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T H E O L D E ST C O L L E G E DA I LY · FO U N D E D 1 8 7 8

NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT · WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2012 · VOL. CXXXV, NO. 36 · yaledailynews.com

INSIDE THE NEWS MORNING EVENING

CLOUDY CLOUDY

50 58

CROSS CAMPUS

GALLERY ROOM DESIGN ACCOMPANIES ART

STARTUP

HONG KONG

SOCCER

Program started by Yale psychiatrist looks to New Haven

REPRESENTATIVE DISCUSSES ECONOMIC GROWTH

Bulldogs fall to Mountain Hawks for third consecutive loss

PAGE 6 CULTURE

PAGE 3 CITY

PAGE 5 NEWS

PAGE 12 SPORTS

Democrats eye Elm City

Shake it up. A 4.6 magnitude earthquake struck Maine yesterday night, sending shockwaves across the entire New England region and Twitterverse. Though some users who had not felt the quake voiced their confusion online, others expressed surprise, wondering whether the earth’s movements could be attributed to abnormally large acorns falling from the sky. According to the United States Geological Survey, moderate shaking could be felt across the Northeast, including in Boston, Hanover and New Haven.

BY KIRSTEN SCHNACKENBERG AND JULIA ZORTHIAN STAFF REPORTERS

Family feud. Pierson College officials announced Tuesday morning that on Sunday nights, students without a Pierson sticker on their ID cards would not be admitted to the dining hall for dinner. Sunday nights are traditionally “family nights,” during which students are encouraged to eat in their own residential colleges. The move follows the new dining restrictions launched by Berkeley College, which limits its dining hall to transfers on Mondays. Third time’s the charm.

The third debate leading up to the Nov. 6 presidential election took place Tuesday night between U.S. President Barack Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney. The debate adopted a town hall format and was the second presidential debate between the two candidates. The third debate, which will focus on foreign policy, will be held in Boca Raton, Fla. Watch your back. Berkeley

College crowned its stealthiest student on Tuesday. Charly Walther ’16 won the college’s annual “Assassins” game, a feat that earned him $60 and a spot in the college’s eternal champions plaque. In an exclusive email interview with the News, Walther dedicated his victory to his mother and Berkeley College Master Marvin Chun. One night at the museum. For art history majors, a recent art heist at a Netherlands museum is bound to cause some headaches. Seven works of art, including pieces by Pablo Picasso and Claude Monet, were stolen from the exhibit Tuesday. Local police said they have secured evidence and are speaking with potential witnesses and looking at security camera footage. Making travel easier. Metro-

North has added 15 weekday and 30 weekend trains to the New Haven Line to give city residents more opportunities to get around town during the winter holiday season.

THIS DAY IN YALE HISTORY

1976 The Yale Dramat decides to cancel its production of “Antigone” just two weeks before opening night, citing artistic differences between the play’s director and the Dramat’s Executive Board. Submit tips to Cross Campus

crosscampus@yaledailynews.com

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Search surveys released

tioned to deliver Murphy a victory depending on how many city Democrats turn out to the polls. Murphy, who currently represents the Connecticut’s fifth congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives, has run much

After weeks of open forums, office hours and surveys, Search Committee Student Counselor Brandon Levin ’14 released the complete data about students’ priorities on the qualifications of Yale’s next president. Levin released the results of a survey and three reports outlining the student body’s opinions on the presidential search. Though the three reports — compiled by the Yale College Council, the Graduate Student Assembly and the Graduate and Professional Student Senate — represented the entire student body across all of Yale’s schools, half of the students interviewed said they questioned the influence the reports and surveys will ultimately have on the selection of Yale’s next president. Now that Levin has submitted the results to the Search Committee, his role as student counselor in the remainder of the search process is not clearly defined. Based on the findings of Levin’s fourquestion survey, which received between 769 and 774 responses for each question, students were divided on whether the next president should hold a Yale degree, with 42 percent answering “Yes” and 56 percent answering “It is not important.” Seventy-eight percent of respondents said the next president should come from an academic background, and 88 percent said the next president should have administrative experience. Levin said he will remain available to transmit students’ concerns to the Search Committee, as well as to advise the committee if they request his input, though he said he will not be involved in candidate selec-

SEE ELECTION PAGE 8

SEE SEARCH PAGE 4

SHARON YIN/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

Yale students wait to vote in the 2011 elections. High voter turnout in New Haven can impact this year’s Senate race.. BY MICHELLE HACKMAN STAFF REPORTER On the night of the Democratic primary election, which he won over former Conn. Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz ’83, U.S. House Rep. Chris Murphy watched results come in at the Omni Hotel in New

Haven — rather than in his home district. The latest polls show Murphy with a small lead over Republican Linda McMahon in the race to replace U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman ’64 LAW ’67. New Haven, which has the largest number of registered Democrats in the state, is uniquely posi-

Suit reacts to employment dispute BY CYNTHIA HUA STAFF REPORTER The Title IX retaliation suit filed Friday afternoon by employee Susan Burhans is a common reaction to employment disputes, according to attorneys in the field. Burhans’ suit claims that after she was hired as a Communications and Education Specialist for the Office of the Vice President in 1999 her efforts to bring the University’s alleged Title IX violations to the attention of administrators led to a series of changes to her employment status ending in termination of her current position, effective this November. In 2009, Burhans brought a separate suit against Yale alleging gender-based discrimination by the University after not being granted several promotions she had previously been promised. Several Title IX experts and employment dispute lawyers interviewed said that to win her most recent case, Burhans must prove causality between her “whistle blowing” on issues of sexual misconduct and Yale’s retaliatory actions toward her. “It’s not uncommon at all to see someone lodge a discrimination claim, lose, and lodge a retaliation claim [after the discrimination claim],” said Peter Lake, director for the Center for Excellence in Higher Education Law and Policy at Stetson University. “It is a little easier to prove a retaliation claim over a discrimination claim.” Patrick Noonan, who represented Yale in the 2009 lawsuit,

said the complaint Burhans initially filed with the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities in 2008 was dismissed by the Merit Assessment Review Program due to a lack of evidence. Noonan said that in response, Burhans filed a civil suit in Connecticut State Court, a case that is still pending but parts of which have been dismissed, including the allegation that Yale fosters a “hostile work environment.”

It’s not uncommon at all to see someone lodge a discrimination claim, lose, and lodge a retaliation claim. PETER LAKE Director for the Center for Excellence in Higher Education Law and Policy at Stetson University Burhans declined to comment Wednesday. Multiple claims from the 2009 complaint are repeated in the 2012 suit, including the allegations that she was discriminated against when forced to interview before a panel of four men and that she was given a new job title without an appropriate increase in compensation. Fair employment cases reemerge as retaliation suits all the time, said Michael Rose, a SEE BURHANS PAGE 8

M A R Í A R O SA M E N O CA L 1 9 5 3 - 2 0 1 2

Menocal remembered for vivacity BY SOPHIE GOULD AND JULIA ZORTHIAN STAFF REPORTERS María Rosa Menocal, a humanities professor known for her work on medieval Spain whose vivacious presence spearheaded a rapid expansion of the Whitney Humanities Center, died Monday of melanoma. She was 59. A renowned scholar and author, Menocal became a Sterling professor of the humanities in 2005 and served as director of the Whitney Humanities Center from 2001 to 2012, where she launched an effort to rebrand the institution and broaden its influence. She emphasized bringing scholars from all fields, including the sciences, together to share ideas and cultivate a sense of academic community in the Center. Considered a “mother hen” figure by the doctoral students who worked under her, Menocal nurtured an extensive network of friends and mentees with whom she shared her passion for good food, music and scholarship. “She had this ability to understand people that was unique and remarkable,” said Menocal’s husband, R. Crosby Kemper ’74. “Part of it was about work, part about food, but it was ultimately about her sympathy to character.” Born in Cuba in 1953, Menocal left the country at the age of seven with her family as exiles of the Castro Revolution, Kemper said, adding that this “profound childhood experience” shaped the rest of her life. Impassioned by the idea of exile, Menocal lived in Cuba, Philadelphia, New Haven, Cairo, Madrid, Paris and New York, and her research popularized the notion that Christian, Jewish and Muslim groups played equally important roles in molding medieval Spain’s culture. Kemper said Menocal’s identity as an exile helped her form strong relationships with others.

