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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 · MONDAY, APRIL 2, 2012 · VOL. CXXXIV, NO. 115 · yaledailynews.com

INSIDE THE NEWS MORNING EVENING

SUNNY SUNNY

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CROSS CAMPUS

M. LACROSSE LAST-MINUTE GOAL BEATS PENN

JOBS

MARKETING

BASEBALL

State’s unemployment rate falls for seventh consecutive month

SOM CENTER EXPLORES FACTORS OF CONSUMPTION

Yale bats stay quiet as Elis score only three runs in four-loss weekend

PAGE B3 SPORTS

PAGE 3 CITY

PAGE 5 SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

PAGE B4 SPORTS

Walters to speak at Class Day

Students join march for Trayvon Martin

Changing rules. In an email

sent to members of Saybrook College on April 1, leaders of Saybrook’s intramural teams announced a modification to the college’s rules: Freshmen would no longer be allowed to participate in intramural sports. “Adjusting to the rigors of college life is overwhelming, and forcing freshmen to engage in additional physical activity has proven to be far more traumatizing than originally believed,” the email stated.

BY TAPLEY STEPHENSON STAFF REPORTER When seniors don festive Class Day hats and march onto Old Campus on May 20, they will find Barbara Walters, Emmywinning television host and journalist, sitting on stage. In an early Monday morning email to the senior class, Kevin Adkisson ’12 and Ben Schenkel ’12, senior class secretary and treasurer, respectively, announced that Walters will speak at Class Day 2012. Adkisson told the News Sunday night that he thinks Walters’ experience as a leading journalist gives her insights not heard at recent Class Days.

More April Fool’s. As part of

a prank, State Rep. Stephen Dargan sent a text message to friends, family and colleagues on Sunday claiming that he had been in a car accident (he hadn’t) and needed medical assistance (he didn’t). A colleague in state government who wanted to “take the prank up a notch,” according to the New Haven Register, tweeted “Dargan in the hospital following accident.” Yale spokesman Michael Morand responded by tweeting “prayers for Steve.”

We wanted a female first and foremost, then we assembled a very large list of women leaders.

JAMES LU AND BRIANNE BOWEN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHERS

Streamlining. Yale Dining

unveiled a new line of bowls on Friday. The new bowls are white, larger than previous bowls and stack neatly. Under investigation. Three

New Haven Police Department officers have been placed on paid administrative leave after an off-duty shooting incident outside State Street bar Christopher Martin’s Sunday morning.

Nothing doing. Last month,

Philadelphia-area high school senior Jackie Milestone gained minor Internet fame — 25,000 YouTube hits — for creating a video expressing her desire to gain admission to Yale. But according to comments on her YouTube video, Milestone did not earn admission to the University when decisions came out last week, and does not know where she’s headed. “I guess I’ll never really know what it is that gets someone into an Ivy League school,” Milestone wrote.

Save the Earth. Saturday night brought Earth Hour to Yale, as Yalies across campus turned out their lights from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Even Harkness got in on the action, its lights dimming during those hours. Sex doctor. The much-adored

Dr. Ruth Westheimer was in New Haven on Saturday to receive a research advocacy award from the Yale School of Medicine, the New Haven Register reported. Preparations. The Joseph

Slifka Center’s Dining Room is closed this week in preparation for Passover. THIS DAY IN YALE HISTORY

1981 The Yale College faculty votes to allow pluses and minuses on Yale transcripts. New grades include A minus, B plus and B minus. Submit tips to Cross Campus

crosscampus@yaledailynews.com

ONLINE y MORE cc.yaledailynews.com

Yalies joined New Haven residents in protesting the death of black teenager Trayvon Martin, which has sparked a nationwide debate about racial profiling. Protesters wore hoodies in honor of Martin, who was wearing a hoodie when he was shot dead in February. BY SARAH MASLIN CONTRIBUTING REPORTER On Saturday afternoon, Yalies and New Haven residents donned hooded sweatshirts and marched from Dixwell Avenue to City Hall to protest the fatal shooting of unarmed African-American teenager Trayvon Martin. The march, which was organized by the Black Student Alliance at Yale (BSAY) and co-sponsored by other activist groups from Yale, New Haven and elsewhere in the state, aimed to raise awareness about racial profiling and the need for unity among local

groups taking steps to combat it. Called “Hoodies Up New Haven,” the march and subsequent rally at City Hall commemorated Martin, a 17-year-old high school student who was shot by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman in Sanford, Fla., on Feb. 26 while walking home from a convenience store wearing a hooded sweatshirt. Echoing nationwide demands for Zimmerman’s arrest and “an end to racial profiling,” Saturday’s march hoped to promote an additional message: that Yale and New Haven must join forces to address local problems of discrimination.

