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NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT · THURSDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2012 · VOL. CXXXV, NO. 64 · yaledailynews.com
INSIDE THE NEWS MORNING EVENING
SUNNY CLEAR
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CROSS CAMPUS
ALL THAT JAZZ BUILDING A YALE JAZZ CULTURE
LONG WHARF
W. BASKETBALL
ADMISSIONS
Historic New Haven theatre marks completion of renovation
ELIS TAKE DOWN FORDHAM TO END LOSING STREAK
Colleges nationwide are moving away from standardized testing
PAGE 3 CULTURE
PAGE 3 CITY
PAGE 12 SPORTS
PAGE 3 NEWS
Cops drop injunction
Three is better than one. In an effort to increase access to rare languages, Columbia, Cornell and Yale have launched a collaborative project that will use video conferencing to expand the study of less commonly taught languages, such as Polish, Bengali and elementary Nahuatl.
BY SOPHIE GOULD AND JANE DARBY MENTON STAFF REPORTERS
Keep dreaming. It seems that
even Hollywood producers have acknowledged Yale’s superiority over Harvard. In fact, a recent trailer for Fox’s science fiction series “Fringe” features shots of the University’s Old Campus. The catch? The trailer claims to be a scene of Harvard’s campus. As if, Harvard. As if.
tions are rightfully theirs because they would have been promoted to sergeants based on the results of a 2009 test. The CSB discarded the 2009 results after one year instead of the usual two over concerns that no Latino officers had passed the test.
Provost Peter Salovey is working to encourage high-quality teaching among professors at Yale. The Provost’s Teaching Initiative, which Salovey announced in an email to faculty in November, will have three components: the Provost’s Teaching Award, the expansion of the Graduate Teaching Center into the Yale Teaching Center and a faculty steering committee to oversee the teaching initiative. Salovey said he has been considering starting an effort such as this since he became provost in 2008. Yale College Dean Mary Miller said the initiative will create a culture that emphasizes strong classroom teaching as well as research by increasing the visibility of Yale’s top teachers. “At a place like Williams or Amherst, [teaching] is taken for granted, but for a top research university like Yale to put this kind of investment in teaching, I think it’s a real statement,” said Deputy Provost for the Social Sciences and Faculty Development Frances Rosenbluth, who is leading the initiative. “We want to be able to identify [excellence in teaching], recognize it, reward it and make it part of the DNA of the faculty culture at Yale.” Salovey said he looked to models of institutionalized teaching recognition at other universities for inspiration, including the Bass University Fellows in Undergraduate Education Program at Stanford, which rewards several professors each year for their commitment to undergraduate education. Salovey said the Provost’s Teaching Award, which his office will present each spring to 10 professors — at least six of
SEE NEW HAVEN 10 PAGE 4
SEE TEACHING PAGE 4
Speaking of languages and television. Yale anthropologist
Mark Turin was featured on the BBC series “Our Language in Your Hands” this week as he discussed endangered languages in Nepal. The linguist will be back for the second and third part of the series, talking about different languages in South Africa and New York City. Off campus and hungry? The
Yale College Council and Yale Dining are soliciting feedback from Yalies to create a new meal plan for off-campus students. So now, instead of living off ramen noodles and week-old beer, those of you living off campus may be able to munch on chicken tenders and tofu apple crisp.
Picking up the awards. Yale running back Tyler Varga ’15 has added yet another honor to his trophy case. Yesterday, the football player was named honorable mention Football Championship Subdivision All-American by the Beyond Sports Network. Vargas has led the FCS with 194.2 all-purpose yards per game. Bravo! Their lives are so hard.
Harvard held a “Home from Harvard” workshop yesterday that aimed to help Cantabs cope with the stress of talking about their “little school in Cambridge” when they return home for winter break. The event addressed tough questions such as “How do I talk about Harvard at home?” and “Will I still fit in?” Meanwhile, Yalies spent yesterday afternoon gearing up for Mistletoad’s.