YALE

María Rosa Menocal nurtured students throughout her 11 years at the Whitney Humanities Center and time as professor. “She’s a genius at conversation in both the normal everyday sense and the larger sense, in the cultural sense of conversation across all barriers — cultural, ethnic, relgious, age,” Kemper said. “She was a genius in that, in part because of her very positive sense of exile, her sense that we’re all exiles in one way or another.” Menocal’s former students praised her willingness to take them under her wing, and several said she had motivated them to pursue studies related to medieval Spain. After reading Menocal’s book “The Arabic Role in Medieval Literary History: A Forgotten Heritage,” Lourdes Alvarez GRD ’94 said she was so inspired by the material that she contacted Menocal by phone and eventually decided to apply to Yale. “I hadn’t even applied to Yale, and she was happy to talk on the phone for 45 minutes,” Alvarez said. “This was only the first glimmer of her unbelievable intellectual generosity.” Though she initially commuted to New SEE MENOCAL PAGE 8

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YALE DAILY NEWS · WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2012 · yaledailynews.com

OPINION

.COMMENT “Don't be too hard on yourselves. Yale, unlike youth, is forever.” yaledailynews.com/opinion

Becoming a patriot A

friend asked me this past week what my feelings about patriotism

were. She caught me off guard. It had been a long time since I thought deeply about my relationship to my country. Since our conversation, I’ve continued to think about what it means to be a patriot and if I am one. I should frame this by saying that I wasn’t born in the U.S. and grew up in an aggressively liberal part of California that would separate from much of the continental U.S. if that were constitutional. After leaving there, I lived outside the U.S. again. I’ve always worn my American-ness with a certain degree of discomfort: There were many aspects of American history that I’d been taught to condemn, and contemporary political actions — wars amongst them — that I disagreed with. I loved my country, but America was easier to love from across an ocean. Since returning to the U.S., and in light of the current election, I’ve been forced to reevaluate what I think and feel about being an American. The feelings of disappointment I’ve experienced as I watched the mudslinging, name-calling and general douche-baggery of this current political contest have been overwhelming. It’s a sense of disappointment that I know many of my friends and family also share. Yet even with this disappointment — or perhaps because of it — I no longer want to feel discomfort in this identity that is an essential part of who and what I am. How, then, can I balance my disappointment, frustration, even my sense of outrage, with a desire to love my country? One crucial way is via something that my friend suggested: admiring and emulating values while being critical of individuals and policies. Nothing makes me happier to be an American than looking back on what we have done right; created a world in which people can protest, worship, speak, act and live in the way that they want. Having lived in and seen places where these values are not the norm, I can affirm their importance: They are the difference between choice and no choice. When we Americans fail to uphold our values — and we do, unfortunately, as aptly demonstrated by past and present moments — we fail our country and ourselves. I don’t want to live in a state of apathy about what happens in this country, or what could be done to me if I don’t advocate for myself and others. If I allow myself to remain hesitant, critical only from the

Swimming across the Strait

side-lines, and refuse to call myself a patriot because I disagree with some policy or other, I fail ZOE the first MERCER- at aspect of patriotism: GOLDEN commitMeditations ment. It is possible — no, it is essential — to be a patriot and critical at the same time, because those who truly love their country want to make it better. By calling myself a patriot who has hope for a better future in spite of past disappointment, I move from cynicism at the sidelines to coalition building at the center. Yet, I can’t help but feel, as I take in political opinions and fear-mongering from all sides, that patriotism as a word and an idea is being manipulated for problematic ends. I want to advocate for a new kind of discussion about patriotism in America, a discussion in which it is possible to be critical and supportive at the same time. I want a world in which we talk about what is possible, not what compromises are inevitable; in which the battles to be fought are those against disease, poverty and crime instead of the other party.

MANAGING EDITORS Gavan Gideon Mason Kroll

SPORTS Eugena Jung John Sullivan

ONLINE EDITOR Caroline Tan OPINION Marissa Medansky Dan Stein NEWS Madeline McMahon Daniel Sisgoreo CITY Nick Defiesta Ben Prawdzik CULTURE Natasha Thondavadi

ARTS & LIVING Akbar Ahmed Jordi Gassó Cora Lewis Jack Linshi MULTIMEDIA Raleigh Cavero Lillian Fast Danielle Trubow MAGAZINE Daniel Bethencourt COPY Stephanie Heung Emily Klopfer Isaac Park Flannery Sockwell

NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT

pics, I found myself cheering along with the Chinese crowd for Ye Shiwen to torpedo past American Elizabeth Beisel over the final leg of the 400m individual medley for gold, and was elated when she also broke the world record. At first, I just thought it was the heat of the moment. However, as I watched the red-clad Chinese supporters screaming their throats hoarse, I realized we weren’t that different. I looked like them, understood their language and relished with them that the Americans were beaten at their own sport. I smiled as the Chinese flag was raised and anthem played (I’m sorry, Grandpa). Attempting to explain this, my dad said I started supporting the Mainlanders only while caught in a sea of Caucasians. But that was only part of the story. Olympic Park was filled with Chinese people, and it was hard to find another reason besides their nationality and Beijing accents to dislike them. This idea cemented in my mind when I met Taiwanese supporters on the Tube — had it not been for their track jackets and distinctive accents, I wouldn’t have been

able to spot them out. What reason besides ignorance did I have to like some strangers more than others? The Taiwanese have a special label, “chun-kùng,” to describe people, most notably businessmen nowadays, who have ditched Taiwan in favor of China for personal gains. It is not a compliment. But that’s short-sighted. Politics need to be separated from the people, and the actions of a government so many years ago should not define my sentiments about everyone from the modern-day Mainland. Don’t get me wrong, though; the anti-China attitude is still a cancer within me that knows no cure. But our ancestors once coexisted peacefully as Chinese people, not as Taiwanese or Mainland Chinese. We are all still Chinese when the sun exits stage west. We can still be family. After all, to borrow an American phrase, it’s not “divided we stand.” IKE LEE is a sophomore in Ezra Stiles College. Contact him at ike.lee@yale.edu .

I L LU ST R AT I O N S E D I T O R K A R E N T I A N

ZOE MERCER-GOLDEN is a senior in Davenport College. Contact her at zoe.mercer-golden@yale.edu .

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on the Mainland, but instead only with the ambiguous label of “Taiwanese.” Cultural identity limbo aside, I nevertheless was fed a fair share of anti-China sentiment as I grew up. It was impossible for my parents, cousins and me to sympathize with a government whose people had once raided my grandparents’ towns, killed their loved ones and eventually forced them from their beloved homeland. These stories were engraved in my own memory, as I witnessed my grandmother’s heartbreaking expressions and heard my grandfather’s experiences in war whenever the old days were brought up. Thus, I’ve always referred to Chinese people as “those Mainland people” with a slight distain. My distaste with Chinamade products stems beyond the popular stereotypes; I adamantly write only traditional characters in Chinese class while viewing their simplified counterparts with scorn; I subconsciously treat my Taiwanese friends more favorably. It wasn’t until this past summer that I began to question my behaviors. At the London Olym-

Living in a divided nation makes it harder to be a patriot: We have to decide how to advocate for the country as a whole as opposed to merely our own perspective. Commitment and criticism are steps one and two of patriotism, but the third step is more difficult: service. Service by mouth and by action, by learning, educating and advocating. This kind of service makes you the truest type of patriot, one willing to work for change instead of only asking for it. In the midst of a liberal milieu that often hesitates to own up to patriotism, I affirm (publicly) that I am a patriot. But I will only be a proud patriot in a world in which our politics and our policies are different, better and bring about the kind of world we deserve.

