T H E O L D E ST C O L L E G E DA I LY · FO U N D E D 1 8 7 8
NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT · WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2012 · VOL. CXXXIV, NO. 102 · yaledailynews.com
INSIDE THE NEWS MORNING EVENING
CLOUDY RAINY
37 38
CROSS CAMPUS
HUMANITIES WHITNEY ENTERS FOURTH DECADE
SUSTAINABILITY
HIP-HOP
ULTIMATE FRISBEE
Yale appears on track to meet goals, progress report shows
PANELISTS DECRY ‘CORPORATIZATION’ OF GENRE
Superfly hopes upcoming tournament leads to nationals
PAGES 6-7 CULTURE
PAGE 3 NEWS
PAGE 5 NEWS
PAGE 12 SPORTS
Housing draws enter digital age
Solidarity. In response to
recent reports that the New York Police Department kept track of Muslim students at Yale, a group of students has launched a “Call the NYPD” photo campaign on Facebook. The campaign’s Facebook page features photos of Yalies holding handwritten “I am … ” signs in various campus locations. The signs range from “I am a Muslim” and “I am a woman” to “I’m sexy and I know it” and “I’m secretly a unicorn.”
BY JULIA ZORTHIAN STAFF REPORTER Alexander Nemerov GRD ’92, chair of the History of Art Department and Vincent J. Scully Professor of the History of Art, will leave Yale after this semester to begin teaching at Stanford in the fall. Nemerov said he decided to accept a position on Stanford’s faculty within the past few days, after initially receiving the job offer in January. His spring survey course, “Introduction to the History of Art: Renaissance to the Present,” was Yale’s most popular class this term, with the highest number of students registered during shopping period. “I’m very sad that I won’t be teaching here anymore,” Nemerov said in a Tuesday interview. “I have great feelings about Yale and this was a very difficult decision, but I’m happy to begin the next phase of my career at Stanford.” Nemerov graduated from Yale with a master’s degree and doctorate in the history of art, and taught at Stanford before returning to Yale as an instructor in 2001.
Diversity. At a Yale Law School town hall meeting on faculty diversity, the school’s faculty hiring committee announced that it offered tenure to a Hispanic professor. The school has never had a tenured Latino faculty member. Six anonymous sources who attended the meeting, which was closed to the press, said the professor offered tenure was Cristina Rodriguez ’95 LAW ’00. Law School spokeswoman Janet Conroy said an offer was made to a Latina professor, but she declined to confirm or deny Rodriguez’s name. Not number one? Yale Law School is the top law school in the nation, according to U.S. News & World Report, but when it comes to sending alumni to the nation’s top 250 law firms, the Law School fell below its peers, according to a new ranking by the National Law Journal. Yale landed at 15th on the list. Penn topped the list, followed by Northwestern, Columbia, Harvard and Stanford. Arepas on High. A new sign
emerged in front of the 25 High St. location that once housed ¡Ay! Salsa. Ernesto Garcia, a onetime chef at the Latin restaurant that closed in December, confirmed the new restaurant will open after break.
CHARLIE CROOM/SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER
Another kind of star. Two men
set up telescopes on Broadway outside Gourmet Heaven Tuesday night to let passersby sneak a glimpse of Jupiter or the moon.
Change is … now a video.
