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 · THURSDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2012 · VOL. CXXXV, NO. 64 · yaledailynews.com
INSIDE THE NEWS MORNING EVENING
SUNNY CLEAR
34 39
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
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YALE DAILY NEWS · THURSDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
OPINION
.COMMENT “There are more important things to discuss than where we're from." yaledailynews.com/opinion
Consider the mayfly
NEWS’
VIEW
W
Remaining Yale online
O
nline expansion should remain true to the spirit of a Yale
education.
At today’s Yale College faculty meeting, professors and administrators will discuss the future of online education at Yale. While we appreciate the effort to expand the University’s online education efforts, we worry that the format of the proposed classes could undermine the values we strive to uphold in our education. In a report to the Yale College Dean’s Office, the Committee on Online Education recommended offering online courses for credit, following the example of Yale’s 20-person online summer courses. The proposed classes would include prerecorded lectures, opportunities for non-Yale students to receive transfer credit and videochat-based sections and seminars. We believe, however, that the University cannot recreate the seminar experience in an online platform. Seminars, in their current form, enable us to examine texts and concepts in a communitybased setting. They foster conversation and critical thought — the kind that happens around a table in WLH and continues into the Berkeley dining hall. They provide opportunities for friendship across class years, colleges and academic disciplines. At their best, they offer the personal interaction that should be the hallmark of a Yale education. But in Yale’s proposed online courses, sections will occur in a virtual video chat room, and students will communicate with the class and amongst them-
'20155' ON 'YALE'S HEARTLAND DISEASE'
selves through an online messenger and audiovisual technology. We believe the proposed format is an insufficient substitute for in-person interaction. It is not the best our Yale education has to offer, and, as we begin our online expansion, it is not the Yale education we should present to the world. A more effective online strategy might instead focus on Yale’s most popular lecture courses — many of which do not offer or emphasize section, and some of which are currently featured on Open Yale Courses — to offer credit opportunities to Yalies and non-Yalies alike. Since most large lectures provide little opportunity for personal connections, online lectures would replicate their New Haven counterparts more accurately than online seminars. A "Game Theory" lecture would appear the same whether viewed from a seat in SSS 114 or a home in New Delhi; a Shakespeare seminar would be dramatically different. To create an authentic Yale experience online, we must modify and adapt exceptional courses to suit the needs of a virtual platform and audience. Successful online courses demand new styles of teaching, new approaches to curricula and new methods of assessment. While large lectures may be suited to an online format, we remain concerned that our most intimate classroom experiences cannot — and should not — transfer online.
hat strikes me about the mayfly is that he lives for less than a day. Actually, a day plus 365, if you count the year he spends as larva, floating around in freshwater, feeding on miniscule plants and shedding his skin every two or three weeks, each layer unsheathing a slightly different body. By the end of the year, the mayfly finally has wings, and so he rises to the surface, and he flies — for one day. One day! In 24 hours, the mayfly will learn to fly, lose his virginity and father children. He will watch his last sunset, this one sunset also his first, so unlike you and I — who are jaded because we’re sick of seeing sunsets on Instagram — he’ll probably appreciate it. When I was a kid, I was less fascinated by short-lived things than by their opposite. I remember going to California when I was 11 or 12 and seeing redwoods that were large and old, impossibly so, like 530 years older than the oldest thing I knew, which was my grandmother. These were trees that saw generations upon generations of baby ospreys
TEO SOARES Traduções
hatch from their eggs and baby bobcats being fed by their mothers — and saw them all die, too, all the while softly swaying back and forth in the wind, like giant metro-
nomes. For some reason, those longliving trees aren’t as interesting to me anymore. It seems to me now that we’re surrounded by stuff that has been around forever. Never mind the redwoods — think about the tortoises, the whales. In 2007, a giant bowhead caught in Alaska had a 19th-century harpoon tip embedded in its neck. Even weirder is Turritopsis dohrnii, the jellyfish that was the subject of The New York Times Magazine cover story last week. The Turritopsis can make itself younger, reverting to its juvenile stage after it has reached sexual maturity. From there, it can recycle its cells and age again — which makes it, in a sense, immortal.
Tortoises, whales, jellyfish — I said these things have been around forever, but that sentence is actually nonsensical. “Forever” can’t reach into the past. Time marches in only one direction, and if you trace back its steps, you’ll find a beginning: the egg that hatched into the tortoise, the embryo that became the whale, the larva that grew into the jellyfish. “Forever,” in these cases, relates not to the past but to an endless future, and the attendant infinite possibilities. Which brings me back to the mayfly. I wonder if he knows that mayflies live for only 24 hours. Does he fret? Does he suffer an existential crisis? When he first flies out of the water, does he look around mournfully because he knows he’ll never be able to see the world beyond the shrubs that grow on the margins of his river? Is he torn between the impulse to explore and the impulse to get it on, knowing, as he does, that he only has 24 hours left to live? I like to think those questions don’t trouble him. In fact I know they don’t, because the mayfly lacks the brain parts necessary for anxiety, but I like to think he
Instagram’s insta-growth I
nstagram, the photo-sharing social network, became a household name with its $1 billion dollar price tag. Early last April, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg sat down with Instagram’s founder Kevin Systrom to discuss an acquisition. Two days later, it was official: Facebook would buy the 13-employee, revenue-free company for the astronomically high price tag of 1 billion dollars. Zuckerberg’s stamp of approval sparked Instagram’s fastest-ever growth spurt; in the following months, it grew from 25 million active users to over 100 million today. However, unlike its social media ancestors Facebook and Twitter, Instagram’s charm has not faltered despite its Instagrowth. Once upon a time in a cold, dark and boring town in Massachusetts, Facebook was born. It was an instant hit: Harvard kids couldn’t get enough. Students at Yale, Columbia and Stanford loved it. It was a personal network of friends and friends of friends — no advertisements, no company pages, no spam. Though some of its best features were still to come, Facebook was invented as a tool to socialize online and to share pictures with friends — not a mechanism to make billions of dollars.