THIS ISSUE COPY ASSISTANTS: Douglas Plume, Ian Gonzalez COPY STAFF: Kate Pincus PRODUCTION ASSISTANTS: Laura Burston EDITORIALS & ADS

L

ast Wednesday, Taiwan celebrated its 101st birthday. I’m a second-generation overseas Taiwanese Yalie, and I spent the day posting nationalistic Facebook statuses. I texted my family “Happy 10/10 National Day!” taking great joy and pride in a country from which I traced my roots but have not resided in for any appreciable amount of time. Whether Taiwan (or the Republic of China, if you’re annoyingly politically correct) is recognized as a sovereign state internationally makes no difference to me. I still shamelessly wave my Taiwanese flag around to celebrate our revolution that overturned the Qing Dynasty in 1912. But I’m not actually Taiwanese. All four of my grandparents were refugees from Mainland China after the Communist Party took power. Only my parents were born in Taiwan, so I’m what they call a “wài-sheng rén” (Taiwanese person from an outside province). I can identify with neither native Formosans, the term for true natives of the island — who would think it treacherous even if I did — nor with those

THE FIRST PART OF PATRIOTISM IS COMMITMENT

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Clarifying Yale-NUS policy In the light of Professor Benhabib’s and Professor Miller’s response to your article of October 10, “Yale-NUS develops student group policies,” we would like to clarify certain matters, some of which may have been unclear in your report and others overlooked by our esteemed colleagues. Political groups in general are not banned on Singaporean campuses. The restriction applies only to branches of political parties. At Yale-NUS College, students will be free to form extracurricular groups, including groups devoted to political discussion and debate, as long as they are not branches of political parties and do not promote racial or religious strife (not “disrespect”). Such groups are protected by Yale-NUS College’s nondiscrimination policy. If invited by a faculty member or student group, no one will be denied the opportunity to speak on the College campus because of his or her political or other views, except where such speech promotes racial or religious strife. Students will be free to gather within the College facilities to hear speakers and express views openly. Like any other educational institution, YaleNUS College is subject to the laws of the country where it operates, but Yale-NUS College will not itself restrict students’ freedom of speech and assembly. We believe that a campus life full of open discussion and debate is a central part of the educational experience that a residential liberal arts college should provide. CHARLES BAILYN AND PERICLES LEWIS OCT. 15 The writers are the Dean of Faculty and President of Yale-NUS College, respectively.

Giving Yale-NUS a chance Disappointingly, Professors Benhabib and Miller blend scare tactics with a disregard of the facts as it suits them in their article “In loco regiminis.” As has been reported, only political groups affiliated to established national parties are not allowed on Yale-NUS. This is not a ban on all political groups, as the authors assert. Also, it must be pointed out that law and enforcement are separate issues (Old Campus: most Friday nights). While Singapore’s Societies Act does require registration of some types of groups, including political associations, Student Interest Groups at NUS are not required to go through this process. Though I am not privy to the details, it is not inconceivable that Yale-NUS student groups may operate under a similar understanding. Much has been said on the issue of on-campus

rights and liberties, and the Singaporean government clearly understands the importance we in New Haven rightly attach to it. Questions of student activity and organizations thus ought to be treated not just as theoretical ones to be debated endlessly, but also as empirical ones to be settled when Yale-NUS students actually matriculate — maybe not with finality even then. So while caution and vigilance is justified, those of us who wish the project well have been doing our utmost to ensure that Yale-NUS goes into Singapore with both eyes open. If the authors are serious about their belief in the spirit of the collegium as a model, I would invite them and all those interested to join us and talk to their former colleagues at Yale-NUS — not editorialize from the other side of the aisle. RAYNER TEO OCT. 15 Rayner Teo is a junior in Morse College.

YALE DAILY NEWS · WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2012 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE 3

NEWS

PEOPLE IN THE NEWS BRUCE WEXLER Dr. Bruce Wexler is a professor emeritus of and senior research scientist in psychiatry at Yale University. He created C8 Kids, a brainbased content-independent pedagogy to improve thinking abilities in 5-9 year old children.

CORRECTIONS TUESDAY, OCT. 6

The article “Kushner ’13 leads Elis at Big Five” stated that the men’s golf team finished in fourth place at the Big Five Invitational. In fact, the team finished seventh. The article also stated that Michael Lewis-Goldman ‘14 finished in 17th place, when in fact he was disqualified. TUESDAY, OCT. 6

The article “Neural activity necessary for vision” misidentified 2-photon microscopy as photon microscopy. TUESDAY, OCT. 6

Due to an editing error, the article “Israeli soldier visits campus” inaccurately paraphrased Danny Avraham ’15. He said the event hosted by the Eliezer Society that brought Gilad Shalit to campus was off the record to give the soldiers an opportunity to share their personal experiences freely without fear of their comments being “politicized.”

Inmate requests execution BY LORENZO LIGATO STAFF REPORTER One of the two killers sentenced to death for the infamous 2007 triple homicide in Cheshire, Conn. declared in a letter released Oct. 11 that he will waive his right to appeal the case and proceed to his execution. In the letter, Steven Hayes — who has been sitting on death row since his sentencing by the New Haven Superior Court in December 2010 — lamented the “cruel and unusual punishment” perpetrated by the prison staff at the Northern Correctional Institute in Somers, Conn. and voiced his intention to forgo additional appeals and expedite his death sentence. If his request is granted, Hayes, 49, will follow an example set by serial killer Michael Ross, a Connecticut death row inmate who was executed after waiving his appeals in 2005. Yet legal experts and state politicians interviewed said they are doubtful that the judicial system will accept Hayes’ position in the letter. “I cannot live with the intense tourcher [sic], torment, harassment, and the resulting psychological trauma dished out by the Dept. of Corr. staff here at Northern,” Hayes wrote in his letter, dated Sept. 29. “I was sentenced to death, not sentenced to tourcher [sic] and punitive treatment until death.” When asked about Hayes’ claims, Andrius Banevicius, a spokesman for the state’s Department of Correction, responded that the department “provides for the safe, secure and humane supervision of the offenders in its custody.” The content of Hayes’ letter conflicts with intentions he prevoiusly voiced to the media: Earlier this year, the death row inmate said he promised one of his defense attorneys, Thomas J. Ullman, that he would not waive his appeals and seek execution, according to a June interview with the Hartford Courant. Ullman, who is New Haven’s Chief Public Defender, could not be reached for comment Tuesday night. Regardless of any promise Hayes made with Ullman, Haye’s desire to face the death penalty has been a consistent theme of his defense since July 2007, when he and his accomplice, Joshua Komisarjevski, 32, murdered Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters, Hayley and Michaela. “Death for me will be a welcome relief, and I hope it will bring some peace and comfort to those who I have hurt so much,” Hayes said in court on Dec. 2, 2010. In April 2011, Hayes filed paperwork to appeal his death penalty conviction. The appeal was required under the state’s death penalty law, said State Sen. Martin Looney (D-New Haven), who added that the state Supreme Court is still in the process of reviewing Hayes’ death sentence. Only after the court releases the original appeal can Hayes forgo his right to additional legal proceedings, Looney explained. Looney added that in the case of Ross — who sat on death row for 18 years before being executed — legal proceedings were lengthy enough to assure that the inmate was confident of his decision. “But at this point, it’s not even clear what Hayes wants,” he said, declining to make any predictions about the outcome of the case. Hayes’ decision to seek exe-

cution comes six months after the state legislature passed a bill repealing the death penalty in Connecticut. The April repeal was specifically designed to be non-retroactive: It does not apply to those defendants — including Hayes — who were sentenced before the law was passed. But the state supreme court has agreed to consider the constitutionality of the death penalty for current inmates in light of the repeal. “There is litigation in place now to challenge that limitation, but I am not aware that there has been any decision on the point,” said Yale Law School professor Steven Duke LL.M. ’61. Duke, who specializes in criminal law, said Hayes’ desire to waive his appeals is “quite unusual” and questioned whether “there is any clear judicial authority on the validity of his proposed waiver.”

