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 · FRIDAY, APRIL 13, 2012 · VOL. CXXXIV, NO. 124 · yaledailynews.com
INSIDE THE NEWS MORNING EVENING
SUNNY SUNNY
50 61
CROSS CAMPUS Take caution. Today is Friday
But you can still dine out.
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society initiation rituals dominated campus Thursday night as juniors donned superhero costumes and Guy Fawkes masks as part of the University’s annual Tap Night. One junior in a makeshift diaper recruited passing students to help him find his mother as another walked down York Street in a Barbie costume. Tap Night is one of the University’s oldest traditions and marks the induction of juniors into Yale’s senior societies.
Shop until you drop. From 5
to 9 p.m. tonight, students can enjoy shopping discounts, free food, live music and prizes as part of College Night on Broadway. The event is sponsored by Yale University Properties and the Broadway Merchants Association and includes rewards such as an Apple iPad and $500 in cash.
“Spying on Students.”
The Yale Muslim Students Association held a “Spying on Students” panel Thursday afternoon that discussed the legal, practical and ethical implications of the New York Police Department’s decision to monitor various Muslim students associations across the country. The panel was moderated by Hope Metcalf, a lecturer at Yale Law School, and included Yale Law School professor Jack Balkin and New Haven Police Department Chief Dean Esserman. Bringing the bedsheets. The New Haven Police Department sent 24 staffers Thursday afternoon to deliver sheets, pillows and blankets to kids in the Hill neighborhood, the New Haven Independent reported Thursday. Staffers met at 200 Orange St. and filled five to six boxes with bedding materials, according to the Independent. But the fun isn’t over.
Sophomores expecting invitations to Yale’s junior societies will participate in their own “Tap Night” this Sunday. THIS DAY IN YALE HISTORY
1910 American studies professor Charles Henry Smith 1865 announces his retirement after 20 years at the University. Smith, who was the Larned Professor of American History, said he would leave Yale at the close of the academic year. Submit tips to Cross Campus
crosscampus@yaledailynews.com
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SCHOOL OF MUSIC
BASEBALL
Campus buzzes with initiation antics as security presence jumps
NEW MUSIC NEW HAVEN CONCERT SERIES ENDS
Successful season hangs in balance as struggling Elis prep for Harvard
PAGE B3 WEEKEND
PAGE 5 NEWS
PAGE 7 CULTURE
PAGE 12 SPORTS
GRAPH HOMICIDES PER YEAR SINCE 1989 40
Superheroes at Yale. Senior
TAP NIGHT
‘Back to the future’ for NHPD
the 13th. Be careful not to break any mirrors, open any umbrellas indoors or stare at any black cats.
Students who donated their meal swipes as part of the Yale Hunger and Homelessness Action Project Fast will have to eat at one of New Haven’s restaurants or use a guest meal swipe. The Fast’s business partners include Alpha Delta Pizza, Box 63, Claire’s Corner Copia, FroyoWorld, Moe’s and Yorkside.
STUDENT GOV’T RELEVANCE OF YCC DEBATED
35
BY MADELINE MCMAHON STAFF REPORTER
Though the overall level of crime was well below where it was when he left — the number of shootings had dropped by a factor of three and the number of violent crimes registered under the Federal Bureau of Intelligence’s Uniform Crime Report (UCR) had halved since 1993 — residents were alarmed by the number of homicides last year, which had reached 30 by the time Esserman was sworn in. “My marching orders are firm: address the violence and connect to the community,” he said when his
Leaders of Greek organizations presented a proposal to administrators Thursday drafting preliminary details of the ban on Greek organizations’ freshman fall rush period. Since the ban was announced last month, an implementation committee composed of administrators, fraternity leaders and sorority leaders has met on a weekly basis to sketch out details of the new regulation. The proposal, which was approved by all fraternity and sorority members on the committee, marks the first time members of the implementation committee have produced a written document outlining suggested guidelines for the ban. The implementation process is still in its early stages, and administrators have yet to review the document. Fraternity and sorority leaders came together Wednesday to draft the proposal, which aimed to begin a concrete discussion of the rush ban’s details. They presented the document to Dean of Students Affairs Marichal Gentry, Associate Dean for Student Organizations and Physical Resources John Meeske, Assistant Dean of Yale College Rodney Cohen and Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs Pamela George. Gentry said the implementation committee is “moving toward” a finalized set of guidelines, which should be finalized by the end of the academic year. “We keep the conversation moving,” he said. Fraternity leaders from Alpha Epsilon Pi, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, and Alpha Delta Phi
SEE POLICING PAGE 4
SEE FRATERNITIES PAGE 6
25 20 15
?
10 5 0
Greek leaders present rush ban proposal
1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
BY JAMES LU STAFF REPORTER When Dean Esserman arrived as assistant chief of the New Haven Police Department in 1991, the city’s crime was at record-high levels.
UPCLOSE Organized gang activity and a rampant narcotics trade spurred shootings and other violent crimes — October 1991 registered six shootings a day, and that year still holds the city’s record of 36 murders. The
community demanded a substantial change in the Elm City’s policing strategy. Esserman, along with NHPD Chief Nick Pastore, answered the call. Under their leadership, the department adopted a new mentality that emphasized intelligence sharing and building relationships with the community — a novel strategy at the time known as “community policing.” Esserman answered the city’s call again last November, when he was sworn in as NHPD chief, 18 years after departing the Elm City to run the police departments in Stamford, Conn., and Providence, R.I.
Fund to honor Dufault in works
One year later, shop safety hard to measure
BY DANIEL SISGOREO AND TAPLEY STEPHENSON STAFF REPORTERS
BY DANIEL SISGOREO AND TAPLEY STEPHENSON STAFF REPORTERS Though Yale has tightened workshop safety regulations in the year since Michele Dufault ’11 died in a woodworking machine shop accident, students and administrators say improvement in safety also depends on changing the culture within the shops. The most drastic changes to Yale’s workshop safety regulations involve restrictions on which students can operate heavy machinery and when students are allowed to be in workshops, said Steven Girvin, the deputy provost for science and technology who led an investigation of Yale’s safety practices in response to the incident. While the new regulations have been in place for months, Girvin said the rarity of injuries in the shops makes it difficult to collect data on whether the policy changes have improved safety. SEE WORKSHOP PAGE 6
Since the death of Michele Dufault ’11 in a machine shop accident one year ago, a fund has been started in her honor and Yale has tightened workshop safety regulations.
A year after Michele Dufault ’11 died in a machine shop accident on campus, those who knew her are working to establish a foundation to promote women in the sciences. Dufault’s friends, family and professors have raised a third of their target $100,000 to create an endowment for their foundation, the Michele Dufault Summer Research Fellowship and Conference Fund. The endowment will fund an annual summer fellowship for young women at Yale in the physical sciences and support conferences like the Northeast Conference on Undergraduate Women in Physics, which is regularly hosted at Yale. The
foundation’s organizers said it will help young female scientists overcome hurdles in fields dominated by men — similar to the challenges Dufault faced as a physics and astronomy double major — and that their work has been a constant reminder of Dufault’s academic prowess and enthusiasm. “Once we stopped being totally shocked and unbelieving and all of those things, it seemed like a way of honoring Michele’s passions,” said Physics Department Chair Meg Urry, who worked with Dufault. “Besides being excited about the sciences, she was the number one cheerleader and supporter of all the women around her.” The foundation’s organizers SEE DUFAULT PAGE 6
For death penalty repeal, a losing streak broken BY DIANA LI STAFF REPORTER When members of the State House of Representatives passed a bill ending Connecticut’s death penalty Wednesday night — all but ensuring the success of abolition — they also ended history of legislative failure. While the current repeal bill is en route to the desk of Gov. Dannel Malloy, who has pledged to sign it, former Republican Gov. Jodi Rell vetoed a similar bill in 2009
and another passed the Judiciary Committee in 2011, but failed to reach the House floor after two lawmakers withdrew support at the last minute, citing the ongoing trials of the infamous 2007 triple homicide in Cheshire, Conn. A combination of the surge of momentum created by both lawmakers and activists, the amendment to the bill imposing additional restrictions on those who would have previously received the death penalty, and the time elapsed since the Cheshire trials con-
tributed to the success of the 2012 repeal effort.
When I came in 2009, the only voices you were hearing… wanted to preserve the death penalty. GARY HOLDER-WINFIELD State Rep. (D-New Haven) State Rep. Roland Lemar, a
Democrat who represent New Haven, called the bill’s passage a “Herculean effort.” The recent failures to repeal the death penalty followed four other failed attempts in the past two decades, he said. Years after the Cheshire incident, in which William Petit’s wife and two teenage daughters were murdered and he was badly injured, the trials have loomed large in the debates about repeal in Hartford since 2009. “The crimes that were committed on that brutal July
night were so far out of the range of normal understanding that now, more than three years later, we still find it difficult to accept that they happened in one of our communities,” Rell said in her veto statement in 2009. “I have long believed that there are certain crimes so heinous, so depraved, that society is best served by imposing the ultimate sanction on the criminal.” The cases — in which both SEE DEATH PENALTY PAGE 6
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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 13, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
OPINION
“Very few people love administration, yet those are precisely the sort of .COMMENT people you want in university administration.” ‘LDFFLY’ ON ‘THE CHALLENGE yaledailynews.com/opinion OF “SHARED GOVERNANCE”’
Outing anxiety A
friend asked me a question the other day: “Do you think other people are as anxious as we are?” I almost laughed and then actually thought about the question. Are other people as anxious I am, and as my friend is, and as so many of my other friends at Yale are? I have continued to meditate on this question for the past several weeks. Of course I will never live in someone else’s head. By thinking about who is anxious on our campus and why, I have been reminded that many of us — including me — live in something of a panicked frenzy, doing too much, worrying about what we are doing and not doing and feeling profoundly guilty that we can’t balance our extremely high expectations against our increasing exhaustion. So I out myself: I am an anxious person. I fall asleep reviewing everything I have to get done the next day. My room is covered in post-it note reminders, lists of class assignments, deadlines, weekend trips and upcoming events. My planner (thus far I have avoided GCAL, because it would make too clear the extent of the chaos) is a disaster, covered in more scribbled post-it notes. I don’t even want to mention my computer’s desktop screen, which has an uncountable, breeding number of sticky notes. These rectangles are my attempt to impose order on a life that I have allowed to become disordered. But all of my attempts at containment and control fail because I am still anxious: about my grades, my relationships at school and away from it, my extracurricular commitments – worried always about my future. Like many Yalies, I arrived at college a perfectionist who had been trained since middle school to prioritize markers of success — academic, professional and social — over living a balanced life. While I am somewhat unusual at Yale because I took a year off between high school and college to think about resetting priorities in my life, within months of being back at school I found myself in the same broken patterns: taking on too much, sleeping too little, trying to cram more than should be possible into 168 weekly hours. Friends and professors call me out for being hyper-busy, wondering why I feel a need to take so many classes and carry so many other commitments. Can’t you just do less, they ask? While many of the people who ask me this are as incapable of taking their advice
G U E ST C O LU M N I ST K AT E LU N D
New eyes for old haunts
as I am, the answer for me is both yes and no. I could do less, but I won’t — because I am anxious. ZOE We — as a MERCER- campus and as a generaGOLDEN tion of overMeditations achievers — are stuck. The problems with sex, alcohol and mental health on this campus are intrinsically tied to anxiety about performance and the insecurities produced by anxieties. It is, as ever, a chicken and egg situation: Everything feeds everything else, and many of us don’t — I certainly don’t — know how to break these cycles of personal, social, professional and academic anxiety and learn how to do less and feel better about it.
PEOPLE ARE ANXIOUS AND IT’S ABOUT TIME WE TALK ABOUT IT Perhaps the most troubling aspect of this problem is how uncomfortable people seem to be talking about their mental health and how challenging it can be to get help and support on campus. In the last few weeks alone I’ve spoken to several people who can’t get appointments at Mental Health or who have been so turned off by an initial appointment that they’ve refused to continue. No, these friends are not suicidal, but it’s hard for them to live their lives because of anxiety or depression. Their disarming honesty about what they are living with is a charge that I put on all of us: If you’re struggling, talk about it. If you’re struggling, get help. We need to find ways to make it okay to talk about mental health on campus and come clean about what we’re doing to ourselves and to each other. So here I am, anxious, and tired of not talking about it. ZOE MERCER-GOLDEN is a junior in Davenport College. Her column runs on alternate Fridays. Contact her at zoe.mercer-golden@yale.edu .
