them, it’s time to shift the focus back to the games. Do so, and you’ll see what I mean: this really could be one of the best years in Yale sports history. And I’m not just saying that out of my sometimes unrealistic but always well-intended Yalesuperfan optimism. The stats don’t lie. In the 55 years since the Ivy League began play in sports other than football, Yale’s high-water mark for conferencechampionship success has been eight. The Bulldogs won eight titles in a single academic year twice in that span, once in the first season of Ancient Eight play, 1956-’57, once in the 1980-’81 season. Yale has brought home seven titles in an academic year just four times in that nearly half-a-century span. The first came in the 1958-’59 year, the second in the 1978-’79 season, and the third in the 1989-’90 season. The fourth seven-win season was, you may be surprised to hear, last year. Now, keep in mind that the first women’s Ivy League Championships were held in the 1973-’74 season, and the gravity of last year’s success grows.
That year, the only women’s sport in competition was crew (title won by the now-incorporated Radcliffe), and it would take until the 1976-’77 season for even six women’s championships to be contested, when basketball, gymnastics, ice hockey, swimming and track and field were added to the mix. Take that 1976-’77 year, then, as the first that the Ivy League Championships landscape began to resemble its current self, and last year’s success was, arguably, the fourth-best season in Yale’s history in the Ivy League. Surprising? Perhaps. But only because last year’s success wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. The titles were spread among teams we expected to win (men’s ice hockey, volleyball) and teams we — rather unfairly — forget win so regularly (the squashes, golf teams, and so on). Women’s tennis’s run to a share of the Ivy title was certainly memorable, but not so improbable that anyone could be prompted to say Yale had overachieved. The Bulldogs’ historic success last year was the product of teams for whom success has become, quite simply, unsurprising. As such, this success was likely underappreciated, and few people probably realize the unique position in which the athletic department finds itself this season. SEE SUCCESS PAGE 13
STAT OF THE DAY 3.3
YDN
Men’s club rugby will compete in a sevens tournament — seven players per team, seven minutes per half — in Las Vegas this week. BY MARIA GUARDADO STAFF REPORTER Many people travel to Las Vegas in hopes of hitting the jackpot. This week, the Yale men’s rugby team will also head to Las Vegas looking to win big — on the pitch.
MEN’S RUGBY On Wednesday, 12 members of
the team will travel west to compete in the Las Vegas Invitational, a national sevens tournament that brings together 32 collegiate rugby teams from across the country each year. The competition is a Collegiate Rugby Championship qualifier. The winner of the tournament earns the last slot in the USA Sevens CRC tournament, in which the top 16 collegiate rugby programs faceoff for the national championship title. Sitting in a room on the second
floor of the “historic” and “charming” rugby house on 17 Edgewood Ave., team members Nick Finger ’12, Rob Morse ’12 and John Lesnewich ’13 said the team has one clear goal for the tournament. “We’re going there to win,” Finger said. “Obviously it’s going to be challenging, but we’re just trying to win as many games as possible.” “We wouldn’t go if we were trying SEE M. RUGBY PAGE 13
THE AVERAGE NUMBER OF IVY LEAGUE TITLES YALE TEAMS HAVE WON EACH YEAR OVER THE PAST DECADE. Eli teams won seven championships last year, their best performance since 1989-’90, but won just a single title as recently as 2007-’08.