I cannot live with the intense tourcher [sic], torment, harassment, and the resulting psychological trauma dished out by the Dept. of Corr. staff here at Northern. STEVEN HAYES Death row inmate

Duke said Hayes seems unlikely to follow the same path as Ross. In Hayes’ case, the judicial system has not yet determined whether there has been reversible error in his trial and sentencing, he added. Duke also said he believes that reports of Hayes’ multiple suicide attempts might discourage the court from granting the inmate’s request. “If this is true, I can’t imagine a court holding that he is competent to waive his appeal and submit to a death sentence,” Duke said. “That would be cooperating in his suicide plans.” Still, Democratic State Rep. Mary Fritz, who represents Cheshire, Conn., said she hopes Hayes’ wishes will be granted, advancing financial reasons to hasten the execution. “These appeals are going to cost the state millions and millions of dollars. So if [Hayes’] wishes are granted, this is going to save the State a lot of money,” said Fritz, who was one of the most noteworthy opponents of the death penalty repeal before the bill was passed in April. Both Hayes and Komisarjevski have been convicted of murder and sexual assault from when the two men invaded the Cheshire home of William Petit and sexually assaulted his wife and two daughters before killing them and setting the house on fire on July 23, 2007. Petit was badly beaten, but he ultimately survived. For those crimes, Hayes received six death sentences and 106 years of imprisonment. Komisarjevski also faces six death sentences for capital felonies plus 140 years in prison on other counts. Hayes and Komisarjevski are two of 11 inmates currently on Connecticut’s death row. Contact LORENZO LIGATO at lorenzo.ligato@yale.edu .

Psychiatrists promote Startup BY MONICA DISARE STAFF REPORTER Startup, a program designed by Yale psychiatrists, is teaching students to focus across Connecticut and throughout the world. Part computer program and part physical activity, Startup aims to strengthen cognitive abilities like memory, focus and attention, concetrating on elementary school-age students whose mental tools are underdeveloped due to socioeconomic status or ADHD. But Yale psychiatrist Dr. Bruce Wexler, who founded the program, said all students should be able to benefit from the cognitive abilities Startup develops. Startup has previously yielded successful results in Beijing, New York and Connecticut, and, since launching its sale of personal Startup programs Monday, the company plans to expand to individual users and other school districts — perhaps including New Haven. “It’s an unconventional product. It’s not one of the routine shopping list of education products,” said Ken Coleman, the CEO of C8 Sciences, an education program company which sells Startup. “So what we’re doing is breaking new ground, finding people who think of themselves as leaders in education, looking for new opportunities.” The program involves sitting in a computer lab and performing activities like clicking on the correctly colored ball as it bounces across the screen and sorting numbers using a butterfly game, or imitating dance moves in the gym. Although the students enjoy the program, said Wexel, they also strengthen their brains’ executive functions through external stimulation. “The degree to which our brains are shaped after birth from stimulation from the environment is more true in humans than any other animal,” he added. The brain strengthening is especially important in the case of children who come from poor backgrounds and subsequently struggle in school, said Wexel. The difference between children who have grown up in a nurturing environment and those who have not is visible when the two brains are viewed under an MRI, said C8 Director of Oper-

JINXIA DONG

Startup aims to strengthen cognitive abilites in elementary students. ations Matthew Fitzpatrick. But although the program may help disadvantaged students “more dramatically” with their learning, there is evidence to suggest that gifted students would benefit from the program as well, Fitzpatrick added. The first pilot study was launched in 2010 in Beijing under the direction of Professor Jinxia Dong, who designed Startup’s physical activity component and is the director of the Research Center for Sports Studies and Society at Peking University in China. Soon after, in the summer of 2011, a small group of students trying Startup were studied in New Haven, followed by the administration of pilot studies in Hamden and Bristol, Conn. in fall 2011. Ethel Berger, who ran one of the first versions of Startup through the Elm City summer program New Haven Reads, said despite having a “lot of bugs,” she was “incredibly impressed” with the program. She added that two students who could barely sit through the program in the beginning could easily sit through Startup by the end, while another student’s ability to focus while reading was dramatically enhanced following daily 20-minute use of the program. These results were replicated in Hamden and Bristol, where

students enrolled in the program outperformed students in a control group on cognitive function tests and standardized tests. Students enrolled in the Startup program in Bristol more than doubled their working memory while their peers not involved in Startup increased their working memory by only 26 percent. Similarly, 58 percent of students in the Startup program raised their reading scores on a standardized test by more than 10 points while only 33 percent of students in the control group raised their reading scores by more than 10 points.

What we’re doing is … finding people who think of themselves as leaders in education. KEN COLEMAN CEO, C8 Sciences After the success of the test programs, the C8 program began charging schools for their services last spring, charging about $5000 for every 100 students enrolled in the program. Two additional school districts — in Harlem and Brooklyn, N.Y. — have adopted the pro-

gram and use it during school hours, said Fitzpatrick. Broward County Public Schools in Florida, which is the 6th largest school district in the country, will almost certainly be implementing the program this year, Wexel added. On Monday, C8 executives began selling Startup to individual families for a listing price of $400, but the product is currently on sale for $199. Wexel also said he hopes this program expands to New Haven, one of the first cities that Wexel and his team reached out to for a pilot study, Wexel said. Because of a combination of budget and implementation issues, New Haven was not one of the original pilot districts, he said, but added there has been recent discussion about using this program with a small group of students form New Haven. “I certainly hope the YaleNew Haven partnership on this, which is something I looked forward to as soon as I conceived of this, will expand,” Wexel said, “But in the meantime, I’m very excited to see the real service to help schools like those New York City who face major challenges.” New Haven’s class of 2011 had a 64.3 percent graduation rate. Contact MONICA DISARE at monica.disare@yale.edu .

Dems impact local races BY DIANA LI STAFF REPORTER With just under three weeks before Election Day, the Yale College Democrats face the possibility of watching a number of Democrats lose their positions to Republicans. Members of the Dems explained that this year’s election is unique because of both the presidential race and close elections in traditionally blue states that have national significance, such as the Conn. Senate race between Democrat Chris Murphy and Republican Linda McMahon and the Mass. Senate race between Democrat Elizabeth Warren and Republican incumbent Scott Brown. Although the Democrats traditionally canvass and phone bank before elections, this year’s activity is much higher than usual, according to Zak Newman ’13, the group’s president. “In 2008, there was a huge group of students that were all supporting [Obama] and became invested in the campaign with ideas of hope, and change, and everything else that got people excited about the election,” Newman said. “This time, I think people are much more sober about what this election means, which also makes it really empowering in that it has a substantive focus on policy.” The Democrats have been working for a range of candidates — including President Barack Obama, Murphy, U.S. House candidate Elizabeth Esty and Warren — holding weekly phone banks, running voter registration drives and canvassing in Connecti-

cut, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and, this coming fall recess, in Pennsylvania. In 2008, the Dems did not have to focus their time on a senatorial race in Connecticut, allowing the group to focus more on other races. “The Yale College Democrats have been extremely helpful to the Connecticut Democratic Party’s Coordinated Campaign in the 5th District,” Connecticut Democratic Party field organizer Matt Janiszewski, part of the Esty campaign, said in a Tuesday email. “Besides weekly phone banking, close to a dozen students joined us for our One Month to Go Rally in Cheshire a week and a half ago.” Yale College Democrats Vice President Andrew Connery ’13 said that since the presidential race happens only once every four years, this is the only year for all current Yale students to work for the President while in college. He also noted the urgency of the two close Senate races in Connecticut and Massachuetts. “We also have a really rare opportunity: we have incredibly competitive Senate races here in Connecticut and in Massachusetts, and these are two states that tend to be pretty blue,” Connery said. “The polls consistently have Murphy and McMahon within one, two or three points of each other, and what it really comes down to is the week and the weekend right before Election Day, and campaigns just need a lot of energetic people out there.” Connery mentioned that previous races have come down to a narrow margin, such as the 2010 race for Governor of Connecticut, which Gov. Dan-

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nel Malloy won by just around 5,000 votes. Hobbs added that an additional challenge to the Democrats’ work is the fact that they are in a re-election year. “Obama has been here for four years, and the incumbent is never as exciting as they were before they were President,” Hobbs said. “But [the Yale College Democrats] have been able to mobilize a group of people who are super excited to get out and do some of the elections work that isn’t as fun: making a phone call and having someone yell at you as if you’re a horrible person isn’t easy.” The Democrats have increased their work with the campaigns, and Hobbs said that compared to the previous two years, the group has been more active than ever.