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lished for the cemetery’s centenary which claimed that Grove Street was “the resting-place of more persons of varied eminence than any other cemetery on this continent.” My research helped me place the gate in the context of the Napoleonic campaign of 1798 and the rediscovery of the Rosetta Stone in 1799 that set off an era of Egyptomania — fun! Mostly, I made a list of famous people buried there: 14 Yale presidents; Charles Goodyear, who invented vulcanized rubber; Leverett Candee, who invented the first practical use of vulcanized rubber. Soon, I had enough knowledge to pay my respects. When I did visit, it was spring. Every forsythia bush was blossoming and I read the small signs labeling the trees — Norway maple, horse chestnut, pin oak and magnolia. I noticed the orange cones placed on the woodchip roads showing that not even maintenance trucks could drive there. I had drawn a map of graves I planned to see. I found the tombstone of fossil hunter Othniel Charles Marsh and the monument to Eli Whitney. On the way to Benjamin Silliman’s grave, I came across the plot of Delia Bacon, made famous by her suggestion that Shakespeare’s plays were in fact written by Francis Bacon (no relation). Even so, I wondered if the works of Milton could be attributed to any ancient Lunds. Before long, other stones disrupted my itinerary. I made a list of the strangest names — Jarvis P. Bunche, Judah Frisbie, “Bertinette, beloved wife of F.E. Cleff,” an epigraph obviously meant to
be an exercise in enunciation. I began to list the stones on which one spouse had a boring name and the other had a crazy name, but only found one couple, Thaddeus and Nancy.
GROVE STREET CEMETERY IS FULL OF INTERESTING NAMES AND STORIES I never found Charles Goodyear’s grave, or Leverett Candee’s, though I did lose a hair band made of vulcanized rubber and I did see a stone marked “Henry Goodyear,” which made me look again because it was so awfully close. I put the map in my pocket. Soon, I was wandering the way I often did, looking for nothing in particular in the graves. In these last few weeks of college, I’ve devised ambitious plans aimed at undermining four year’s worth of habits. Usually, I ditch them. But when I return to familiar patterns, it’s with unfamiliar energy. The time is now! On my way out, I stopped briefly at a tombstone chiseled for a man unknown, cut down “in the midft of hif ufefullneff.” KATE LUND is a senior in Silliman College. Contact her at kate.lund@yale.edu .
GUE ST COLUMNIST GENG NGARMBOONANANT
Leave Zimmerman to the law M
arches in the streets of New Haven. Hoodies in the halls of Congress. A family torn apart and a nation swept in a sea of outrage. And finally, after six weeks, George Zimmerman is in custody — charged with second-degree murder and arrested without bail. The emotional rollercoaster about Zimmerman’s charge for killing 17-year-old Trayvon Martin is over. The curtain on this case has closed, and the only thing left to determine is the severity of Zimmerman’s punishment. For the nation, too, the curtain should close. The spotlight that shined so intensely on Martin’s case should slowly dim. It is time to leave this case, at least until Zimmerman’s punishment is determined, and tend to other pressing national concerns. I’m not saying we should abandon our national dialogue about race and racial profiling. Of course, racism still exists, and it does, from time to time, seep into our most trusted institutions, like the police force and the justice system. When we see this sort of injustice, we must step up to the mantle as citizens. We must stand up like we did in Trayvon’s case; after all, without all the public pressure, it’s likely that Zimmerman would still be free today. What I’m saying is that it’s time to stop crucifying Zimmerman. It’s time to move on. Zimmerman should not be demonized, nor should he become the scapegoat of this case. Yes, he killed a
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A
s a freshman, I often visited the cemetery. From Silliman College, it is just a half-block walk to a certain neo-Egyptian gate on Grove. At first, I thought my enthusiasm was abnormal. But the FAQ page of the cemetery’s website assured me both that graveyards were spots for “personal contemplation and reflection,” and that plots were still available. From the main drag, Myrtle Path, I could imagine I was in any number of burial grounds. I’d traveled for a year before coming to Yale, visiting a Jewish cemetery in Fez, an ivy-covered graveyard outside Zagreb. On vacations, my mother was always cancelling our museum plans so we could rest on some memorial bench in the sunlight. Back home, I’d learned to drive in a cemetery, the same place where my grandpa taught my mom to brake and signal and later was interred. For a while, I’ve been wandering through Grove Street without knowing anything about it. And so for this week’s Bucket List, I decided to study up so I could locate a few of its most famous graves. Not for the first time, I started my tourism by reading a niche newsletter. A back issue of the Grove Street Bulletin advertised a “Program in April to Address Humorous Side of Death.” I noted the witting or unwitting question, “Do you have a friend who might like to join us in this undertaking?” But I was looking for much older information. Next, I checked out a book pub-
black guy with a hoodie on, and that’s blatantly wrong. But this sort of crime happens all the time. Zimmerman is not evil or Hitler-like or remotely close to a ruthless serial killer. He is a human being who committed a crime, and he should pay for what he did — nothing more, nothing less.
GEORGE ZIMMERMAN’S FATE IS UP TO THE COURTS, NOT THE AMERICAN PUBLIC For the past few weeks, we have not protested against Zimmerman. The goal of various national movements was to point out the flaw in our criminal justice system, one that we claim is biased against minorities. The point was to pressure the police to arrest Zimmerman for Martin’s murder, not to turn Zimmerman into the embodiment of racial strife in this country. Protests across the nation have been very constructive, for the most part. People are finally talking about the realities of race relations in America, in our personal lives and our public institutions. But over the past few weeks, we’ve also seen a tendency to deviate from the
Yale’s approach to Singapore may be wrong The champions of democracy and freedom on Yale’s faculty strike me as being a shade disingenuous. You would have thought that the creation of Yale-NUS is a golden Trojan Horse opportunity for them to present their views and values to the benighted people of Singapore. If they can convert enough Singaporeans and they rise to overthrow the oppressive PAP government, the freedom-loving academics of Yale would have done their bit for democracy and freedom. Perhaps they are secretly worried that their ideas and ideals may not be universal and Singaporeans may reject them as irrelevant to their situation. LIM MONG SENG April 8 The writer is a Yale parent
main goal of pressuring the police to arrest Zimmerman for his alleged crime. Rather, some of the rhetoric and hate has turned to Zimmerman himself. We already assume he’s guilty. Even worse, we caricature him as a ruthless, evil man who deserves the death penalty, a person filled with no agenda except to kill blacks. We know that’s not the truth. We don’t even have all the evidence in our hands; for all we know, Zimmerman may have indeed acted in self-defense. We should not hastily rush to judgment on what kind of jail term Zimmerman deserves. So I’m simply asking for restraint. Now that Zimmerman is in custody, let the courts do their work. Let the jury, not the public, decide how long Zimmerman has to spend in jail. Let’s not demonize him even further, and let’s not immediately assume that a jail sentence of less than life is simply due to racial bias in the courts. We are a country governed by laws, not men. The public anger in the Trayvon Martin case brought Zimmerman to trial, and now the anger must subside. The true test of this nation will not be whether Zimmerman is locked up in jail for the rest of his life but rather whether he gets a fair trial based on facts and not passions. GENG NGARMBOONANANT is a freshman in Silliman College. Contact him at wishcha.ngarmboonanant@yale.edu .
In spite of progress, we must keep fighting to end malaria Public health issues usually make the news out of widespread panic. Foodborne illness outbreaks and the obesity epidemic seem to be the most frequently reported. Malaria, as a vicious disease, would seemingly fit right in. Malaria is preventable and curable, and international public health campaigns have capitalized on these characteristics. Malaria is still a serious public health threat, but the efforts towards eradication deserve praise and recognition. April 25 2012, World Malaria Day, is a chance to celebrate the success and the hope the campaign against malaria can offer. According to Roll Back Malaria, malaria deaths outside of Africa have been reduced by fifty percent over the last decade while African deaths have been cut by one-third in the same time period. In recent years, many countries have completely eliminated malaria. Roll Back Malaria now aims to
reduce global malaria deaths to near zero, reduce global malaria cases by 75 percent from 2000 levels, and eliminate malaria in ten new countries by the end of 2015. We should use World Malaria Day to celebrate all the lives that have been improved and saved from the preventative measures. We should celebrate with the hope for the future but with the acknowledgement that malaria is not eradicated yet. The malaria public health campaign is an excellent example of what a united effort can achieve. Let’s continue to support the effort against malaria, and let us stay committed to seeing its eradication through. LINDSEY HIEBERT April 12 The writer is a freshman in Pierson College
YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 13, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
PAGE 3
FRIDAY FORUM
CHARLES DICKENS “Charity begins at home, and justice begins next door..”
GUEST COLUMNIST SHIRA TELUSHKIN
Learning to give A
lot of us grew up in places where homeless people didn’t live on the street. If we knew anyone who was homeless, it was probably through volunteer work, where we met people on our own terms. Of course this isn’t true for all Yalies, but I’d venture to guess it is accurate for a majority. Many of us never had to seriously think about how we interact with homeless individuals until we moved to New Haven. Yet, despite the prevalence of these interactions for Yalies, the discourse on how to best respond remains muted. These often daily encounters make many people uncomfortable, but we choose to move on and forget. We don’t sit down and ponder what morality would dictate in these situations. There are all sorts of problems
that bother us and that we set out to fix: gendered bigotry, summer storage, Yale-NUS. No less ink and thought and creative energy should be poured into what is such a frequent ethical concern. I don’t want to live in a world where when somebody asks us for help our first thought is to dismiss the sincerity of that request. That is bad both for the person asking and the person who is being asked. The person asking you for money is a person. We can all talk about how the flower lady has a Blackberry, or the concern that these people are faking their plight or will use the money on drugs and alcohol. In the end of the day, however, we are facing a person who is asking for help. That should at least warrant an acknowledge-
ment, an “I’m sorry, God bless you,” or “Have a good day.” Such acknowledgement validates the humanity of both people in the situation. Our discomfort may make us want to keep walking, but our own humanity demands we don’t. I also don’t think considerations of how the money will be used matter all that much. There is a verse in the Bible that instructs “You shall not harden your heart or close your hand” (Deuteronomy 15:7) in your dealings with the needy. This is typically understood to mean that unless we teach our hearts to be open, we will never be able to open our hands. No matter how much our mind may understand the direness of someone’s circumstances, unless we have
trained ourselves to give, we will find it very difficult to part with our money. Yes, maybe some of the people you meet are looking to buy alcohol. But what are you using your money on? Probably alcohol. Besides, you don’t know. Maybe they’re going to buy food, or socks. People asking for money are often asking for nothing more than coins. These small sums can have the symbolic gesture of demonstrating you care, and building our own sensitivity to the suffering of other people. Judging other people favorably and with compassion are skills that need to be cultivated, and the benefit of exercising these emotions far outweighs the negativity of the chance that somebody will use your quarter on whiskey.
Money in general makes people uncomfortable. No group of friends has ever split the check at the end of a meal without some subtle unease. Yet I am always struck by how the significance of money changes in different contexts. If I am out eating with my friends and choosing between two items on a menu, a dollar difference won’t be the deciding factor in my choice. However, someone on the street asking me for a dollar will put me on guard. What if instead, when I was out, I paid attention to every dollar I could not spend, and then spent that money on charity? While I don’t advocate such careful watching, such thinking motivates me to always consider my needs against those I encounter, and usually motivates me to give.
As the recipients and seekers of grants and outside funding, Yale students tend to think of charity in the hundreds or millions of dollars. The idea that our contribution of 20 bucks towards some multi-billion-dollar organization would mean anything can seem pathetic, and discourage us from donating at all. Therefore, our age group typically gives very little in the way of charity. But giving is good for the soul. We must train our hands to give. At the very least, as ethical beings, we must never allow ourselves to ignore the human dignity of the individuals we interact with on any given day. SHIRA TELUSHKIN is a sophomore in Pierson College. Contact her at shira.telushkin@yale.edu .
S TA F F I L L U S T R AT O R K A R E N T I A N
The price is wrong
A
G U E S T C O L U M N I S T FA I S A L H U S A I N
G U E S T C O L U M N I S T M E R LY N D E N G
The frozen Arab Spring
Bold, soft and humble
bdulhadi al-Khawaja, a prominent Bahraini human rights activist jailed by the Bahraini regime, has been on a hunger strike for more than 60 days. Hundreds of people remain behind bars alongside al-Khawaja for participating in mass protests against despotism and discrimination in Bahrain since the outbreak of the Arab Spring. Amnesty International has demanded that al-Khawaja be released “immediately and unconditionally.” Dublin-based Front Line Defenders warned last week that al-Khawaja could die in prison as a result of his hunger strike. His wife, Khadija al-Mousawi, has written on social networking websites about the ordeal, witnessing the slow, quiet death of her husband. Her heartrending letters and the sufferings of her people seem to be falling on deaf ears, however. Key players around the world seem to be united in their support for al-Khawaja’s jailers. The Iraqi government has recently spent half a billion dollars to host Arab leaders for a sumptuous Arab League summit while millions of Iraqis live under the poverty line. Not a single word was uttered by any of the leaders during the summit about the suffering and injustices the people of Bahrain are subjected to. Worse, the Arab League has designated the Bahraini capital this year as the “Arab Capital of Culture” to burnish the image of the Saudi-backed regime. The Turkish government, supposedly a paragon of democracy in the Middle East and the Muslim world, has recently awarded the Bahraini Foreign Minister with an honorary citizenship, becoming the first foreigner in modern Turkish history to be awarded with this honor. Observers were aghast when the news came out: the pious supporters of democracy in Syria are honoring the Saudibacked dictatorship in Bahrain. After all the well-documented murder,
torture, imprisonment of protesters and destruction of houses of worship by the Bahraini regime, the U.S. Department of Defense is considering resuming arms sales to the country. The reason is simple; it considers the Bahraini regime “a major nonNATO ally that has been, and continues to be, an important force for political stability and economic progress in the Middle East,” according from a notification from the Pentagon to legislators. In other words, the Bahraini regime may be despotic, but it upholds what the Department of Defense perceives to be U.S. interests in the region. A more shameful role has been played by several U.S. weapons manufacturers and public relations and lobbying firms. Combined Systems, a Pennsylvania-based company, sold for the Bahraini regime tear gas that caused the death of 34 civilians, Physicians for Human Rights reported. Salon.com reported early this year that a top executive at Lockheed Martin lobbied for the Bahraini regime, a loyal customer that has done hundreds of millions of dollars of business with the arms supplier, to place a favorable op-ed in the Washington Times. According to Pro Publica and Salon.com, public relations firms such as Qorvis Communications, Impact Communications and TS Navigations have been lobbying on behalf of the Bahraini regime to burnish its already tarnished image. The people of Bahrain have been abandoned by the leaders of the Arab world, forsaken by the United States and forgotten by the world. We must name and shame those supporting their murderers, torturous and jailers and let the people of Bahrain know that we stand in solidarity with their moral quest for justice. FAISAL HUSAIN is a first-year graduate student studying history.