Oh no. State Comptroller Kevin Lembo has increased the state budget deficit estimate to $415 million, prompting a wave of concerns about additional cost-cutting procedures that may be implemented in response. Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy’s budget cuts announced last week have already led to a hiring freeze among higher education institutions across the state. THIS DAY IN YALE HISTORY
1924 A planned horse show for Yale’s ROTC officers is postponed after the University’s horses catch a contagious illness. Submit tips to Cross Campus
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Provost announces teaching initiative
ISAAC STANLEY-BECKER/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
City corporation counsel Victor Bolden (right) leaves the courthouse after Wednesday morning’s New Haven 10 hearing. BY MATTHEW LLOYD-THOMAS AND ISAAC STANLEY-BECKER STAFF REPORTERS After a Wednesday morning hearing, 10 New Haven cops claiming they were unlawfully passed over for promotions will persist in suing the city but are no longer seeking an injunction on the city’s plans for
current police promotions. Dropping their request for an injunction, they will seek retroactive promotion and monetary rewards in New Haven Superior Court in fall 2013. The injunction would have prevented the city from promoting officers based on the results of a 2011 Civil Service Board examination. The 10 officers claim those posi-
Dwight Hall weighs Police, schools collaborate ‘voluntourism’ BY CYNTHIA HUA STAFF REPORTER Dwight Hall is working to improve international volunteer service efforts at Yale. At a panel discussion entitled “Moving Beyond Voluntourism” Wednesday night, Dwight Hall addressed concerns over the value of student volunteer trips abroad. The event was organized by the International Network, a Dwight Hall branch that was created this fall to organize specific programming related to international service for 11 student groups. The new initiative will provide oversight for international service efforts and address common criticisms of volunteer trips, such as the lack of meaningful service on such trips. “Service should be fun and is a wonderful way to learn, but you also have to realize you’re providing something important to people, and that’s not to be taken lightly,” said Jeanette Archer-Simons, executive director of Dwight Hall. Complaints about “voluntourism,” the term for service trips that focus on recreation and lack an emphasis on volunteer service, have been brought to several of International Network’s member organizations in the past, International Network Coordinator Teresa Logue ’15 said, but a means to address these concerns has not existed at
Yale. Logue said trips that elicited concerns include service groups that spent the majority of their trips abroad “on vacation” and another group that traveled abroad to provide medical service without having undergone sufficient training. Allowing trips without sufficient service components to advertise themselves as “service,” to be later used on student resumes, is “ethically questionable,” she said. Currently no regulations exist for international service trips offered by Yale student groups, Logue said, and the International Network plans to establish “standards of good practice” for international service trips as well as a system for evaluating trips based on those standards. Since the start of the semester, the International Network has held several events with strong attendance and good feedback, she said, adding that an International Trips Mini-Bazaar was held last week to advertise all the international service trip options available to students. “Service trips are complicated. It’s not an easy thing to go abroad somewhere you’ve never been before and try to implement a project or engage with the community there in a short period of time,” said Monica Landy ’13, the International Network’s event coordiSEE NEW INITIATIVE PAGE 6
PATRICK CASEY/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
Police officers will visit grade schools weekly as part of a new initiative to strengthen ties with students. BY LORENZO LIGATO AND PATRICK CASEY STAFF REPORTERS Officer Robert Clark was speaking to a group of second-graders in the Hill Central School library Wednesday afternoon when a little girl raised her hand and said, “Sometimes I’m scared of cops.” Clark, smiling, replied, “We’ll work on that.” Over the rest of the academic year, Clark will make weekly visits to Hill Central School, a
pre-K through eighth-grade institution at 140 Dewitt St., as part of a new initiative to strengthen ties between the city’s police department and elementary school students. The program, which was formally announced Wednesday at a press event in Hill School, places police officers in grade schools for one or two hours per week as an extension of New Haven’s community policing philosophy. Each of the New Haven’s 10
policing districts is assigned one community-based officer, who is responsible for maintaining police relations with businesses and individuals in their district. As part of that responsibility, every community-based officer has been assigned to three grade schools within their individual district to visit weekly. The visits are scheduled to last between an hour-and-a-half and two hours each week and are SEE POLICE PAGE 6