Jimmy Tickey, campaign manager for Rep. Rosa DeLauro, said DeLauro’s campaign values college students in particular because of the energy, enthusiasm and necessary skills they add to campaigns. “Young adults specifically are on social media, and I think that’s increasingly a place where people are getting so much of their news … [young adults] are such an important voting bloc,” Tickey said. “Yale has been terrific, and we have a longstanding relationship with them.” The Yale College Democrats have roughly 250 active members, according to the organization’s communications director Eric Stern ’15. Contact DIANA LI at diana.li@yale.edu .

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YALE DAILY NEWS · WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2012 · yaledailynews.com

FROM THE FRONT Survey results outline student opinion on search GRAPH SHOULD THE NEXT PRESIDENT HAVE A YALE DEGREE? GRAPH SHOULD THE NEXT PRESIDENT HAVE ADMINISTRATIVE EXPERIENCE AT YALE?

YES

IT DOES NOT MATTER YES

GRAPH SHOULD THE NEXT PRESIDENT COME FROM AN ACADEMIC BACKGROUND?

NOT IMPORTANT

NO

YES, BUT IT DOESN’T MATTER WHETHER IT IS AT YALE

NOT IMPORTANT

YES

YALE COLLEGE COUNCIL

SEARCH FROM PAGE 1 tion and questioning. Levin added that Search Committee Chief of Staff and University Associate Vice President Martha Highsmith is planning to contact with the appointed counselors in the next few weeks regarding any feedback they have received from their constituencies. When asked to describe topics over which the Search Committee may approach the student counselor in the future, Levin said, “I have literally no idea, nor do any of the other counselors.” “Because we don’t know how the next few months will play out, we also don’t know what point along the process the Search Committee will talk to the counselors and what they’ll want our opinions about,” Levin added.

Still, Levin said he is confident that the Search Committee will consider the surveys in its effort to listen to student opinion. After he showed the committee a draft of the survey questions, he said, the committee members guaranteed they would take the results into account in future stages of the search process. But six of 12 students interviewed said they were unsure the surveys and reports would have a tangible impact on the selection process. “I think it’s nice that they are trying to include students, but I’m not sure if they are really understanding our concerns,” Vrishti Mongia ’14 said. “I definitely think there should be more than one student liaison to the Presidential Search Committee. We need to make sure that there is a diversity

of interests represented.” Roman Utkin GRD ’15 said he is impressed with the Search Committee’s promises to consider student opinion. But he said the search process could have been better had the Search Committee responded more frequently to student concerns raised in the survey and through other forums. Though some students question the future impact of the surveys on the search process, Yale College Council President John Gonzalez ’14 said the number and length of student responses to the YCC survey are proof that the student body is invested in the search. Out of 5,322 undergraduates, 820 responded to the survey, and Gonzalez added that he has received over 20 pages of responses written by students who chose to elaborate on their survey responses. He said

that overall, students were most supportive of appointing a president who would be more involved in the daily life of the University. “Among all the themes in students’ responses, the point that really stood out was students’ desire for a president who is more visible on campus,” he said. “While students understand that a president must be experienced in fundraising and academia, they like seeing their president on campus, at their sports games and in their activities.” Levin sent his survey to students by email Sept. 6. Contact KIRSTEN SCHNACKENBERG at kirsten.schnackenberg@yale.edu . Contact JULIA ZORTHIAN at julia.zorthian@yale.edu .

I think it’s nice that they are trying to include students, but I’m not sure if they are really understanding our concerns. VRISHTI MONGIA ’14

Among all the themes in students’ responses, the point that really stood out was students’ desire for a president who is more visible on campus. JOHN GONZALEZ ’14 YALE COLLEGE COUNCIL PRESIDENT

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PAGE 5

NEWS

15

Years since Hong Kong became the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China.

By an agreement signed by China and the UK on Dec. 19, 1984, Hong Kong joined China July 1, 1997.

Panelists champion social enterprise BY EMMA GOLDBERG CONTRIBUTING REPORTING For all Yale students considering investment banking, Doug Hausladen ’04 has a message for you: Do not go to the dark side. The undergraduate organization Net Impact hosted an event to launch its organization on Tuesday that aimed to inspire Yale students to explore the field of social enterprise — or socially-conscious entrepreneurship. The panel included Hausladen, Ward 7 Alderman and the co-founder of ActualFood; Barry Nalebuff, cofounder of Honest Tea and professor at the Yale School of Management; Maxim Thorne LAW ‘92, former vice president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; Cary Krosinsky, senior vice president of TruCost; and Kate Cooney, an SOM professor. At the talk, the speakers explored their definitions of social enterprise and suggested an alternative to traditional careers in business or non-profits. “The point of social enterprise is to show that we can start a business that treats customers as responsible and intelligent,” Nalebuff said.

The consulting business will survive without you. My pitch is the world needs you. JENNIFER CHEUNG/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

DOUG HAUSLADEN ’04 Alderman, Ward 7 All speakers agreed that prioritizing a company’s social benefit is a critical element of any career. Nalebuff said at Honest Tea, he tries not to focus on economic losses incured by socially-responsible business practices and rather concentrates on customer loyalty fostered by its sustainable and health-conscious mission. Hausladen said he thinks too many students enter the fields of investment banking or consulting, two careers that do not take

At a Monday event hosted by Net Impact, panelists discussed socially conscious careers. improving the lives of others into account. “The consulting business will survive without you,” he said. “My pitch is the world needs you. You have the privilege of a Yale education.” But the panelists said they acknowledged the limitations of social enterprise, explaining that the private sector cannot resolve large-scale issues such as environmental degradation. Krosinsky, whose firm measures the environmental impact

of other companies, said society is “heading toward a cliff environmentally,” and the only way to address climate change is through public policy. Cooney said she was pleased with the diversity of experiences of social enterprise featured in the event. “One thing I hope students learned from this event is that social enterprise is a field in evolution,” Cooney told the News. “It’s a field with a heterogeneous group of organizations and cross-sec-

tors.” Kaity Hsieh ’15, a Net Impact board member who helped organize the event, said she hoped to draw students with a variety of interests to the panel by conveying the breadth of options available in the social enterprise field. “We tried to incorporate elements ranging from sustainability to social justice,” she said, “and we thought having Barry Nalebuff was importance since Honest Tea is an example of a company that has been extremely successful

commercially, and not just locally.” Net Impact President Schuyler Arakawa ’15 said she appreciated that students who are not associated with Net Impact attended the panel, even though the Yale chapter was just founded at the beginning of the semester. Students interviewed said they left the event feeling inspired and better-informed about career choices. Sandra Medrano ’15 said she felt the panel offered a range of perspectives, effectively balanc-

ing knowledgeable professors and practicing social entrepreneurs. Andrew Stein ’16, a Net Impact member, said he was excited to hear about successful social enterprises, adding that the many programs Yale offers for burgeoning entrepreneurs factored into his college selection. Net Impact is a San-Franciscobased 501(c)3 non-profit with over 300 chapters worldwide that promotes socially and environmentally sustainable business,

Hong Kong trade rep touts economic growth BY JASMINE HORSEY CONTRIBUTING REPORTER The most senior representative of the Hong Kong government based in the United States spoke Tuesday about the city’s current economic and business climate in Hong Kong. Donald Tong, the Hong Kong commissioner for economic and trade affairs in the U.S., gave a lecture entitled “Hong Kong — 15 Years After the Changeover” that addressed Hong Kong’s future in light of its 1997 changeover from a British colony to a part of mainland China. At the talk, Tong explained that despite fears following the ownership change, Hong Kong continues to show rapid economic growth.