I
went to bed on April 13, 2011 at 2 a.m. after calling my roommate Michele Dufault ’11 to check up on her. I assumed she was out late because of her determination to complete her senior thesis and start enjoying senior year’s festivities. She didn’t pick up. Two hours later, I woke up to my cell phone ringing. A calm, restrained voice asked me to come to the Master’s Office. “Did something bad happen?” I asked. A pause. “Yes.” Michele had died, alone, in Sterling Chemistry Laboratory in a machine shop accident that night. The lives of those who knew and lived with her were put on hold. Our campus mourned. Her classmates finished the school year without the company of her warmth, intelligence and humanity. Every morning, our suitemates walked past her silent room. Her seat was empty at Commencement. I saved all 1,507 Gmail messages and Gchat conversations I had with Michele. I collected digital and physical memories from Michele’s friends and classmates, piecing together what I remembered of our lives together. If a fire had destroyed it all, what is the one lesson I would take with me? Dare boldly but softly. Michele did just this, in spite of the challenges she faced as a woman in the physical sciences. Her short career was filled with bold expeditions: She flew in Zero-G missions with NASA, inspected the cosmos in Hawaiian observatories and explored the ocean at the MIT-Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institute. In the three years that I lived fewer than 15 feet away from Michele, I was constantly reminded of her determination and work ethic. On any job, she was first to arrive and last to leave. Every day at 7 a.m. — even on weekends — I would be jolted awake by a reverberating, banshee-like sound — her alarm clock. She would burst awake after the mini-sonic boom, dashing off to a flurry of activities. For three years, I watched her dedication grow. Once, she asked me, “Do you think I can bring my sleeping bag to the lab?” I stared at her. “Well, there are showers there,” she said, unfazed. “And my experiments are going to take forever!” The glint in her eyes told me she was half joking, half serious. Michele’s curiosity reached from space to Earth’s deep oceans. But she never forgot her desire to help young women fulfill their own scientific ambitions. Though the nature of Michele’s work often brought her away from people, she always returned from her outposts to mentor and inspire. At Yale, Michele organized the Northeast Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics, volunteered with Girl Science Investigations and was a role model to other aspiring scientists. In spite of her focus on the expansive universe, Michele showed unparalleled humility and appreciated the small, often overlooked, details — the soft side of her daring. A professor found her kneeling on the sidewalk of Science Hill one day and greeted her. She jumped up, sheepishly
explaining that she was ferrying tiny caterpillars across the pavement to protect them from getting crushed underfoot. She shared her knowledge without a shred of arrogance, making non-physics people and young girls instantly comfortable. Still, Michele was self-conscious in assessing her own abilities. She dismissed all our praise and worked longer and better than any of us. Inadequacy is a common feeling among women, Meg Urry, Michele’s mentor and the first female chair of the Physics Department, told me. “Women blame themselves for bad grades, and conclude — incorrectly — that they were not well suited to science.” There are women like Michele everywhere, with the same unbridled sense of wonder, curiosity and love for the sciences. Yet these women bear chips on their shoulders and struggle to crack the “glass beaker” ceiling in fields still lacking in female role models. The absence of Michele’s leadership as a scientist and mentor leaves a void in our community. All her friends and I have are tokens of Michele’s humanity and lessons to impart to future generations. She’s inspired us to establish a fellowship supporting Yale women in the physical sciences. “I see every student, in a way, as a potential Michele,” Urry said. Michele’s friends and I wish to continue her legacy by honoring her achievements and forging a path for future Micheles. MERLYN DENG is 2011 graduate of Saybrook College.
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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 13, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
FROM THE FRONT
2
New Haven scored a 2 percent safety rating
According to the website Neighborhood Scout, New Haven scores a two out of 100 in their crime index. The ranking means that, according to the site, the city is safer than 2 percent of cities in the United States.
With new chief, police turn to old strategy POLICING FROM PAGE 1 appointment was announced Oct. 18. Less than 10 days after Esserman took office, a man was murdered a block from Union Station, bringing the homicide count to 31 — en route to a 20-year high of 34 murders. The uptick in homicides last year, along with a rise in shootings, prompted the department to return to a community policing strategy. Esserman has reorganized the department in line with his vision to put officers and citizens on “the same team,” but this is not the first time such a strategy has been employed in New Haven. Rather than charting a new course for the department, Esserman is instead reviving a formerly effective strategy that had fallen out of favor since the late 1990s. In fact, as Yale Police Department Assistant Chief Michael Patten observed, the NHPD has moved “back to the future,” though whether community policing is here to stay is far from clear.
A ‘GENTLER, KINDER’ STRATEGY
Facing a grisly crime problem in the summer leading up to the 1989 mayoral elections, candidate John Daniels called a meeting with his advisers, Douglas Rae, who then served as chair of Yale’s Political Science Department, and State Sen. Toni Harp, then a New Haven alderwoman. In Rae’s office at Yale, the three of them discussed how to position Daniels’ candidacy on policing so that “it didn’t seem racist or overcompensating and yet did address the issues,” Rae said. Their solution was to adopt a new approach that was being ushered in at police departments nationwide: community policing. Policing strategies in the late 1980s were “para-militaristic” and primarily deployed officers out in cars and SWAT teams, ready to respond to dispatch, sociology professor Philip Smith said. This policing philosophy — the antithesis of the engagement demanded by community policing — was espoused by then-NHPD Chief William Farrell, who decorated his office with military regalia and installed a bulletproof glass sheet at the entrance of the department’s Union Avenue headquarters. Farrell’s style of policing was “absolutely hated” by the community, said Barbara Fair, a longtime community activist. His hostile approach to law enforcement was epitomized by the “beat-down posse,” a unit of officers that assaulted groups of teenagers without cause in a bid to deter drug trafficking and gang violence, she said. Despite its apparent brutality, the old style of policing was “more appropriate in the time period,” said Louis Cavaliere, a former NHPD union president who served 43 years on the force. The gang and drug violence of the time called for harsher policing methods to deter criminal activity, he said, though these did not always win over the public. “Farrell was vehemently anticommunity policing — he had the quasi-military view that policing was basically about coordinated operations using automobiles to get officers to places in a hurry,” Rae said. After Daniels won the 1989 election and became the city’s first African-American mayor, he appointed Rae chief administrative officer, a position that overssees the police department, among others. The two of them
TIMELINE DEAN ESSERMAN 1983-1987 Assistant District Attorney, Brooklyn, N.Y. 1987-1991 General Counsel, New York City Transit Police. 1991-1993 Assistant Chief, New Haven Police Department. 1993-1998 Chief, Metropolitan Transportation Authority Police 1998-2002 Chief, Stamford Police Department. 2002-2011 Chief, Providence Police Department. 2011Chief, New Haven Police Department.
“put together a package” to persuade Farrell to resign, Rae said. They did not tell Farrell who would replace him — if they had, Rae said, Farrell “would not have resigned at any price.” With Farrell gone, Daniels appointed Nick Pastore as NHPD chief in February 1990. That move, Fair said, was a “gamechanger”: Pastore removed the bulletproof glass from the entrance of the NHPD’s headquarters, invited officers of all ranks to visit his office and eliminated the military paraphernalia that previously adorned the department. “Pastore would go unarmed into a tough neighborhood and sit down next to a tree and talk to a group of teenagers and ask them what’s going on in life, how can we officers show respect and earn your respect for us,” Rae said. Those moves were mostly symbolic, said Richard Epstein, chairman of the Board of Police Commissioners. Far more important, he said, was the “entirely new mentality, a gentler, kinder approach” that he instilled in the rank and file, with Esserman’s help as assistant chief. This new vision for the department relied upon a “completely different way of engaging citizens,” said Mayor John DeStefano Jr., who succeeded Daniels in 1993 and has held onto power since. By reaching out to the entire community, “including the criminal element,” Pastore sought to mend the “disconnect” between cops and the public, and encourage a communal effort to combat violent crime, DeStefano said. “What is important isn’t the number of police on the street, but the way they handle themselves,” Pastore said in a 2006 interview with the advocacy group Drug Policy Foundation. “We policed with human kindness, even when we dismantled drug gangs.” To complement his new vision for New Haven policing, Pastore made wide-ranging tactical changes within the NHPD. He set up 12 permanent police substations and created a system of policing districts based on the city’s neighborhoods, DeStefano said. As part of Pastore’s strategy, officers assigned to each district would not simply remain in their substations, but walk on beats. By being “out and about”, officers
E S S E R M A N ’ S I N I T I AT I V E S LEADERSHIP
Appointed four new assistant chiefs, all of them from New Haven, and reshuffled the management teams in the city’s policing districts. Met with almost all sergeants and lieutenants in the department to more effectively assign personnel. REACHING OUT
Deployed 20 officers to walking beats around the city’s 10 policing districts, and plans to expand that number to 40 and full staff car patrols citywide by the year’s end. ACCOUNTABILITY
Introduced CompStat, a meeting of department leadership every Tuesday to determine patterns of crime, brainstorm new tactics and integrate probation and parole agencies into crimefighting. Doubled the size of the Internal Affairs department. EXPANSION
Plans to swell department to budgeted number — 467 — this year and expand to 494 within the next three years, so as to move more personnel to patrol duties.
JACOB GEIGER/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
When Mayor John DeStefano Jr., left, announced that Dean Esserman would replace former NHPD Chief Frank Limon, he billed Esserman as the leader the department needed to revive community policing, a strategy that had fallen out of use after gaining prominence in the 1990s. could interact with residents and business owners and win their trust so that the community could share intelligence with police to improve crime clearance rates, Esserman said. Pastore also hoped to deter violence by building relationships with those who might commit crime. “Talk about the criminal mind,” he told the New York Times in 1991. “If we could rechannel that into positive behavior — that’s what I try to do all the time: modify people’s behavior.” As the police broke apart gangs and strengthened relationships with the community, crime dropped — the total number of violent crimes recorded in the FBI’s UCR dropped every year from 1991 through 2000, and the number of rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults all dropped at least 30 percent throughout the decade. People “felt a lot safer on the streets” as the community policing strategy matured through the 1990s, Fair said. “Nobody [in Connecticut] had done it before so there was certainly some uncertainty about what it meant to do community policing,” Epstein said. “But I think the statistics bear out its success.”