Budgetary concerns underscore letter

SEE FACULTY MEMO PAGE 6

SEE RALLY PAGE 6

SEE CLASS DAY PAGE 4

Prospective Yalies unfazed by crime GRAPH CRIMES ON CAMPUS PER STUDENT Brown Columbia Cornell Dartmouth Harvard MIT Penn Princeton Stanford Yale

Faculty and administrators say a memo released Thursday to the Faculty of Arts and Sciences by University President Richard Levin and Provost Peter Salovey is only the starting point in responding to concerns raised by professors this semester.

Levin told the News Sunday that he thinks the University’s tight financial situation since the onset of the recession in 2008 is the “common thread” among faculty concerns aired this semester. Salovey said in a Sunday email that he cannot “speculate too much” as to why faculty have begun to express concerns this semester, but he also noted that ongoing budget cuts have placed stress on faculty and staff. As a result of constraints imposed by the budget, Levin said faculty have perceived the University’s decision-making power as shifting to the administration. “The faculty are feeling the impact, and they’re also feeling that at a time of budget constraints, decisions have been made at the top more frequently than what would be the norm,” Levin said. After two controversial Yale College faculty meetings in February and March, Levin

“We haven’t had someone from journalism for a few years, and we certainly haven’t had a woman in almost a decade,” Adkisson said. “So we were looking for people, like Walters, who can inspire us, once they reach a

KEVIN ADKISSON ’12 Senior class secretary

ADMISSIONS

BY GAVAN GIDEON STAFF REPORTER

DOUBLE TAKE

“This is not a problem just for the black community,” said Nia Holston ’14, political chair of BSAY and an organizer of the march. “[Racial profiling] is something that affects all of us.” Holston said the tragedy in Florida has prompted BSAY to work toward calling attention to racial profiling in New Haven and become more involved in social causes within the city. Holston said she came up with the idea for a march and rally after a BSAY-hosted discussion about Trayvon Martin’s death and racial profiling last Tues-

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s the students accepted to the class of 2016 last Friday weigh their college options, questions about New Haven’s safety appear to be playing only a small role in their decisions, if any. ANDREW GIAMBRONE and JAMES LU report.

the fall. “Yale is a great school that always receives rave reviews from its students, and it seemed silly to base my decision on fringe statistics.” Edelman’s attitude is mirrored by 12 other applicants and five college guidance counselors interviewed, who all said New Haven’s crime rates played only a marginal role, if any, in their perception of Yale’s attractiveness as a school. Though those interviewed said there are safety concerns on any campus located in an urban setting, they added that the benefits of one day attending Yale outweighed the minor reservations they might have had about the city’s public safety. “Reputation is strong because reality is strong,” said Yale spokesman Michael Morand ’87 DIV ’93 of both New Haven and Yale. “When real people visit and check out the facts, they get it.” While New Haven has grappled with a reputation of violence for decades, this history appears to be far from the minds of the 1,975 students accepted to the class of 2016 as they weigh their college options.

A TROUBLED HISTORY

Newly admitted applicants to the Yale College class of 2016 now have until May 1 to decide whether they will spend the next four years of their lives in New Haven. But even after the Elm City registered a 20-year high homicide count with 34 murders in 2011, 13 applicants interviewed said the city’s crime rates did not influence their decision to apply to Yale and ultimately

would not influence their decision to matriculate. “Although I have gotten many comments since I was accepted in the line of ‘Try not to get shot,’ I didn’t really take the threat of high crime rates too seriously in my decision to apply to Yale,” said Zach Edelman ’16, a senior at Scarsdale High School who was admitted early in December and will attend Yale in

Despite the city’s high homicide count in 2011, overall violent crime — a U.S. Department of Justice category that includes homicides, forcible rape, assault and robbery — in New Haven is on the decline: it dropped 11 percent last year and is down about 20 percent so far this year. At the same time, an influx of new businesses such as the Apple SEE CRIME PAGE 4


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