Hong Kong’s link with mainland China, political stability and central location have contributed to the expansion of its economy, he said.

The Wall Street Journal recently ranked Hong Kong as having the freest economy in the world. DONALD TONG Hong Kong commissioner for economic and trade affairs in the U.S. “Hong Kong is an astonishing tale of transformation”, he

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said. “At the changeover there was some skepticism towards its future, but it has continued to make robust progress since 1997.” Tong outlined the sources of Hong Kong’s strength, such as infrastructure investment and a political system free from corruption, adding that the economy remained resilient after the 2008 global financial crisis. Despite concerns for Hong Kong’s future following the transfer of its ownership, he said, the city’s advantageous geographical position on the coast of China has allowed it to become an important trade route between the East and West. As a special administrative region of China, Hong Kong can independently arrange its own trade agreements with other nations,

he added. As a result, the city attracts a variety of foreign firms looking to invest — contributing to a stable level of economic growth, he said. “There are many competitive advantages that have allowed it to flourish,” he said. “Our adherence to free market principles has been given worldwide recognition. The Wall Street Journal recently ranked Hong Kong as having the freest economy in the world.” Tong also discussed future projects for Hong Kong, including the development of the 18-mile HK-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge to facilitate the flow of visitors from mainland China to Hong Kong. With nearly 42 million tourists coming to Hong Kong from other parts of China each year, the city

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is an ideal place for foreign companies to access the mainland market, he said. He added that Hong Kong’s economy operates at a low unemployment rate — a positive economic force complemented by an increase in political participation by its citizens. At the legislative council election of Sept. 9, Tong said nearly 60 percent of 3.4 million registered voters — out of seven million citizens — cast ballots for the 70 members of Hong Kong’s legislative council. He added that Hong Kong has invested in a state-of-the-art infrastructure and emphasized improving the education system. Several students interviewed said they enjoyed hearing from a prestigious Hong Kong offi-

cial. Wylie Chow SOM ’13 said he appreciated that Tong considered many different aspects of Hong Kong’s economy and hoped similar events would be staged in the future. “I grew up in Hong Kong, and I’m glad to have such a great opportunity to meet some of its officials,” he said. “I read the news from Hong Kong every day and I have lots of questions, so it’s an incredible opportunity to ask him about some of the current issues.” Tong oversees the work of the three Hong Kong Economic and Trade Offices in Washington, New York and San Francisco. Contact JASMINE HORSEY at jasmine.horsey@yale.edu .

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YALE DAILY NEWS · WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2012 · yaledailynews.com

ARTS & CULTURE THIS WEEK IN THE ARTS 12:30-1:30 P.M. WED. OCT. 17

200

Yale University Art Gallery

finds home in

Green Hall, Yale School of Art

4:00-6:00 P.M. WED. OCT. 17 JOE’S JUNK YARD BOOK PARTY AND SIGNING Celebrate the launch of Lisa Kereszi’s ART ’00 new photography book, which depicts a family’s struggles as their family business fails. Green Hall, Yale School of Art

5:30-6:30 P.M. WED. OCT. 17 OPENING LECTURE: “CARO CLOSE UP — A PRIVATE VIEW” Listen to Julius Bryant, a collaborator on the new exhibit at the Yale Center for British Art, dissect the intricacies of British sculptor Anthony Caro’s work. Yale Center for British Art

7:30-9:30 P.M. WED. OCT. 17 YALE JAZZ ENSEMBLE FALL CONCERT Attend the Yale Jazz Ensemble’s season opener to hear the work of Gordon Goodwin and Duke Ellington, among others. Morse Recital Hall, Sprague Memorial Hall

4:30-6:30 P.M. THURS. OCT. 18 EXHIBITION OPENING AND TOUR — POETICS AND POLITICS OF THE ERUV Explore all three parts of this new exhibit exploring Jewish identity by taking a shuttle bus between the the Insitute of Sacred Music, the Joseph Slifka Center for Jewish Life at Yale and the Yale School of Art. Receptions will be held in all three locations simultaneously.

redesigned Gallery CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: KAMARIA GREENFIELD/SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER; JACOB GEIGER/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR; VIVIENNE ZHANG/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

The 14-year renovation of the Yale University Art Gallery’s three component buildings has culminated in site-specific spaces for certain works of art. BY YANAN WANG STAFF REPORTER When the Yale University Art Gallery unveils its newly renovated and expanded space on Dec. 12, visitors will be able to view works of art in rooms specifically designed to enhance their appeal. The opening of the renovated Gallery will signify the culmination of a $135 million construction project that has spanned 14 years and involved the work of a diverse design staff. In addition to head architects Duncan Hazard ’71 and Richard Olcott of Ennead Architects, the Gallery employed administrators and curators alike to collaborate in creating exhibition spaces that will be suited to each wing’s specific collections. “Each of the curators had an opportunity to shape the galleries,”

said Maura Scanlon, the Gallery’s public relations director. “Each of the galleries has a character that is reflective of the art that it is exhibiting.” The renovation’s concern for the nature of the artwork in each space may be part of a recent movement within architecture to move beyond the conventional “white box” approach for gallery construction, School of Architecture critic Martin Finio said. “It is a question of whether architecture should be a background or a catalyst,” he explained. He added that while the debate about whether architecture should be subservient to art is ancient, architects have only recently begun exploring the ways structures can complement the artwork displayed within them and enhance its quality. Finio cited the Guggenheim

Museum Bilbao, built in 1997 in Bilbao, Spain, as “a poster child of architecture taking the front seat in relation to art.” School of Architecture Director of Exhibitions Brian Butterfield said, however, that he does not see the renovations on the Art Gallery as a part of the new wave of contemporary museum expression. Butterfield noted that because the construction project is more about the “adaptive re-use of old space” than the creation of new space, he does not think it demonstrates the same methodology as the one behind the Bilbao Guggenheim. While Butterfield said he thinks that the organization of distinct rooms in the Gallery’s new design does not align with this movement, he nevertheless said he imagines the involvement of the curators in the design process facilitated the cre-

ation of non-generic gallery spaces tailored specifically to the museum’s collection. The Art Gallery already exhibits several pieces that demand sites with specific characteristics. On an Art Gallery tour this Sunday entitled “Charged Spaces: When Art Exceeds Its Boundaries,” gallery guide Angie Shih ’14 discussed how the installation “Stacks,” created by Richard Serra ’62 ART ’64, incited controversy for taking up too much room in its original location. The installation, which features two rectangular masses of rolled steel standing 60 feet apart and parallel to one another, was originally placed in the Swartwout Sculpture Hall, one of the Gallery’s three component buildings. Faculty at the School of Architecture expressed appreciation for the way in which sections of the Gallery function not only as display loca-

tions for art, but also intimate spaces for the viewer. “At the YUAG we can pass from Kahn’s distinct modernist space into Swartwout’s Romanesque halls and experience the distinct effect a space can have upon the viewer,” Architecture professor and critic Bennett Dansby said in an email. Scanlon agreed, comparing the intimacy of the redesigned European galleries to the stark feel and high ceilings of the wings that house modern and contemporary art. Architecture critic Sunil Bald said in an email that the concrete block walls of the Kahn Gallery are “a classic example” of art interacting with the space around it. The opening of the Art Gallery’s expansion is slated for Dec. 12, 2012. Contact YANAN WANG at yanan.wang@yale.edu .