‘EVOLVING STRATEGIES’
Despite its initial success, community policing strategies waned at the turn of the millenium for both technical and ideological reasons. By 2000, the NHPD had dismantled virtually all the gangs in the city in tandem with federal and state law enforcement agencies, said Rob Smuts ’01, the city’s chief administrative officer. With the “changing reality on the ground,” he said, the NHPD chose to “evolve its strategy.” The change in the city’s policing dynamic through the early 2000s came partly from the top: Pastore resigned in 1997 after admitting he had fathered a child with a convicted prostitute, and was replaced by Melvin Wearing, who had served as assistant chief under Pastore. Esserman, Pastore’s protege, had left in 1993 to head the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s police department. “Community policing continued, perhaps not quite as effectively, under Mel Wearing,” Epstein said, adding that it was difficult to replicate Pastore and Esserman’s vision. While the tactical aspects of community policing — including walking beats and the police districts — were not completely phased out, the department lessened its focus on the communityoriented strategy in the decade following Pastore’s departure, NHPD spokesman David Hartman said. There was “no conscious shift” away from community policing in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Epstein said, though he admitted budgetary issues could have affected the department’s operations. As officers retired, they were replaced by fewer new recruits as a result of spending constraints, Hartman said. This resulted in an increasing number of officers who were moved to response and
enforcement duties rather than engaging with citizens in local neighborhoods, he added. The politics of community policing are “complicated,” Rae said, adding that there is a “constant struggle” between administration and police unions about overtime pay. Walking beats and other personnel deployment tactics used in community policing often increase overtime pay, he explained. “There’s a balancing act that needs to occur,” Hartman said. “It’s good to put more cops out in the community, but you can’t sacrifice the ability to respond to calls.” The apparent necessity of community policing strategies also faded as the incidence of violent crime fell, said Ward 29 Alderman Brian Wingate, chair of the Board of Aldermen’s public safety committee. Both Wingate and Ward 7 Alderman Doug Hausladen ’04 — another member of the committee — said this downward trend in crime could have been the result of the improved economic environment in the late 1990s. “I think the city of New Haven thought it was at a point when the gangs were gone, and crime was dropping,” Wingate said. “They went to another kind of policing model because there weren’t people on the corners anymore and they felt that you didn’t need people walking the beat.” But city administrators detailed a series of more technical reasons behind the gradual phase-out of community policing. Following the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, the federal government’s counter-terrorism efforts “changed the mission of our partner federal agencies in a meaningful way,” DeStefano said, leading to less emphasis on combating local crime. With the greater focus on terrorist activity, the federal government slashed police grants and reduced its infrastructure for aiding local law enforcement, Smuts said. Alongside cuts in federal support for police operations were problems unique to the NHPD that hampered the continued deployment of community policing strategies. A significant number of managers — “mid-level supervisors who were trained under Pastore and understood his vision” — exited the NHPD, DeStefano said. Many of these officers transferred to other police departments around the country, often assuming higher positions, he added. The NHPD was also hit with several highly publicized corruption scandals that disrupted operations and dampened public trust in the department. Together, DeStefano said, these factors “incrementally shifted” the department away from community policing. “These factors resulted in the changes in deployment strategy that removed officers from interaction, they resulted in a changed sense of mission,” DeStefano said. Fair, however, said the shift away from community policing began even under Pastore, as officers resisted the fundamental change in policing mentality he tried to foster. She said she doubted that all officers in the department “bought” community policing as a viable strategy.
Traditionally, there had been a “poor police culture” in departments around the country that emphasized quasi-military behavior, sociology professor Smith said, which runs counter to the “people skills” required for effective community policing. Many of the officers in the department Pastore took over carried over the training and attitudes of previous leadership, and did not have the temperament to walk beats, Rae said. “There’s a big ideological dimension to community policing,” Rae said. “A lot of people who put on the badge find reaching out too humbling, so you’ve got to recruit for the style of department you’re going to run.”
THE ‘CAROUSEL’ OF LEADERSHIP
Beyond ideological and technical factors, frequent turnover in the NHPD’s leadership between 2003 and 2010 led to the decline of community policing in the Elm City. In that period, the NHPD had four chiefs and more than a dozen assistant chiefs — a revolving door that prevented the department from adopting a coherent and sustained strategy. These changes began after Wearing retired in 2003 and his deputy, Francisco Ortiz, assumed leadership of the NHPD. “By the time we had gotten to Chief Ortiz, community policing did not seem as effective as before — we still believed in it as a concept and but it wasn’t really being adopted,” Epstein said. In January 2008, a little over three years after he took over as chief, Ortiz retired to direct security at Yale’s West Campus following a corruption scandal. That started what Ward 17 Alderman Alphonse Paolillo called a “carousel” of leadership at the NHPD: James Lewis, a former chief of the police department in Green Bay, Wisc., completed the 18 months left in Ortiz’s contract and his successor, Frank Limon, abruptly resigned after 20 months as chief. For Limon, who took office in April 2010, the major NHPD goal was to curb rising gun violence and address the rising homicide count, he told the News last March. While the Elm City saw 12 murders in 2009, that figure had doubled to 24 in 2010 and community leaders expressed concerns about the resurgence of violence in the city’s neighborhoods. With the rising number of shootings and a feeling of disconnect between police and the public, the community demanded a return to community policing. Limon responded to the city’s public safety concerns by reaching out, holding a series of community meetings throughout the year. In October, he announced the department would roll out expanded foot patrols and bike patrols. With these tactical changes, the city began its move back to a community-oriented policing strategy. Limon, however, would not ultimately be the one to implement the change. “Chief Limon represented a period of transition to try and get back to where we wanted to go,” DeStefano said. “But it was not a match meant to be.” Facing increased external pressure as the number of homicides
climbed and internal pressure from the NHPD union — which voted “no confidence” against him in a landslide vote last March — Limon abruptly announced his resignation on Oct. 17. At the same time, DeStefano said he was aware Esserman had resigned as chief of the Providence Police Department and Esserman was aware of the mayor’s concerns about the direction of the NHPD. “My job is to recruit the best people to the task,” DeStefano explained. “The decision to hire Esserman made itself.” DeStefano announced Esserman’s appointment Oct. 18 and the new chief was sworn in at City Hall on Nov. 18. When he was sworn in, he became the city’s fourth chief in four years. At his swearing-in ceremony, Esserman was hailed as a “living embodiment” of community policing by William Bratton, who headed the police departments in New York and Los Angeles and mentored Esserman while they worked together at the MTA police in New York. “Actions will speak louder than words, so let me tell you, the New Haven Police Department is returning fully to the neighborhoods of our city,” Esserman said.
A ‘NEW DIRECTION’ FOR THE NHPD
When Esserman took office, he promised to take the NHPD in a “new direction.” Unlike his recent predecessors, Esserman has adopted a “coherent crime strategy, a plan that’s holistic,” reflecting his policing philosophy, Smuts said. Though he has been chief for less than five months, he has already made wide-changing tactical changes to the department in line with his broader strategic goals. Esserman followed through with his commitment to deploy walking beats in the city’s 10 policing districts, assigning two officers to downtown beats by December and another 18 officers around the city by January. In March, Esserman unveiled a two-phase strategic plan that will see the department swell to 467 officers over the next year, and ultimately expand to 494 officers within three years. That growth will enable the department to increase its patrol capabilities. In particular, by assigning more officers to the neighborhoods — the NHPD will field 40 walking beats and a full complement of car beats under the new plan — Esserman hopes to strengthen community engagement and move the department from enforcement to proactive policing, Hartman added. The NHPD will also completely restaff its narcotics and undercover units, Hartman said, explaining that these positions are temporary assignments, so there are frequent changes to their composition. “I was pretty deliberate in my thinking [about reorganizing the department,] I took a few months to do it,” Esserman said in an April interview. “I’ve almost finished interviewing every sergeant and lieutenant in the department, and then I’ll take everyone on a retreat at the end of the month.” These strategic changes may SEE POLICING PAGE 6
YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 13, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
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NEWS
“We are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths, and to secret proceedings.” JOHN F. KENNEDY FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT
TODAY’S EVENTS
Tap Night sparks traditional antics
FRIDAY, APRIL 13 11:30 PM “Himalayan Inclusion: Language Policy and Mother Tongue Instruction in Nepal, Bhutan and Northern India.” Mark Turin of the Digital Himalaya Project, the World Oral Literature Project and the Yale Anthropology Department will speak. Part of the series “Current Work in Child Development & Social Policy.” William L. Harkness Hall (100 Wall St.), room 116. 4:30 PM “A Moving Story: Concert Dance Interpretations of Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet.’” Amymarie Bartholomew ’13 will give this talk and demonstration examining the ways that Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” has been presented. Part of Shakespeare at Yale. Davenport College (248 York St.), Davenport/Pierson Auditorium. 5:00 PM “Tridecaphobia in the Age of Reason.” Open house at Marsh Botanical Garden. Tour of the greenhouses and gardens, live music and light refreshments. Marsh Botanical Garden (277 Mansfield St.), greenhouse. 5:30 PM Sustainability Bike Tour. Experience the evolution of Yale’s sustainable campus, commune with cyclists of all abilities and learn basic bicycle safety tips. Write to oiss@yale. edu with “Bike Tour” in the subject line to register. Event will be postponed in case of heavy rain or thunderstorms. Part of Celebrate Sustainability. International Center for Yale Students & Scholars (421 Temple St.).
CORRECTIONS THURSDAY, APRIL 12
The article “Romney campaigns in Hartford“ incorrectly attributed a statement from Josh Rubin ’14, elections coordinator for the Yale College Democrats, to Zak Newman ’13, president of the Dems.
ITS addresses service concerns BY LIZ RODRIGUEZ-FLORIDO STAFF REPORTER Roughly a year after completing its first Universitywide survey to determine user satisfaction, Information and Technology Services has made changes to its structure to better serve members of the Yale community. Jane Livingston, director of governance strategy and policy for ITS, said results of the survey — which polled approximately 5,800 Yale students, faculty and staff members in April of last year — revealed that many members of the Yale community feel that ITS responds too slowly to requests for technological support. In response to the findings, ITS will have launched several initiatives aimed to quicken the responses to service requests by this summer, Livingston said, including a new website, a revamped system for processing requests and a new set of practices that guides ITS staff on how to approach assessing customer service needs. Respondents also expressed dissatisfaction with the Yale Horde email system, which ITS is currently transitioning away from with the launch of EliApps — a program that offers students access to their Yale emails with Google services along with access to Google Calendar, Docs and Sites. “A few services did not meet the expectations of the Yale community,” Livingston said. “Across all constituents, email and calendaring and timely response to requests for support were the biggest concerns.” Still, she said respondents were generally positive in their assessment of ITS, and most undergraduates said they were pleased with the repair services offered by student techs. Though ITS has administered student satisfaction surveys in the past — the most recent one in 2009 found that 83 percent of students were pleased or very pleased with support services — Livingston said the survey administered last year was the first to poll the entire Yale community. The survey featured 18 standard questions related to information technology satisfaction and expectations, as well as seven questions about issues specific to Yale. Livingston said the new
website will be more userfriendly and better organize the resources available. She said the new website will be easier to navigate, with few pages and “gateways” aimed at particular groups such as students, incoming freshmen, faculty and staff. The new practices that will be implemented in the department — a set of guidelines known as the Information Technology Infrastructure Library — are intended to help ITS staff known how to approach tasks. Livingston said these practices are an established approach “to supporting and managing technology.”
A few services did not meet the expectations of the Yale community. JANE LIVINGSTON Director, Governance strategy and policy for Yale ITS Livingston said ITS has also launched a new tool that strengthens the “performance and general experience” of Yale Secure. The new tool “automatically configures your wireless set-up” to the network, she said, so that students who do not know how to connect their computer to YaleSecure do not need to seek outside help. The feature is currently available on the ITS website, Livingston said, adding that ITS is planning a “promotional campaign” for the service. Three students interviewed who have approached ITS for help said they welcomed ITS’s efforts to streamline its services, and two said they had trouble communicating with student techs throughout the repair process. Riley Hughes ’15 said she had persistent issues with her computer this year and needed to drop it off frequently with student techs, but she said she wished the student techs had communicated with her more often about their progress. Last year’s survey was designed by TechQual+, an organization that evaluates expectations for information and technology departments on college campuses. Contact LIZ RODRIGUEZFLORIDO at liz.rodriguez-florido@yale.edu .
ALEKSANDRA GJIORJIEVSKA/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
Students participating in Tap Night revelries Thursday donned strange costumes as they performed initiation activities for senior socities. BY ALEKSANDRA GJORGIEVSKA AND CAROLINE TAN STAFF REPORTERS Juniors in masks and makeshift diapers accosted passersby Thursday night as they fulfilled initiation requirements for Yale’s senior societies. Tap Night, one of the University’s oldest traditions, marks the induction of juniors into senior societies. It follows a week of pre-tap activities and typically involves costumed performances, superhero references and public displays of enthusiasm. This year’s event was no exception, despite increased security presence and a cautionary Monday email from Dean of Student Affairs Marichal Gentry reminding students to abide by undergraduate regulations. Gentry emphasized in his email that blindfolding is prohibited and that incidents of hazing, underage drinking and sexual misconduct would not be tolerated.
“All of us want the tap process to be safe,” he wrote. Still, one female student was spotted walking blindfolded down High Street led by two others. Yale Security officers on College Street said the department increased the number of patrols on Old Campus and around the Yale Bowl in preparation for Tap Night. But their increased presence did not prevent aspiring society members from engaging in traditional tap activities. One male student dressed as a fairy and stationed outside Beinecke Plaza spoke with a security officer around 8:30 p.m. as he waved his wand and encouraged passerby to “make a wish.” Despite the cool temperature, the student seemed comfortable in only his underwear as he wrapped a pink boa around his neck for additional warmth. Meanwhile, another male student dressed in a cowboy hat and boots stood at the corner of Wall and College Streets sing-
ing “If I Die Young” by The Band Perry. When one confused passerby asked what he was doing, the cowboy explained that it was “for a secret society.” He then continued singing country music and encouraged onlookers who were waiting for the Yale shuttle to join him. No one responded. A male student wearing only a makeshift diaper asked students passing on Elm Street if they could help find his mother. His mother’s whereabouts were still unknown as of press time. Some tap activities began hours before the male fairies and singing cowboys made their appearances. One female junior interrupted students in Bass Cafe by making loud, sexually explicit noises around 6 p.m. Another group of students dressed in Batman costumes hovered at the intersection of Elm and York Streets, asking passersby whether they needed “help” crossing. In the Branford court-
yard, a group of male students in nun outfits stood in a circle and hummed in unison during the early evening. Others chose to sing popular songs, as three female students wearing Guy Fawkes masks belted Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe” to a one-man audience on Elm Street, who rewarded the performance with applause. Throughout the flurry of activity, senior society members maintained a quieter presence. One pair of students donned long, red gowns and walked silently down York Street, while others sipped Coca-Cola bottles on Old Campus through holes in their white masks. All costumed figures declined to comment for this article. Tap initiations first began on May 23, 1879, with “Tap Day.” Contact ALEKSANDRA GJORGIEVSKA at aleksandra.gjorgievska@yale.edu and CAROLINE TAN at caroline.tan@yale.edu .