The Yale College Democrats launched a video Tuesday featuring images of students holding signs reading “Change is …” coupled with a clip of President Barack Obama speaking and a song by Arcade Fire. THIS DAY IN YALE HISTORY
1968 Several thousand antiwar demonstrators prepare to gather on the New Haven Green and march a loop along Temple, George, Crown, Chapel and College Streets. Submit tips to Cross Campus
ONLINE y MORE cc.yaledailynews.com
SEE NEMEROV PAGE 4
With the advent of electronic housing systems in five of the residential colleges, traditional housing draws may soon see changes. BY SOPHIE GOULD STAFF REPORTERS Several residential colleges are experimenting with web-based housing information systems that may soon spread to the rest of campus. Saybrook College has developed a new website for the upcoming housing draw that will show which rooms remain available as the draw progresses, while an interactive “platform” used by Calhoun, Berkeley, Davenport and Branford Colleges has similar features combined with a forum where students can discuss living arrangements. John Meeske,
associate dean for student organizations and physical resources, said administrators will closely monitor two webbased models this spring to determine whether they enhance the process and merit expansion to all of the colleges. “We’re interested in seeing which system is the best system to continue,” Meeske said. “Should we have no systems, or move towards one or another in the future?” Saybrook Dean Paul McKinley, whose office created Saybrook’s new site, said students will be able to see how many applications for a particular type of room have been submitted, find out lot-
tery results and choose their bedrooms within suites. The Saybrook housing website also provides detailed information about bathrooms, adjoining suites and whether or not a given room has a bedroom lock, he added. But McKinley said the housing committee was careful to keep offline some parts of the process, such as the lotteries and the room draws, “both for the sake of transparency and because these are important tribal events in the college.” Calhoun and Berkeley have been using an interactive platform for the SEE HOUSING PAGE 4
The Right Track. Lady Gaga is
launching her Born This Way Foundation today at Harvard. The launch comes with much fanfare — there will be a lecture on cyberbullying and a youth advocacy boot camp focused on the theme of bravery. A Harvard official declined to say whether the Lady will perform.
Nemerov confirms move to Stanford
ST U D E N T O R GA N I ZAT I O N S
Re-evaluating group registrations
L
ast month, the Yale College Dean’s office required all registered student organizations to send representatives to its first-ever student leadership training sessions. But while the administration sorts through data of who attended and for what group, logistical confusion has raised questions for students about the benefits of registering at all. MADELINE MCMAHON and DAN STEIN report.
The 75-minute long leadership presentations, held three times in the same number of days, primarily outlined the hazing and sexual misconduct rules written in the Undergraduate Regulations. The sessions were mandatory for registered clubs because administrators wanted to ensure that all official undergraduate organizations clearly received this information, Dean of Student Affairs Marichal Gentry told the News earlier this month. “We wanted to make sure students had the proper information about hazing and misconduct,” he said, “and we wanted to make sure students had a good understanding of the policies.” When she first notified students of the training sessions last December, Yale College Dean Mary Miller wrote in an email that reg-
istered groups and varsity teams needed to send representatives in order to remain “in good standing” with the Dean’s Office. Clubs who did not participate would lose their status as official registered organizations if they did not attend the training, Assistant Dean of Student Affairs Melanie Boyd ’90 told the News before the training sessions occurred. Still, John Meeske, associate dean for student organizations and physical resources, said that the objective of the training sessions was to communicate information about these matters to students, rather than be “punitive.” Meeske said the administration plans to provide some framework through which students can reregister, but a month after the event the administration remains uncerSEE ORGANIZATIONS PAGE 4
YALE PUBLIC AFFAIRS
Professor Alexander Nemerov GRD ’92 will leave Yale after this term.
NHPD close to finalizing leadership AFTER FORCING OUT ASSISTANT CHIEFS, NEW CHIEF EXPECTED TO ANNOUNCE TEAM SOON BY JAMES LU STAFF REPORTER New Haven Police Department Chief Dean Esserman is expected to finalize his new leadership team within the next two weeks. Richard Epstein, the chairman of the city’s Board of Police Commissioners, said Tuesday he believes Esserman will nominate a new slate of assistant chiefs in the “next week or 10 days.” The new assistant chiefs will replace the three Esserman asked to step aside late last month so that he could pick his own leadership team. Epstein said he did not know, however, which officers were in the running for the positions, and Esserman has not indicated whether he will make internal or external appointments. Because of the frequent turnover in the department’s second highest rank — the Elm City will have seen 11 assis-
tant chiefs in just three years when the appointments are made — city and police officials said the NHPD may offer specific contractual accommodations to ease potential candidates’ job security and pension concerns. All officers must serve a minimum of 20 years to retire with a regular police pension, and assistant chiefs are not protected by the NHPD’s union contract against firings. “I’m confident that no [job security] concerns will prevent the department from getting the most qualified people to fill the assistant chief vacancies,” said the city’s Chief Administrative Officer Robert Smuts ’01, whose office oversees the police department. Epstein said he expects the chief to select “very high-quality” candidates for the post. Once Esserman nominates his team, the city will see if there are SEE ASST. CHIEFS PAGE 4