Angsty ‘Spring Awakening’ debuts BY ANYA GRENIER STAFF REPORTER

The Institute of Sacred Music

6:30-8:30 P.M. THURS. OCT. 18 DIDO AND AENEAS Watch the opening show of Purcell’s classic opera about the Carthaginian queen and Trojan hero. Stiles-Morse Crescent Theater

8:00-10:00 P.M. FRI. OCT. 19 YALE PHILHARMONIA Peter Oundjian conducts a performance of works by Bartok and Shostakovich. Woolsey Hall

11:00 A.M. - 12:00 P.M. SAT. OCT. 20 ARCHITECTURE TOUR Explore the Yale Center for British Art in the context of Louis Kahn’s architectural design. Yale Center for British Art JOY SHAN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

The musical “Spring Awakening” opens this Thursday.

“Spring Awakening,” a rock musical best known for its hit songs “The B**** of Living” and “Totally F***ed” opens at the Off-Broadway Performance Space on Thursday, Oct. 18. The 2007 musical, written by Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater, is set in 19th century Germany, and, like the 1891 play by Frank Wedekind on which it is based, centers on a group of teenagers struggling to understand their emerging sexualities in a world where adults are distant and oppressively uncommunicative on the subject. The cast and crew of the production at Yale have found the show’s newness and unorthodox nature to be sources of inspiration as well as challenges. The production at Yale was spearheaded by producer Ethan Karetsky ’14 and director Samantha Pillsbury ’15, who began planning the show together during reading period last semester. “We asked ourselves, ‘if we could do any show, what show would we do?’” Pillsbury said. “And we kept coming back to Spring Awakening.” The team faced an obstacle familiar to anyone who has attempted to stage a full-scale musical, particularly such a recent one, on a Creative and Performing Arts Award (CPA): Simply obtaining the rights means spending a significant portion of the uniform $1,400 grant, forcing producers to find alternative sources of funding,

These sculptures are joined by a collection of 2,000 paintings, 20,000 drawings and watercolors, 30,000 prints, 35,000 rare books and manuscripts and over 30,000 volumes supporting research in British art.

Expand dance studies

BY HAYLEY BYRNES CONTRIBUTING REPORTER

GALLERY TALK: SOL LEWITT AND THE WALL Learn about three of Sol LeWitt’s wall drawings and experience the newly renovated art gallery firsthand.

LATOYA RUBY FRAZIER Watch photographer LaToya Ruby Frazier discuss sociopolitical commentary through art.

Number of sculptures in the Yale Center for British Art’s collection

Wilson talks Chilean experience

Site-specific art

2:00-3:00 P.M. WED. OCT. 17

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Karetsky said. “The CPA Award is an incredible resource to student theater, but it is not always sufficient for larger-scale shows, particularly musicals,” he said. Finding a space large enough to handle the show’s intensity of emotion proved to be another key hurdle early on in the production, Pillsbury said. She and Karetsky applied for the use of the Off-Broadway over the summer, so that set construction could begin in time for the show’s opening this week. “All the yelling and jumping and anger can’t be contained in a small space,” Pillsbury said. In focusing on characters still in high school, Spring Awakening provides its cast with an unusual opportunity, since most musicals students participate in require them to act like adults, said Anna Miller ’14, who will play the role of Ilse. “We’re playing kids just figuring out how to be adults. Getting to replay that part of your life is definitely something different from what musical theater usually lets you do,” she explained. In fact, all of the singing roles in the show are reserved for the young characters, while only two actors, one male and one female, will fill all of the adult roles. Portraying all of the adult figures as interchangeable adds to the “us vs. them mentality of the show,” Miller added. The way Spring Awakening handles its musical numbers also reflects the adolescent characters’ inability to express

themselves to those around them. Unlike other musicals, in which “people sing when words aren’t enough,” the characters in Spring Awakening sing “because they’re saying something that they don’t want anyone else to hear,” Pillsbury said. The elements that have made the show among the most censored in theater history — including its blunt discussion of teenage sexuality, suicide, abortion and sexual abuse — are far from outmoded today. Even with its long history, Spring Awakening is still extremely new when it comes to being performed off of the professional stage, Miller said. The rights to the musical were released just a year ago, making Yale’s staging part of the first wave of non-Broadway productions taking place at high schools and college campuses across the country. Miller said the relative modernity of the musical contributes to the excitement of working on the production, since there are few conventions surrounding its interpretation. “There are fewer versions of it out there; people haven’t had time to do too many new things with it,” Miller said. Spring Awakening will use Off-Broadway in an atypical way, rearranging the traditional theater setup to create “a much more open, edgier space, with a much [rawer] feel to it,” Karetsky said. While the seating in Off-Broadway is typically clustered at one end of the stage, the audience at

Spring Awakening will view the action from every angle. “We wanted to show off the versatility of [Off-Broadway] … to tear it down and build it up anew,” Karetsky said. Miller said this black-box setup will alter the dynamic of the show. “It’s a completely different experience based on where you’re sitting,” Miller explained, adding that being visible from every direction will be new for many of the actors as well. The production will draw on visual elements from both the original play and the musical production, putting a different “spin” on both, said Emily Monjaraz ’14, the show’s costume and set designer. Natural and forest imagery play a very dominant role in Wedekind’s play, while the Broadway musical is “a lot more about the classroom.” Monjaraz has tried to marry the two, setting the scene amidst a forest chalked onto blackboards and including a wire hanger tree as a set piece. The buzz around Spring Awakening is palpable. The performances for Friday and Saturday nights sold out within two hours, and the entire show in another three. “There are a lot of feelings about it,” Monjaraz said. “It’s something people are still really pumped up about.” Spring Awakening has won eight Tony Awards including “Best Musical.” Contact ANYA GRENIER at anna.grenier@yale.edu .

Chilean artist Liliana Wilson is able to explain her life’s events through her paintings. On Tuesday, Wilson presented a sample of her artwork — about 50 paintings and explanations of the events surrounding them — at the Yale Women’s Center to a group of roughly twenty-five people. Inspired by her childhood in Chile and eventual move to the United States, she incorporates the struggles of Latin Americans and immigrants throughout her work. MeChA, a La Casa student group that advocates for Chicano unity, hosted the event as part of a week-long series on education. The organization, part of a larger national movement, has mentored high school students and worked with New Haven-based unions to advocate for the local Latino community. MeChA President Diana Enriquez said the group has placed more emphasis on cultural events in recent years. Wilson’s art, she said, conveys the immigration experience in a more powerful way than words alone. “The rhetoric around the immigration experience is dehumanizing right now,” said Natalia Thompson ’13, the event’s organizer. Thompson added that Wilson puts immigrants’ stories in perspective, “and reminds us that they’re families and they’re lovers.” But Wilson said she does not consider herself an activist. “I’m trying to connect and communicate on a very deep level with people,” Wilson said. “More than education, I want people to communicate with each other.” In her lecture, she referenced a chronological PowerPoint presentation to explain her thinking behind each piece of art. One piece, “El Estadio Nacional,” depicts a mass of people in a stadium waiting for their death at the hands of the Chilean government. Her final piece, “I belong here,” showed a girl sitting and holding a flag that reads “inmigrante,” a testament to the universality of the human experience. At eight years old, Wilson began to draw while bed-ridden after a car accident. Since then, she has identified as an artist. In 1973, when Wilson was a law school student, a military junta overthrew the government and began a 17-year dictatorship. She said she began drawing everything she saw, not shying away from the horrors of death and torture. “Suddenly habeus corpus didn’t mean

I

MARIA ZEPEDA/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

Chilean artist Liliana Wilson presented her artwork at the Yale Women’s Center Tuesday. anything anymore,” she said. When she immigrated to Texas in 1977, she burned all of her work for fear of government persecution. Though Wilson still depicts subjects from her life in Chile, the paintings she created while living there are largely inaccessible. Since arriving to the United States, Wilson has focused on the immigrant experience, though she said that none of her work has explicit political motivations. Enriquez, the MeChA president, said that many Latin American artists use surreal elements to depict the violence and trauma around them. Despite these darker themes, Wilson still emphasizes the aesthetic of each piece and hopes to make it beautiful in its own way. She said that while she depicts the hard lives of forgotten immigrants, “in the end I think that most people are good. And if you just show them the problem, they’ll probably want to help.”