Engineering library resources to stay dispersed BY CLINTON WANG AND SHARON YIN STAFF REPORTERS Engineering library resources from the Becton Center will remain distributed among Yale’s libraries in the 2012-’13 academic year, administrators announced Thursday. Library and School of Engineering and Applied Science administrators held a public meeting in Dunham Thursday to discuss arrangements for the library’s collections, which moved to Bass Library, Sterling Memorial Library, Dunham Laboratory and the Library Shelving Facility in Hamden last semester to allow construction on the Center for Engineering Innovation and Design in Becton. Deputy Dean of SEAS Vincent Wilczynski said the SEAS collections will remain in their new locations for the “foreseeable future,” and administrators will re-evaluate the distribution based on space availability and feedback from the engineering community. The collections would likely relocate to either Sterling or the Center for Science and Social Science Information, University Librarian Susan Gibbons said in a Tuesday email, though no decision has been reached and no timeline set. The interim library in Dunham is housing reference materials and recent journals. “Before the [Yale University Library considers] when to move the books we first have to talk with the SEAS community to see whether Sterling or CSSSI is the best location,” Gibbons said. The number of library users has increased as more students are “discovering the new space,” Gibbon said, and no library services have been suspended despite the move. She added that a portion of the new library loca-
CHRISTOPHER PEAK/SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER
To allow for the Center for Engineering Innovation and Design being built in the Becton Center, above, engineering library resources once housed at Becton will continue to be distributed throughout libraries elsewhere on campus. tion in Dunham is open to students 24/7, calling the hours a “main difference” from when the collections were housed in Becton. “The School of Engineering & Applied Science has been generous in making the Mann Student Center available to us and we have been working closely with them to insure that it can be used as needed for events while also serving as a library and study space,” she said. But not all members of the SEAS community have expressed support for the plan. Mechanical engineering professor Alessandro Gomez said the decentralization of the engineering library may make it more difficult to browse engineering
materials. Four engineering majors interviewed had differing opinions on the redistribution of the engineering library. Nathaniel Knapp ’14, a chemical engineering major, said he typically uses the computer cluster in Dunham rather than the library itself. He said he is unlikely to trek from his dorm in Davenport College to the new location, which is further from Yale’s main campus, but understood why the collections had relocated to Dunham. “It’s a fine place to put for the moment because engineering students are already in the area because classes are nearby,” he said. “It’s a good central location for engineering students.”
Electrical engineering major Peter Jasinski ’12 said he has not minded the relocation of physical library resources, adding that he thinks engineering students tend to use the library primarily as a study space. But Tim Westcott ’14 said the move was “probably necessary” because the library in Becton was outdated and had a “cold, prisonlike feel.” The Thursday meeting was attended by eight SEAS professors, two computer science professors and one undergraduate, Wilczynski said. Contact CLINTON WANG at clinton.wang@yale.edu and SHARON YIN at sharon.yin@yale.edu .
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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 13, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
FROM THE FRONT
“You can take the Brothers out of the Fraternity, but you can’t take the Brotherhood out of the Brothers.” ANONYMOUS
Repeal effort breaks through series of obstacles DEATH PENALTY FROM PAGE 1 perpetrators, Steven Hayes and Joshua Komisarjevsky, were sentenced to death — figured prominently in the 2011 Connecticut Senate debates. Petit’s testimony against repeal triggered the reversal of two key votes, dooming the bill for the rest of the legislative session. As the Cheshire trials faded from local and national headlines, lawmakers became more receptive to the arguments made by anti-death penalty advocates, said State Senate Majority Leader Martin Looney, also a New Haven Democrat and a leader of the 2012 repeal effort. “This year, the [Cheshire murder] trials weren’t taking place concurrently with discussion about legislation,” Lemar said. “[Petit] did not come himself to testify, and senators did not have the consistent reminders of the tragedies in the back of their minds, and that allowed some of them to view it more as a matter of public policy than one of personal vengeance and retribution.” Looney also cited a “gradual building of momentum” around new information about the death
penalty’s administration as a reason for the current bill’s success. In particular, he emphasized the inconsistency in the implementation of the death penalty, with records showing that some individuals on death row have committed crimes that are nearly identical to those of others who were not sentenced to capital punishment. State Rep. Gary Holder-Winfield, a sponsor of the bill and a New Haven Democrat, also attributed the bill’s increased support in part to the work of outside groups, including the Yale College Democrats. “When I came in 2009, the only voices you were hearing were the voices of people who wanted to maintain the death penalty,” said, Holder-Winfield, who was a leader of last year’s repeal effort. “The work that Yale students, the NAACP, and others have done has added to the voices of those who want the death penalty abolished.” Not all who hoped for the death penalty’s repeal were completely satisfied with the final version of the bill, which replaces the death penalty with life in solitary confinement without the possibility of parole.
Both Holder-Winfield and Dems President Zak Newman ’13 said they were unhappy with this enhanced punishment, which entails additional limitations such as restrictions on visiting hours, but acknowledged that it was necessary in order to ultimately pass the bill. They also said they were dissatisfied with the fact that the bill would not prevent the 11 people on the state’s death row from receiving capital punishment — a feature of the bill that its critics fiercely disputed, arguing that repeal would supply legal ammunition for the appeal of capital sentences of death row inmates. “Of course it was a compromise. That’s what you do in legislatures — you compromise to get things done,” Holder-Winfield said. “It wouldn’t have passed the Senate without this extra provision.” Once Malloy signs the bill, Connecticut will be the 17th state, in addition to the District of Columbia, to repeal the death penalty. Nick Defiesta contributed reporting. Contact DIANA LI at diana.li@yale.edu .
JESSICA HILL/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Gov. Dannel Malloy has pledged to sign the death penalty repeal bill now en route to his desk.
Workshop safety difficult to quantify WORKSHOPS FROM PAGE 1 “Significant shop accidents fortunately are extremely rare events and so you can’t tell over any given short period of time, like one year,” Girvin said. “If very significant accidents only happen once every 25 years, you’re trying to reduce it from once every 25 years to once every 200 years.” According to Connecticut Office of Chief Medical Examiner investigator Kathy Wilson, Dufault died of asphyxiation after her hair became caught in a lathe — a large machine that uses a rotating mechanism to shape wood — in the Sterling Chemistry Laboratory’s woodworking shop. Dufault’s death occurred late at night when she was working alone, so administrators ended any 24-hour availabil-
ity of shops, Girvin said. Since then, undergraduates must be supervised or use a buddy system while operating machinery, while graduate students are only required to use the buddy system, depending on the safety risks associated with each piece of equipment. The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration also investigated Yale’s safety practices and released a report in August that faulted Yale for lacking adequate safety precautions in shops. The report made seven suggestions for how to improve safety, such as developing an equipment training program and displaying operating rules in all shops. Girvin said all the suggestions were implemented, though Yale was not required to comply with OSHA’s suggestions since its jurisdiction does not apply to student safety.
“We considered OSHA’s comments early on as part of the broad review and made sure there was nothing in them that we hadn’t considered or covered ourselves,” he said. “We have gone above them.” Administrators also decided to place electronic access locks on student shops, and in some cases, to introduce video monitoring to ensure students would not come in after hours, Girvin said. Despite measures the University has taken, both Physics Department Chair Meg Urry and Girvin said the efficacy of the new rules will also depend on creating a culture of safety in Yale’s shops. “People really have to take responsibility if they see their friend working at a machine with their hair down, or if they see somebody carrying a danger-
ous substance without sufficient care,” Urry said. “They should speak up. They’re doing a service for everybody.” Dan Ewert ’12, a history major who uses the woodworking shop at the School of Architecture to make theater sets, said he thinks students are aware of the need for precaution when operating heavy machinery. “The regulations as they’re codified are very important, but there’s also a sense that people in the shop have to take things seriously,” Ewert said. Dufault was an astronomy and physics major, and had planned to write her senior thesis on dark matter. Contact DANIEL SISGOREO at daniel.sisgoreo@yale.edu and TAPLEY STEPHENSON at preston.stephenson@yale.edu .
Greeks present proposal to admins FRATERNITIES FROM PAGE 1 declined to comment because administrators asked members of the implementation committee not to speak with the press. The fraternity and sorority leaders’ proposal attempts to define a “recruitment event” as one that occurs during a rush period with the express purpose of selecting new members, and as exclusive to students interested in and eligible for the Greek organization. The proposal states that events open to students other than those interested in joining the
group or those targeted for solicitation should not be defined as a recruitment event, nor should “an event that is co-sponsored by a non-Greek organization or hosted by more than one Greek organization.” Events with the primary purpose of religious observation or philanthropy should also be excluded from the recruitment definition, the proposal says. The definitions in the proposal contrasted with a policy floated by administrators at a March 29 meeting of the implementation committee, which would have banned freshmen from attending
any events held by Greek organizations during the fall. Princeton University implemented a similar policy in March after banning all freshmen from rushing Greek organizations last August. After the suggestion met opposition from Yale’s fraternity and sorority leaders, administrators said the policy was only a tentative idea, and that discussion was ongoing. With regard to recruitment activities, the students’ proposal states that members of a Greek organization may not “exert pressure” on freshmen to join their group during the spring, when
rush will be allowed. The proposal also says freshmen may not request membership during the fall semester, and Greek organizations cannot offer an informal or formal solicitation of membership to freshmen during this period. The document does not define what constitutes a “Greek organization,” noting that the definition will be “clarified” after additional discussion with administrators. The implementation committee plans to meet again next week. Contact MADELINE MCMAHON at madeline.mcmahon@yale.edu .
Fund to boost female scientists DUFAULT FROM PAGE 1 said they aim to complete fundraising by the end of 2012, and that the first summer fellowship will be awarded in summer 2013. In addition to endowing a summer research fellowship, the fund will also support conferences that bring together undergraduate women in the sciences. Urry said Dufault was active in organizing the NCUWP at Yale, adding that she thinks the University has a higher percentage of female physics majors than most other universities — 30 to 40 percent, compared with a national average of 20 percent — because of its work with the conference and other similar efforts. Alice Song ’11 said the foundation will help sustain a “network of support” that Dufault occasionally struggled to find for her own studies, which she said will allow young women to approach science more confidently. Though Dufault found a mentor in Urry, Dufault’s friends said she was frequently unsure of her capabilities. “I think she never realized just how intelligent and awesome she was,” Song said. “She was always kind of filled with doubt about her abilities, and it was something that we never really understood because we could see how bright she was.” After Dufault’s death, Urry said she learned Dufault had once hesitated to approach her for a letter of recommendation — even after working in Urry’s lab for a summer. Through-
out her interactions with other students, Urry said she is constantly reminded of Dufault’s lack of confidence, adding that she now strives to be more “blatant” and “direct” in her support of her students.
At the end of the day, what we take from Michele is a sense of excitement in the world and a sense of empowerment. Building something in the spirit of someone is a very exciting and important endeavor. SARAH MICH ’12 Sarah Mich ’12, who is involved in organizing the foundation, said Dufault has left a legacy of “determination, intelligence and spirit.” “At the end of the day, what we take from Michele is a sense of excitement in the world and a sense of empowerment,” Mich said. “Building something in the spirit of someone is a very exciting and important endeavor but, of course, you’d always love to have them there building it themselves.” Contact DANIEL SISGOREO at daniel.sisgoreo@yale.edu and TAPLEY STEPHENSON at preston.stephenson@yale.edu .
Under Esserman, NHPD looks to community policing POLICING FROM PAGE 4 be paying off, said Bishop Theodore Brooks, who served on the city’s Board of Police Commissioners until February. By reaching out proactively to the community, officers are helping to “change the culture on the street,” he said. “It’s not just the police, who are treating the people right and seeing them respond accordingly, but also it has to do with the community itself, with people reaching out to each other and asking them to stop the violence and the senseless killings,” said Brooks.
A SUSTAINED STRATEGY?
For Esserman, deploying walking beats is simply one part of a broader community policing strategy that involves developing relationships between police and all members of the community to both prevent and solve crimes.
That strategy is a longer-term one that Esserman said he hopes to be “sustainable,” although it is only in its “first phase.” “I have a lot of confidence in what Chief Esserman is doing. He’s committed to being here for a while, he’s the right fit and he’s committed to setting up a longterm plan for combating crime and fostering leadership ability,” Smuts said. Some short-term statistics are starting to show the fruit of the NHPD’s labors: so far this year, violent crime is down around 20 percent, including drops in the number of aggravated assaults and robberies. “There were 34 murders and 133 shootings last year — this year it’s two [homicides],” Esserman said. “My first focus is saving lives. My second focus is to reconnect the department to this community — to lose its arrogance, to
lose its ignorance.” The community has, for the most part, responded positively to the changes in the NHPD and the positive crime statistics this year, though none of the community leaders interviewed — ranging from Brooks to members of a local anti-violence organization — said they were confident in the connection between Esserman’s leadership and the reduced crime the city has seen so far this year. Though crime is down, Esserman has only been in office for five months and his strategies in place for less than that, so “no one is declaring victory,” DeStefano said. But some in the city, however, are not completely satisfied by Esserman’s attempts to revive community policing. Fair said she does not think Esserman is on the right track. “I think he thinks putting officers on the streets is community
policing, but it takes a whole lot more,” she said. “Officers need to be interacting with people in a whole lot better manner.” Her view was echoed by Cavaliere, who resigned as NHPD union president last year and continues to serve the department as a consultant. Cavaliere said the rank and file were “very upset” about the new chief, whom he accused of “leading with threats, intimidation and bullying people.” As a result, the morale of rank-and-file officers is “very low,” he said. In a Tuesday interview, Cavaliere said he believed that the union would soon call a no-confidence vote against Esserman. But a vote of no confidence should not be considered “alarming” for a new chief, Rae said, adding that the NHPD union has had a history of pushing back against new leadership. While current NHPD union
president Arpad Tolnay did not return multiple requests for comment this past week, he told the New Haven Independent he was adopting a “wait-and-see” approach to all the changes Esserman has implemented. And in a March interview with the News, prior to the announcement of the department’s new strategic plan, Tolnay expressed confidence in the general tenor of Esserman’s leadership. Still, city administrators said they are confident any concerns the rank-and-file may have about the direction of the department will fade as the chief’s vision becomes more clear. “If in the long run we consistently articulate the vision, create accountability, then the rank and file and the chief will get along just fine,” DeStefano said. Indeed, Esserman said he is working to stabilize the depart-
ment, so as to create a environment for long term community policing success. To that end, he chose four New Haven locals as his assistant chiefs, as part of his “responsibility to prepare the next generation of leadership.” Looking ahead, DeStefano and Epstein both said they do not have a “crystal ball” and could not predict whether Esserman’s vision for community policing will persist beyond his tenure. But if Esserman has his way, the bonds between the public and the police will continue to strengthen and the city’s reputation for violent crime will be a thing of the past. “We’ve seen the grand strategy,” Hausladen said. “Only time will tell whether it’s a sustained strategy or a band-aid.” Contact JAMES LU at james.q.lu@yale.edu .
YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 13, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
PAGE 7
NEWS
“If music be the food of love, play on.”
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE PLAYWRIGHT
New Music New Haven series concludes season BY EUGENE JUNG CONTRIBUTING REPORTER On Thursday evening, the School of Music featured worldrenowned Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho’s “Serenatas and Terrestre” in Sprague Hall. Wrapping up this year’s New Music New Haven concert series, which showcases original works by students and visiting composers, the performance included works written by five students in the school’s composition program in addition to Saariaho’s piece. “She is very well known in the new music world,” said Justin Tierney MUS ’12, who composed and performed “Escritura del Dios.” “Her music is incredibly colorful and evocative.” Music professor Christopher Theofanidis, the artistic director of New Music New Haven, explained that he was able to invite Saariaho to New Haven because she had temporarily left her home in Paris for a yearlong residency at Carnegie Hall. In addition to Thursday night’s performance, Saariaho met with graduate students and attended professor Katheryn Alexander’s undergraduate composition seminar. Theofanidis said that bringing in award-winning composers like Saariaho means a lot to the students studying music at Yale, as it allows them to personally interact with their favorite composers and become exposed to different aesthetics of music. “Students can have a direct exposure to different ways of thinking, just like Saariaho,” he added. Thursday’s concert is the seventh and final New Music New Haven concert of the year, following a guest performance by Steve Reich, a pioneer in minimalist music, on March 29. Daniel Schlosberg MUS ’13, whose composition “Once” was featured in Thursday’s concert, said that he was excited to have
EUGENE JUNG/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho, center at right, looks on as her “Serenatas and Terrestre” is performed in the finale of the New Music New Haven concert series at Sprague Hall Thursday night. his work aired in the forum. “To be honest, I’ve been looking forward to this concert since the beginning of the year,” he said. “I’m thrilled to have my music played alongside Saariaho’s. Written for violin and viola, “Once” treats the two instru-
ments as different characters, Schlosberg said, adding that the music is driven by the narrative of their evolving relationship. The music takes a dramatic form, with “ups, downs, echoes [and] reflections,” he said. Tierney also imagined a storyline to his work, “Escritura del
Dios,” explaining that the piece was inspired by a story by Jorge Luis Borges about an imprisoned Aztec mystic struggling to divine the word of God. Stephen Feigenbaum ’12 MUS ’13 said he aimed to explore a reversal of traditional instrumental roles in his Sonata for
double bass and piano. “My composition is a suite for bass and piano,” Feigenbaum said. “Bass is usually just there to play the bass line, so I wanted to see what would happen if the bass was playing the melody, and sharing an equal role in the music with the piano.”
Saariaho has claimed major awards for composition such as the Grawemeyer Award, the Wihouri Prize, the Nemmers Prize and, in 2011, the Sonning Prize. Contact EUGENE JUNG at eugene.jung@yale.edu .
Student curators highlight conservation BY URVI NOPANY STAFF REPORTER In the sixth year of “Art in Focus,” a student-curated exhibit series at the Yale Center for British Art that opens one show annually, student curators brought art conservation to the forefront for the first time. Organized by the Education Department of the British Art Center, the program joins students with curators, both from the center and from outside organizations, in order to devise a small exhibition. While students have looked at historical themes in British art in past years, this year’s exhibit — titled “Gazes Returned: The Technical Examination of Early English Panel Painting” — focuses on the technical aspects of examining paintings, museum educator Jessica Dilworth said. The exhibit features four wood panel portraits from the Tudor era, student curator and head student guide Ilana Harris-Babou ’13 said, adding that the works are among the oldest paintings owned by the gallery. The students used the techniques of dendrochronolgy, X-ray spectroscopy and close analysis with microscopes to examine the works and understand the various alterations the paintings underwent since their creation, Babou added. The four student curators worked with the conservation department to choose the theme of the exhibit, as well as the paintings that would be put on display, assistant paintings conservator Jessica David said. She added that the students each chose a different approach to translating conservation techniques into a display, such as examining the pieces’ historical context, structural support, complexity of the paint layers or use of technological
equipment. In addition to benefiting students interested in learning about museum curation, David said the conservators also saw the paintings in a fresh light as they explained conservation techniques and practices to the students. One of the students asked a simple question about the x-rays taken of a panel painting, she said, which led to the discovery of a gold leaf border around the work that had been painted over.
This exciting discovery only happened because we had fresh eyes looking at the painting. JESSICA DAVID Assistant paintings conservator “This exciting discovery only happened because we had fresh eyes looking at the painting,” David said. “It potentially changes everything we know about the portrait as it associates it with a group of privately owned children’s portraits in England that were not attributed to this artist.” The British Art Center’s conservation department is currently studying the museum’s holdings of Tudor and Jacobean portrait paintings for a research collaboration with the National Portrait Gallery in London, David said, noting that the accumulation of data about the four pieces featured in the student exhibition will be incorporated into the project. The exhibit will run through July 29. Contact URVI NOPANY at urvi.nopany@yale.edu .
SARAH ECKINGER/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
The Yale Center for British Art is hosting a student-curated exhibit series titled “Art in Focus,” which focuses on art conservation.
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Prosecutors: Zimmerman ignored warning to back off BY TAMARA LUSH AND GREG BLUESTEIN ASSOCIATED PRESS SANFORD, Fla. — After weeks in hiding, George Zimmerman made his first courtroom appearance Thursday in the shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, and prosecutors outlined their murder case in court papers, saying the neighborhood watch volunteer followed and confronted the black teenager after a police dispatcher told him to back off. The brief outline, contained in an affidavit filed in support of the second-degree murder charges, appeared to contradict Zimmerman’s claim that Martin attacked him after he had turned away and
was returning to his vehicle. In the affidavit, prosecutors also said that Martin’s mother identified cries for help heard in the background of a 911 call as her son’s. There had been some question as to whether Martin or Zimmerman was the one crying out. The account of the shooting was released as Zimmerman, 28, appeared at a four-minute hearing in a jailhouse courtroom, setting in motion what could be a long, drawn-out process, or an abrupt and disappointingly short one for the Martin family because of the strong legal protections contained in Florida’s “stand your ground” law on self-defense. During the hearing, Zimmer-
man stood up straight, held his head high and wore a gray jail jumpsuit. He spoke only to answer “Yes, sir” twice after he was asked basic questions from the judge, who was not in the courtroom but on closed-circuit TV. The defendant’s hair was shaved down to stubble and he had a thin goatee. His hands were shackled in front of him. He did not enter a plea; that will happen at his arraignment, which was set for May 29. To prove second-degree murder, prosecutors must show that Zimmerman committed an “imminently dangerous” act that showed a “depraved” lack of regard for human life. The charge
carries a mandatory sentence of 25 years in prison and a maximum of life. The special prosecutor in the case, Angela Corey, has refused to explain exactly how she arrived at the charge. But in the affidavit, prosecutors said Zimmerman spotted Martin while patrolling his gated community, got out of his vehicle and followed the young man. Prosecutors interviewed a friend of Martin’s who was talking to him over the phone moments before the shooting. His parents’ lawyer has said that Martin was talking to his girlfriend back in Miami. “During this time, Martin was
Obama stands up for Romney’s wife BY LAURIE KELLMAN ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON — The White House — and President Barack Obama himself — rushed into a damage control campaign Thursday to blunt the impact of a Democratic consultant’s suggestion that Ann Romney isn’t qualified to discuss the economy because she “hasn’t worked a day in her life.” “There’s no tougher job than being a mom,” Obama declared, standing up for Republican rival Mitt Romney’s wife with Democrats suddenly on the defensive over women’s issues for the first time this election year. Obama, in an interview with Cedar Rapids, Iowa, TV station KCRG, said, “When I think about what Michelle’s had to do, when I think about my own mom, a single mother raising me and my sister, that’s work. So, anybody who would argue otherwise probably needs to rethink their statement.” The president’s remarks were his answer to consultant Hilary Rosen’s comments and the Twitter war they
ignited. The mere fact that he weighed in on the uproar left no doubt that Democrats want to leave nothing to chance in their effort to keep female voters in the party fold. Women, who are the majority of voters in presidential election years, lean heavily Democratic, and polls show Obama holds a commanding lead among this group so far this year in battleground states. Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, must win about 40 percent of female voters to have a chance at beating Obama, and he’s targeting married women and mothers who tend to be more conservative. Among this group, Ann Romney is popular and has been the candidate’s chief surrogate on how the struggling economy has affected women and families. So his campaign pounced when Rosen said on CNN Wednesday that Ann Romney was no expert on the economy. “His wife has actually never worked a day in her life,” Rosen said. “She’s never really dealt with the kinds of economic issues that a majority of
women in this country are facing.” Rosen apologized late Thursday, after first lady Michelle Obama tweeted her own support for women and mothers. The backlash to Rosen’s comments was bipartisan, brutal and swift, crackling across Twitter, cable television and old-fashioned telephone lines. It appeared to have reignited the “Mommy Wars” debate, at least for now, over choices many women make as they juggle motherhood with the work most need to pay bills, college tuition and a semblance of financial security for their families. Ann Romney fought back on Twitter and television, tweeting: “I made a choice to stay home and raise five boys. Believe me, it was hard work.” Later, on Fox News, she Romney noted that her career choice was being a mother, and while she hasn’t faced financial hardship she has confronted the ordeals of cancer and multiple sclerosis. Finally, she noted that her husband has said her work is more important than his as family breadwinner.
on the phone with a friend and described to her what was happening,” the affidavit said. “The witness advised that Martin was scared because he was being followed through the complex by an unknown male and didn’t know why.” During a recorded call to a police dispatcher, Zimmerman “made reference to people he felt had committed and gotten away with break-ins in his neighborhood. The affidavit continued: “When the police dispatcher realized Zimmerman was pursuing Martin, he instructed Zimmerman not to do that and that the responding
officer would meet him. Zimmerman disregarded the police dispatcher and continued to follow Martin who was trying to return to his home.” “Zimmerman confronted Martin and a struggle ensued,” prosecutors said in their account. The account provided no details on the struggle other than to say that witnesses heard numerous calls for help and that Martin’s mother reviewed the 911 recordings and recognized her son’s cry. Zimmerman told authorities that Martin attacked him as he going back to his vehicle, punched him in the face, knocked him down and began slamming head against the sidewalk.