Katie Aragon ’14, who attended the event, said that Wilson’s work is especially powerful because of her emphasis on both a storytelling narrative and a pleasing aesthetic. “Her paintings tell a human story that is so important to hear and to see,” she said. While much of Wilson’s work was inspired by particular historical events, Deena Tumeh ’13 said she still finds it to be relevant today. Tumeh said that Wilson’s individual explanation of each piece made the experience more powerful than a traditional exhibit setting. A compilation of Wilson’s work will be published by Texas A&M University press, accompanied by essays about her art, in the next year. Contact HAYLEY BYRNES at hayley.byrnes@yale.edu .

Caro debuts at YCBA BY PAYAL MARATHE CONTRIBUTING REPORTER Tomorrow, the Yale Center for British Art will open its latest exhibition — “Caro: Close Up” — a roughly chronological display of the work of contemporary British artist Anthony Caro. Caro’s style has evolved throughout his artistic career, especially after his visit to the United States in 1959, said Martina Droth, the exhibit’s organizing curator and the head of research at the British Art Center. Although the artist considered America an important place to display his newly abstract art, Caro’s work has not been featured in the United States since a 1975 exhibit at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, the artist’s son Paul Caro said. The British Art Center organized “Caro: Close Up” to share his personal artwork as much as his more well-known sculptures. Accordingly, many of the featured pieces were borrowed from Caro’s personal and family collections. “It’s not a retrospective as much as it is an intimate look at Caro’s art,” British Art Center Director Amy Meyers GRD ’85 said. The project began when curator Julius Bryant of the Victoria and Albert Museum, who is collaborating with the British Art Center on the show, visited the center. He was impressed with the space and the resonance Louis Kahn’s architectural style could have with Caro’s work, Meyers said. Bryant saw a chance to feature Caro’s pieces in a clear and intimate setting. To keep this clean look, there are no labels assigned to any pieces. “Caro: Close Up” also aims to place the British sculptor’s work in the context of his American and British influences, incorporating paintings by other artists who may have inspired Caro, Droth explained. “Caro looked to paintings for inspiration, not just to other sculptures,” Droth said. “We wanted to embed Caro’s work in what was going on in London at that time.” Droth said she is particularly excited about the new collection because while the gallery features historical artists frequently, it exposes the community to modern artists less often. Showcasing Caro’s work has given the British Art

YALE CENTER FOR BRITISH ART

British sculptor Anthony Caro is known for his abstract bronze pieces. Center the opportunity to celebrate “the most eminent sculptor of today,” she added. Now, she said she hopes to institute a program that brings the work of living artists to the center. The exhibit consists of about 60 pieces, beginning with an outdoor display of “Ocean,” a steel sculpture on loan from the Yale University Art Gallery. This piece acts as a “signpost,” orienting people with something familiar by Caro before drawing them into the show’s unique displays. Inside, the exhibit begins with drawings Caro completed while studying under Henry Moore at the Royal Academy in London. Although often excluded from displays of the British sculptor’s repertoire, Bryant said drawings were “fundamental to Caro’s seemingly abstract work,” since it is through drawing that Caro learned about space, form and gravity’s impact on the portrayal of human figures. “These drawings are not just documentary works of his early career, but are works in their own right,” Droth said. Next to these drawings are some of Caro’s early pieces, mostly large sculptures. “Man Holding His Foot” foreshadows Caro’s later divergence from conventional sculpting techniques, Droth said, adding that “transition” pieces in the collection emphasize Caro’s shifting style. Displays of table structures, smaller

pieces that Caro could work in his onecar garage, emphasize the exhibit’s focus on Caro’s more personal work, Bryant explained. “The table structures are a window into Caro’s private world, and the entire exhibit focuses on exploring this private dimension,” he said. In addition to working on a smallerscale, Caro experimented with different materials as he progressed through his career. Another section displays his sculptures in bronze, a more flexible artistic metal. Bryant said that Caro chose to work in bronze because its plasticity would better allow him to experiment. Caro’s paper structures, on view in the final room, stand in contrast to his metal works. According to Paul Caro, however, the dichotomy between elegance and power unites pieces of different materials. Despite the varying styles Caro adopted throughout his career, some aspects of his art remained constant. “He loved art, and for him, it was less about angst and more about beauty,” Bryant said. While Caro himself is in his late 80s and is unable to travel to Yale for the opening, a video interview with him will be shown at Bryant’s opening lecture at 5:30 today. Contact PAYAL MARATHE at payal.marathe@yale.edu .

almost didn’t choose Yale. When I received word that I’d gotten into Harvard off of the wait list, I was stumped. Harvard had a curricular dance program — no dance major, but at least a longstanding program. Yale did ELENA not. Despite my qualms, I LIGHT followed my intuition and prepared to dive into Yale’s Dance admittedly thriving extracurricular dance scene. My experience is not unique. Each year Yaledancers, the extracurricular dance group I joined freshman year and of which I am now co-president, sets up a booth at the Bulldog Days Extracurricular Bazaar. Each year I meet dancers hesitant to come to Yale, unwilling to sideline their years of intense physical and mental training. This is not to say that curricular dance at Yale is non-existent. Thanks in large part to Theater Studies lecturer Emily Coates ’06 GRD ’11 — a practicing dancer, choreographer and scholar — there is now an official Dance Studies curriculum within Yale’s Theater Studies department. Coates launched the co-curricular Yale Dance Theater (YDT) program in 2010, putting Yale on the map for programs that emphasize how the physical practice of dance can serve as a research tool. YDT dancers have since performed seminal works by Twyla Tharp and Merce Cunningham, reflecting on our experiences in a blog.

[Creating a dance studies major] would benefit both Yale and the status of dance studies in American higher education. Still, the current state of curricular and co-curricular dance at Yale is far from perfect. Yale has one co-curricular ballet technique class that only began this year; Harvard, Princeton and Stanford all offer at least four classes in varying styles. In terms of quality, Yale’s offerings are on par with these universities; it is in quantity — in the number of technique classes and curricular performance opportunities — that Yale is lacking. Yale has historically been a leader in the arts. The Schools of Art, Architecture, Music and Drama are among the top institutions in their respective fields, with worldrenowned faculty and visiting practitioners. This excellence carries over to their undergraduate departments, attracting some of the most accomplished young visual artists, musicians and actors from around the world. Shouldn’t Yale strive to attract equally excellent young dancers and choreographers? If Yale has excelled as an innovator in these other artistic disciplines, why not do the same for dance? I propose that Yale offer a major in dance studies. Currently, students may opt for the Dance Studies track within the Theater Studies major, completing a senior project in dance or performance. While they can count the 2–3 dance studies courses offered each semester toward their major, students must take two introductory theater surveys as well as four courses “chosen from four periods of dramatic literature or theater history or from four cultures,” according to the Yale College Program of Study. These theater requirements often dissuade students interested in dance — myself included — as they are not directly relevant to performance studies and focus heavily on the theatrical text. Instead, a dance studies major program would offer courses uniting dance practice — technique, choreography and performance — with written research and analysis. The program would prepare students for postgraduate dance study and for careers in dance performance, choreography and arts administration. This bold step would benefit both Yale and the status of dance studies in American higher education. Despite its relevance in contemporary artistic practice, dance retains connotations of “physical education” and is not historically considered a liberal art. If Yale, arguably the greatest university supporter of the arts in the United States, were to institutionally back a dance studies major, other leading universities might follow, providing an intellectual dance environment for exceptional students who might otherwise attend conservatory or head straight to a professional career. Accomplished choreographers, performers and dance scholars would also finally have a place in America’s elite institutions of learning. Until then, the administration must face the reality that many young dancers simply don’t choose Yale. ELENA LIGHT is the co-president of Yaledancers and the student coordinator for Yale Dance Theater. She is a senior in Jonathan Edwards College.Contact her at elena.light@yale.edu .