Jury selection under way in John Edwards trial BY MICHAEL BIESECKER ASSOCIATED PRESS GREENSBORO, N.C. — After years of investigation, denials and delays, jury selection began Thursday for the criminal trial of former presidential candidate John Edwards. Edwards sat at the defense table as about 180 potential jurors filed into a Greensboro, N.C., courtroom. U.S. District Judge Catherine C. Eagles then asked Edwards to stand and face them. He grinned and nodded as the judge introduced him. The trial had been scheduled to begin in late January, but was delayed after Edwards’ lawyers told the judge he had a serious heart problem that required treatment. Compared with the quicksmiling candidate of four years ago, the former U.S. senator, now 58, appeared slightly gaunt in the cheeks but still had no trace of gray in his carefully parted hair.
Edwards faces six criminal counts related to nearly $1 million in secret payments made by two campaign donors to help hide the married Democrat’s pregnant mistress as he sought the White House in 2008. “This is not a case about whether Mr. Edwards was a good husband or politician,” the judge said from the bench. “It’s about whether he violated campaign finance laws … The Constitution says trial by jury, not trial by Internet or trial by gossip.” Edwards’ parents and eldest daughter sat in the court as Eagles emphasized to the potential jurors their role in the upcoming trial and ordered them not to tell anyone, even their families, that they had been called for the Edwards case. She also advised them to put out of their minds any media coverage they had seen and to ignore any legal dramas they might have seen on television, because such shows may mischaracterize the law or how a courtroom operates.
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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 13, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
PAGE 9
BULLETIN BOARD
TODAY’S FORECAST
TOMORROW
Sunny, with a high near 63. North wind between 7 and 11 mph. Low of 37.
High of 68, low of 49.
BEAR IN ANTARCTICA BY ILANA STRAUSS
ON CAMPUS SATURDAY, APRIL 14 1:00 PM “The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom.” This Academy Award-nominated documentary follows survivors in the hardest-hit areas of Japan’s recent tsunami as they revive and rebuild at the beginning of cherry blossom season. Discussion with special guests will follow the screening. Part of the 2012 Environmental Film Festival at Yale. Whitney Humanities Center (53 Wall St.), auditorium. 8:00 PM Shades Spring Jam 2012. Shades will be singing music from artists such as Alicia Keys, “The Lion King,” Marvin Gaye and Mary Mary. First and Summerfield Church (425 College St.).
THAT MONKEY TUNE BY MICHAEL KANDALAFT
SUNDAY, APRIL 15 9:30 AM Julia’s Run for Children. This four-mile run passes through Edgerton Park. Event will include a 0.7-mile fun run for kids under 12. There will be awards, refreshments and a raffle. The recreational/fun run will begin at 9:30 a.m. The competition walk/ run will begin at 10 a.m. Part of Celebrate Sustainability. Proceeds benefit LEAP. Cross Campus. 10:00 AM New Haven All-Day Singing. Join the Yale-New Haven Regular Singing for its second annual all-day singing from the Denson revision of “The Sacred Harp,” the shape-note tunebook most widely used today. Potluck dinner at 12:30 p.m. Connecticut Hall (Old Campus).
MONDAY, APRIL 16 4:00 PM “The Future of Fundamental Physics.” Nima ArkaniHamed of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J., will give the Leigh Page Prize Lecture. Sloane Physics Laboratory (217 Prospect St.), room 59 (overflow in room 57).
PANCAKES AND BOOZE BY TAKUYA SAWAOKA
4:30 PM “The Accidental City: Improvising New Orleans.” Lawrence N. Powell of the New Orleans Gulf South Center at Tulane University will give this book talk. Sponsored by the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition. Luce Hall (34 Hillhouse Ave.), room 202.
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4/13/12
By Gareth Bain
4 Give the slip 5 1990 Robert Frost Medal recipient Levertov 6 Zero, in Real Madrid scores 7 Fuming state 8 Super stars? 9 Twisted balloon shape, often 10 Christian bracelet letters 11 Weed whacker 12 Muse for Yeats 13 OB/GYN test 14 Boxer with a cameo in “The Hangover” 20 Produce offspring 22 Floor installer 25 Tureen utensil 26 Less chummy 27 De __: from square one 28 Feudal estates 29 Onion kin 33 Suffix with oct35 History test section, often 37 Start to fast? 39 Zachary Taylor, by birth 40 The senior Saarinen
Thursday’s Puzzle Solved
SUDOKU EXPERT
1 5
(c)2012 Tribune Media Services, Inc.
41 Beasts of burden 43 Sargasso Sea denizen 44 Trumpet effect 45 Toothbrush choice 50 The Aragón is a tributary of it 51 Southern language 53 Hollywood’s Mimieux 55 Holding device
4/13/12
56 Refueling ship 57 Street of many mysteries 59 Finalize, as a cartoon 60 Program problem 62 Timely question 65 Patch, say 66 Prefix with corn 67 “Xing” one 69 Popular CBS procedural 70 Parisian season
6 3 9 8 2 7
5 1 2 4
7 1 5 4 8 9 7 1 6 2 3 2 9 8 3
2 7
3 6 5 4
4 3 5 5 9 1 4 2 8 7 6 9
SUNDAY High of 73, low of 55.
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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 13, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
AROUND THE IVIES
“An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.” MAHATMA GANDHI POLITICAL ACTIVIST
T H E H A R VA R D C R I M S O N
T H E C O L U M B I A S P E C TAT O R
‘Great House War of 2012’ escalates
Open course evals debated
BY JANE SEO STAFF WRITER What started as one House’s lighthearted prank to meddle with the mascot selection of another House has escalated into a College-wide fray—The Great House War of 2012. Prompted by Adams’ initial declaration of war against Currier Monday night, several other Houses have entered alliances. No casualties have yet been reported. House Committee members scurried throughout Wednesday to organize emergency meetings to prepare their Houses for the imminent combat. While some upperclassmen are gearing up for battle, many freshman, who are not yet integrated into House life, said the launch of The Great House War of 2012 seems rather juvenile. Zachary P. Fletcher ’15, an incoming Adams sophomore, said he is slightly annoyed by all the emails that have been flooding his inbox. “It’s fun—but also immature,” Fletcher said. “This is something that would happen in middle school.” Emmanuel Figueroa ’15, a future Matherite, said, “It was the hot topic of the night [among my freshmen friends], and we all thought it was really silly.” But when he discussed the details of The Great House War of 2012 with his mother last night, she did not understand what was so funny. Despite the contentious nature of any war, both Figueroa and Fletcher said that the conflict could bring students together. “At the moment, I feel distant from the House because I’m an incoming sophomore,” Fletcher said. “But if it’s done well, I guess it is a good way to create community.” On Tuesday night, Cabot announced its solidarity with the other Quad Houses, officially entering the war against Adams alongside Pforzheimer, which had already announced its support for the threatened Currierites.
recycleyourydndaily
HARVARD
Calling the actions of Adams “ruthless and unacceptable,” the Cabot declaration extolled “the strength of the Tree, the ferocity of the Pfolar Bear, and the nimbleness of the Fish” in the fight for
justice. Samuel Q. Singer ’13, who helped draft Cabot’s declaration, said that Cabot is a willing ally of Currier, since Adams “often assumes an elitist attitude.” “Adams overreacted to the prank that Currier played,” Singer said. “The behavior of [Adams] overall is sometimes unreasonable.” Winthrop followed Wednesday by announcing a separate engagement against Lowell for denying Winthrop residents access to the Lowell back gate, waking them up with its “cacophonous bells every Sunday,” and assaulting the eyes of visitors with its yellow-painted dining hall, according to the statement. The declaration demanded that Lowell open its back gate to Winthrop, Eliot, and Leverett students and limit its bell ringing to 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. on Sundays. Winthrop implicitly sided with Adams in the conflict between Adams and Currier, announcing its alliance to “other River Houses seeking to end this injustice and foster a community that unites all Houses regardless of gate configurations.” In response to Winthrop’s attack, Lowell House co-Masters Dorothy A. Austin and Diana L. Eck sent an email to the residents of Lowell declaring theirs a peaceful House. “Lowell Love will not respond to words of aggression and needless distractions from the beauty of the season,” Austin and Eck wrote. “In the spirit of Gandhi, we respond: ‘Nonviolence is the first article of my faith. It is also the last article of my creed.’” The email stated Lowell’s refusal to yield and “open the gate to such threats of war.”
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recycleyourydndaily
BY MARGARET MATTES SENIOR STAFF WRITER Students and faculty sparred over a University Senate proposal that would recommend the publication of student course evaluations at a town hall meeting on Wednesday. Students from within the senate and outside spoke in favor of the proposal, but several students and most faculty members opposed it, believing that the publication of course evaluations could threaten the school’s academic environment. Under a system of open evaluations, students would have access to some qualitative and quantitative feedback from their peers. The senators’ hope is that the information will be integrated into the course directory. Currently, the evaluations are read only by relevant faculty members, including the professor and the department chair. “Open course evaluations could create an atmosphere of pandering, surveillance, that could undermine responsible teaching,” School of the Arts professor Bette Gordon said. “Professors’ reputations and careers are on the line.” Gordon and anthropology professor Marilyn Ivy offered introductory critiques of the proposal after it was presented by three of the student senators who wrote the original report on the topic. The proposed policy was first introduced to the full senate at the March 30 plenary. Open course evaluations would only enhance the system, since students would know that their opinions were being heard, said Ryan Turner, a graduate student in SEAS and co-chair of the Student Affairs Committee subcom-
mittee on course evaluations. “ I t ’ s really an issue of maximizthe value COLUMBIA ing of our education,” he said. “We think that the information obtained from course evaluations really goes a long way towards helping students pick the right classes and making the most of their very precious and limited time here at Columbia. It’s not an issue of students versus faculty.” Despite this mentality, faculty members who voiced opinions during the discussion were nearly unanimous in opposition to the policy as it currently stands. Anthropology professor Rosalind Morris claimed that unintentional gender and racial bias have been scientifically proven to affect personal evaluations and would unfairly influence the reviews of female and minority faculty members. Morris also said that it is unfair to protect the anonymity of the student responders, while holding faculty members accountable for their performance. “If you want to participate in this world as adults … you must be willing to stand by what you say. There really is not transparency without accountability,” she said. Jacob Andreas, SEAS ’12, called the discussion of attaching a student’s name to their review “dangerous.” “This suggestion … presupposes a symmetry between the situation that the faculty member is in and the situation that the student is in—and that is just not the case,” he said. “The consequences of identifying a student
are much, much more serious.” If names were attached to the reviews, he said, students would not contribute because the reviews could “poison” their experiences at Columbia. Opponents also pointed to confusion around removing an evaluation. According to Gordon, the current description does not grant the faculty member in question enough autonomy in the removal of a specific comment.
Open course evaluations could create an atmosphere of pandering… that could undermine responsible teaching. BETTE GORDON Professor, Columbia School of the Arts In addition, allowing graduate student instructors to opt in to the open feedback system could stigmatize those who choose not to participate, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dean Carlos Alonso said. According to Sara Snedeker, BC ’12 and co-chair of the Student Affairs Committee subcommittee on course evaluations, those who attended the town hall were not necessarily representative of the entire student and faculty bodies. She said that she and other student senators have reached out to many senators, including members of the Faculty Affairs Committee, the Education Committee, the Libraries Committee, and the Executive Committee, and have received at least some support from all of them.
YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 13, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
PAGE 11
SPORTS
Phoenix kicks off NHL playoffs with 2OT win over Chicago
The NHL playoffs began Thursday with three games that went to overtime, but one made it more exciting than the Phoenix Coyotes and Chicago Blackhawks. Phoenix carried a 2–1 lead into the final minute of play, but Chicago made things interesting when it tied the game 2–2 with 14.2 seconds left to play. The Coyotes came out with the win, however, after Martin Hanzal scored in the second overtime.
Yale to play back-toback doubleheaders BASEBALL FROM PAGE 12 game Ancient Eight championship series that determines which team will advance to the NCAA regionals. “The funny thing is we’re still only four games out [of first place],” first baseman and closer Kevin Fortunato ’14 said. “By no means is anything over.” The four games will be equally important to the Crimson, who have struggled almost as much as the Bulldogs this season. Despite losing six of their first eight games in conference play, the Cantabs sit just two games behind Dartmouth for the division lead. For two teams finding it difficult to make it into the win column, taking the first game of the series could prove vital. Ending the losing streak would take the weight off the Blue and White’s shoulders, pitcher Eric Hsieh ’15 said. “We just need to get that first win,” Hsieh said. “Start it off right.” Fortunato added that taking the series is also a possibility, as Yale’s bats are starting to break out of their collective slump, while the Bulldog pitching staff has been throwing well all season. Shortstop Cale Hanson ’14 has had no
problem at the plate this year. Hanson owns a .359 average and a 29-game on-base streak this season. Although he said there is rivalry amongst all schools in the Ancient Eight, Fortunato added that the Crimson are a special case.
The funny thing is we’re still only four games out [of first place]. By no means is anything over. KEVIN FORTUNATO ’14 First baseman, baseball “You come to Yale, and you know you hate Harvard,” Fortunato said. First pitch is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. at Yale Field tomorrow. The follow-up doubleheader will occur at the same time Sunday. Contact CHARLES CONDRO at charles.condro@yale.edu .
GRAHAM HARBOE/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
Yale’s pithing staff owns a collective 5.67 ERA this season, while its opponents have a collective 2.57 ERA against the Elis.
Bulldogs and Lions to break Ivy tie BY EUGENE JUNG CONTRIBUTING REPORTER The Elis are going into a matchup against Columbia, tied with Yale for seventh in the Ivies, with the hopes of earning their first Ivy League win of the season.
W. LACROSSE Only three days after returning from Long Island, Yale (3–8, 0–4 Ivy) is scheduled to play another game tomorrow at home. Although the Bulldogs have struggled on the road, they are back on the offensive track, having scored eight goals against the Seawolves on Wednesday. Despite performing well against tough teams such as Marist and Stony Brook in mid-week away matches, the Bulldogs have not been so lucky in the Ivy matches. Head Coach Anne Phillips said the team has to win its remaining Ivy games to give it a chance for the Ivy Tournament. “We certainly cannot overlook any team this season and Columbia (2–9, 0–5 Ivy) is a must win for us,” Phillips said. The team so far has four Ivy losses in total, including the 12–4 upset against Princeton last weekend. Yale and Columbia are tied for seventh place in the Ivy standings, although the Lions have one more Ivy League loss than the Bulldogs. Both the Bulldogs and the Lions faced the same three conference teams — Dartmouth, Penn and Princeton — and lost to all three. But whereas Dartmouth crushed Columbia with a nine goal gap (15–4), the Bulldogs lost a very close game (9–8) against the Big Green. The Lions have also
lost to Brown and Cornell 14–10 and 19–7, respectively, but Yale has not yet played these conference foes. Since neither team has a conference win, tomorrow’s match will break the league tie and determine the last spot in the Ivies. If they win this week, the Elis will secure their seventh place standing and gain the opportunity to overtake Brown at sixth place when the two teams take to Reese Stadium next Wednesday. Phillips said the Bulldogs will be working on the finer points of the offense and the draw so they will be prepared to execute Saturday’s game plan. When the teams met last season, the Lions took down the Elis 10–3 on their home turf. Yale had a good first half, allowing two goals but successfully taking back two. However, in the second period, the flow of the game turned to the hosts’ favor. Plagued with three yellow cards, the Bulldogs allowed the Lions to score eight more goals, whereas Yale managed to score only one more. The three scorers of last season’s match against Columbia, attacker Devon Rhodes ’13, attacker Jen DeVito ’14 and midfielder Courteney Rutter ’14, are all expected to return for tomorrow’s match, though Rutter did not play in last Saturday’s game. Except in clears (14–13), the Lions overwhelmed Yale in every aspect. They controlled seven more draws, took four more shots, recorded three fewer turnovers and committed five fewer fouls. Even in saves, another Yale strength besides face-offs, Columbia outdid Yale (15-8). This season, however, the Bulldogs have shown improvement in turnovers and shots. The team has also constantly demonstrated its traditional strength in draw controls,
not to mention goalkeeper Erin McMullan’s extraordinary saves. McMullan has recorded 51 saves so far, 20 of them in conference games. Phillips said controlling the draw will be crucial to Saturday’s match. “We will focus on not letting [Columbia’s] Kacie Johnson win the draw,” she said. Johnson, Columbia’s lead scorer with 31 goals and 22 assists, was named second team All-Ivy League last year. She recorded two unassisted goals in the last match-up, including the first goal of the game. Another player to watch out for is Paige Cuscovitch, a midfielder responsible for pouring in four goals against Yale in last year’s meet. With 24 goals scored this season, Cuscovitch is currently the second lead scorer for Columbia. Phillips added that if the team can shoot well and limit turnovers, Yale will be able to control the game from the beginning. The Bulldogs will look to repeat the confident movements demonstrated against the Red Foxes and the Seawolves in order to control possession and gameplay. “We plan to limit their involvement in controlling the game with defensive matchups,” Phillips said. On the offensive side, Crow, Yale’s captain, is at the peak of her career. The attacker scored 19 goals so far this season. Fellow attacker Rhodes has scored 13 goals so far. The Bulldogs will take on the Lions tomorrow at 1 p.m. at Reese Stadium. Contact EUGENE JUNG at eugene.jung@yale.edu .
Elis to battle Brown
BLAIR SEIDEMAN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Captain Michael Pratt ’12 has played in every game of the season since coming to Yale. M. LACROSSE FROM PAGE 12 Dempster has scored 11 goals in the past three games and played a big part of the Bulldogs recent winning streak. Against Penn, Dempster notched five goals, including the game-winner with 11.9 seconds remaining. Tough defense has also bolstered the Bulldogs during this stretch, and Yale has held its opponents to under nine goals per game in its last five contests. The Elis’ ability to cause turnovers, an effort led by defenseman Michael McCormack ’13, has factored into the team’s recent success. Yale
is ranked sixth in the nation and first in the Ivy League in caused turnovers, and McCormack is ranked fifth in the country with an average of 2.44 per game. This week Yale will come up against a Brown team that is second-best in the Ivy League at keeping the ball, and the Bulldogs and Bears will battle to control possession. Tonight’s game is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. at Brown’s Meister-Kavan Field. Contact JOHN SULLIVAN at john.sullivan@yale.edu .
Yalies to face Ivy leaders SOFTBALL FROM PAGE 12
EUGENE JUNG/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
The Bulldogs will celebrate senior day when they face Columbia on Saturday.
belief in or ability to get wins this weekend. If anything, we now have further incentive. We saw some good progress at the plate and will be ready to make our best effort at beating Harvard this weekend.” Last year, Harvard won all four games of the weekend contest. Three were easy victories and finished in fewer than the standard seven innings, but one game came incredibly close. Though the Bulldogs scored a stellar five runs in the top of the seventh to tie the game 11–11, Harvard responded with a triple and RBI single in the bottom of the seventh to clinch the victory. Throughout this year, the Bull-
dogs have shown a tendency to come back from steep losses to narrow the scoring gap late in the game. Team members have said continually the team dynamic remains strong, and the Elis support each other regardless of the game’s outcome. “Everybody is still staying together,” Williamson said. “Everybody’s heads are still up. We are still fighting every game and we haven’t given up by any means. We’re just waiting for a spark.” The Bulldogs will face the Crimson at home Saturday and Sunday. The first pitch is at 12:30 p.m. Contact MASON KROLL at mason.kroll@yale.edu .
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SPORTS WOMEN’S TENNIS NO. 28 ELIS HEAD TO NEW YORK Yale (14–3, 2–0 Ivy), which is currently tied with Brown and Harvard for first place in the Ivy League, will take on a strong Columbia squad (11–4, 2–1) on Saturday. The Bulldogs will then travel to Ithaca, N.Y. to face Cornell (8–7, 0–3) on Sunday.
COED SAILING NO. 1 YALE CHASE SEMIS BERTH With a spot in the National Semifinal Championships on the line, Yale will tarvel to Harvard this weekend for the New England Dinghy Championships. Success at the semis would give Yale the chance to go one step further —to the National Dinghy Championshis in June.
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“We’re back at .500 in the Ivy League and looking forward to Brown on Friday.” MICHAEL PRATT ’12 CAPTAIN, MEN’S LACROSSE
YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 13, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
Season hinges on Harvard series BASEBALL
BY CHARLES CONDRO STAFF REPORTER Yale against Harvard does not normally need any more hype, but this weekend the Elis will be fighting for their baseball lives against the Crimson.
BASEBALL
GRAHAM HARBOE/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
After losing the first eight games of its Ivy League season, the baseball team will look to rebound when it plays four games against Harvard this weekend.
Bulldogs take on powerhouse Crimson BY MASON KROLL CONTRIBUTING REPORTER If the softball team hopes to win against Harvard this weekend, the Bulldogs will need to bring their best play to the field.
SOFTBALL While the Bulldogs have lost the last 10 games, the Crimson has excelled this season. Harvard (20–10, 7–1 Ivy) boasts the best record in the Ivy League while Yale (7–23, 1–7) sits at the bottom of the list. Team members said that to take on their northern rival, the Bulldogs have to play aggressively and put their hours of training to use. “We know we can beat them, but we
also know it will be an intense game” Hannah Brennan ’15 said. “If we play the best game we can, we’ll come out on top.” Felling Harvard will not be easy. Harvard pitcher Rachel Brown has allowed an average of four hits per game and struck out 143 batters this season, placing her seventh and ninth in the NCAA, respectively. With a batting average of .451, the tenth best in the NCAA, infielder Jane Alexander poses an additional threat to the Bulldogs’ defense. Kylie Williamson ’15 said the team has been working especially hard in preparation for this weekend and has focused on being “sharp with defense and strong with the bat.” The team is starting to look more
Yale (6–24–1, 0–8 Ivy) will host the Cantabs (6–23, 2–6 Ivy) for back-to-back doubleheaders at Yale Field on Saturday and Sunday. “This is our season,” pitcher Chris O’Hare ’13 said. “To have any shot at all we need to win at least three games.” Seven of Yale’s eight Ivy League losses have been decided by three runs or fewer. Unfortunately for the Bulldogs, close doesn’t appear in the standings. Despite the drought — the Elis have lost their past twelve games — Yale is still right in the hunt to make the postseason. Dartmouth (9–14. 4–4 Ivy) leads the Red Rolfe Division thus far, but Yale is within four games of the top spot and the berth in the threeSEE BASEBALL PAGE 11
Ivy league race heats up
at opponents’ statistics, she added. Knowing the other teams’ batters better is particularly helpful for the Bulldogs’ pitchers and catchers, Williamson said. The Bulldogs last played on Wednesday, when they fell 6–0, 6–3 in a doubleheader against Wagner. Although Chelsea Janes ’12 said the team was hoping to go into this weekend with a win right behind them, she added that the team still felt confident and enthusiastic. Janes is a staff columnist for the News. “Every single one of us knows the best way to reverse [Wednesday’s game] is a win over Harvard,” Janes said. “[The game] didn’t affect our SEE SOFTBALL PAGE 11 BLAIR SEIDEMAN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Midfielder Ryan McCarthy ’14 had six goals and 11 points over ten games in 2011. BY JOHN SULLIVAN CONTRIBUTING REPORTER After the men’s lacrosse team returned to the national rankings last Saturday for the first time in four weeks, the No. 20 Bulldogs travel to Brown on Friday for their fifth Ivy contest of the season.
M. LACROSSE
BRIANNE BOWEN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Kristen Leung ’14 has a 1–4 record and a 5.56 ERA in 34 innings of work this season.
STAT OF THE DAY 7
The Elis (5–4, 2–2 Ivy) extended their winning streak to three last Saturday with a 13–11 victory at Dartmouth. The team battles Brown (4–6, 1–2 Ivy) Friday for the fourth and final spot in the post-season Ivy League tournament and the chance for a NCAA tournament bid. No. 5 Cornell and No. 15 Princeton are undefeated in the conference and are shoo-ins for the first two spots. This leaves Yale, Brown and Harvard (6–5, 2–1 Ivy) fighting for the third and fourth place positions for the rest of the season. Captain Michael Pratt ’12 told the News on March 31 that the team has to aim to finish 4–2 — and cannot afford to lose another game — if the Bulldogs
hope to reach the conference tournament. Last weekend’s win against Dartmouth kept this hope alive and gave the Elis momentum heading into their penultimate Ivy League game this evening. “We’re back to .500 in the Ivy League and looking forward to Brown on Friday,” Pratt said in the wake of last weekend’s victory. When these teams met last season attackman Matt Gibson ’12 had two goals and four points in leading the Bulldogs to a 10–6 win over the Bears at Reese stadium. Gibson is the focal point of Yale’s offense and is currently ranked fourth in the Ivy League with an average of 3.33 points per game. Last year, the attacker averaged 3.00 goals per game over 12 contests and led the Elis in assists with 16. Gibson is joined on attack by Brandon Mangan ’14 and Conrad Oberbeck ’15, who are averaging 1.78 and 1.67 goals per game respectively. But the most explosive member of the Bulldog offense recently is attacker Deron Dempster ’13. Since returning from injury two weeks ago against Penn, SEE M. LACROSSE PAGE 11
THE RANKING OF BOTH COLUMBIA AND YALE IN THE IVY LEAUGUE WOMEN’S LACROSSE STANDINGS. The two teams, which are both winless in the conference so far this season, will meet this weekend. Columbia beat Yale last season.