Twitter, Facebook’s shortwinded cousin, followed a similar path to popularity. It was built as a fun side project, but in the process it accomplished something truly revolutionary. Twitter gave everyone an equal, 140-character voice. Now, it serves as a tool for politicians to reach their constituents and even for protesters to mobilize uprisings. Twitter began as a democratizing forum in which the world could interact — not a billboard to bring in millions of dollars in advertising revenue. Today, Facebook is cluttered with banner ads, company promotions and annoying event invitations. Facebook no longer caters only to people; universities have pages, companies have pages, restaurants have pages and nonprofits have pages. Facebook is no longer a network of friends. It is a network of organizations competing for our money. Users have been dehumanized — we are simply dollar signs clicking our way through the Internet. Similarly, although the advertisements on Twitter are less prevalent, they are nonetheless intrusive. Twitter, for example, allows companies to purchase Promoted Tweets. These tweets appear in our feeds with-
out us granting them any permission — they are just there. These social networks are no different than driving on I-95: It is literally impossible to escape the billboard advertisements. Instagram is different. Instagram is our selfless friend. Instagram is the peaceful Vermont road without any billboards. On Instagram, I follow my friends to see funny and artistic photos from their lives. The absence of ads fosters a much more familial environment — one that we no longer experience on Facebook or Twitter. On Thursdays, for example, users enjoy Throwback Thursday — #tbt — by sharing childhood pictures. There are some companies on Instagram, but they aim to enhance their followers’ Instagram experience. They do not try to sell products. For instance, Patagonia posts pictures of mountaineering and surfing adventures from around the world. They often do not even mention their clothing. Moreover, the user chooses to follow a company; companies have no way of entering a user’s feed otherwise. I enjoy Instagram because I see what I want to see — not what Instagram wants me to see. But I get it: Instagram must
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TEO SOARES is a senior in Silliman College. Contact him at teo.soares@yale.edu .
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just tells himself that he’s going to live forever. I was looking at a map the other day and realized that if you draw a vertical line connecting Sweden and Kenya and keep the line going all the way around the globe, you’ll have split the planet into a half I’ve seen and a half I have not. And that’s cheating, because the first half includes places like Suriname and Idaho, and I’ve definitely never been to Idaho. So I resolved I was going to see the unseen half. But that resolution is fueled by equal parts optimism and foolishness. Think about it: I stand about as much chance to see all of Earth as the mayfly stands to see the world beyond his river. Sometimes I lose sight of the fact I’m not going to live forever. Compare me to that jellyfish, and my life is only marginally longer than the mayfly’s. I don’t really care, though. The possibilities seem just as infinite.
monetize. Zuckerberg will never be able to justify the high-priced acquisition if Instagram does not generate revenue. Our Instagram feeds will eventually be filled with advertisements. It is inevitable. However, placing advertisements in Instagram runs the risk of degrading the product. Aside from the obvious unpleasant aesthetics and distractions, advertisements also divert the company’s talent away from core goals. Rather than spending time to evolve the product, the company’s talent must sell ads, mine data and write more code. Jan Koum, the co-founder of the mobile messaging service WhatsApp, remarked on his blog about the company’s choice to charge $0.99 for the app in lieu of advertisements: “When advertising is involved you the user are the product.” We have seen this story unfold — twice. With Facebook and Twitter, we became products of our own technologies. But perhaps the third time is the charm. I hope that Instagram maintains its status as an intimate and noninvasive social network. PETER GINSBERG is a junior in Berkeley College. Contact him at peter.ginsberg@yale.edu .
YALE DAILY NEWS · THURSDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
PAGE 3
NEWS
“If you have to ask what jazz is, you’ll never know.” LOUIS ARMSTRONG AMERICAN JAZZ TRUMPETER AND SINGER
Renovations of theatre unveiled BY MONICA DISARE STAFF REPORTER New Haven’s historic Long Wharf Theatre unveiled its most recent renovations Wednesday night at the public premiere of “The Killing of Sister George.” The highly anticipated theater renovation cost $3.8 million and added roomier seating, a bigger lobby, a new bar area and a lighting grid for the main stage. Construction on the theater began on June 8 but finished just days before the first performance of “The Killing of Sister George,” which was performed primarily for theater subscribers, said Steven Scarpa, Long Wharf’s director of marketing and communications. Both the renovated theater and the show have received rave reviews so far. “I’m really proud we were able to do this,” said Long Wharf Theatre Managing Director Joshua Borenstein DRA ’02. “[People] end up cutting things usually, but we really kept the same scope through the whole thing.” Long Wharf, which is now in its 48th season, produces revivals of classic theater as well as world and American premieres. In the past, Long Wharf has produced more than 30 plays that have been performed on Broadway or Off-Broadway including “My Name is Asher Lev,” “February House” and “The Glass Menagerie.” In addition, Long Wharf won the Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre in 1978. Scarpa said Long Wharf’s rich past gives the renovations more meaning. “[It is] humbling to see we had this kind of impact on a 50-year history,” he said. Although Long Wharf has had countless pre-show receptions over the years, Borenstein predicted Tuesday that the preshow reception for “The Killing of Sister George” would be “extra special” since it marks the completion of the renovation. Donors have been waiting a long time to see the project finished, he explained, adding that for the occasion, Long Wharf’s second stage was used as a banquet hall.
One of the main goals of the renovation was to upgrade patron comfort. So far, patrons have been pleased with the changes, theater officials said. Those who attended the previews of “The Killing of Sister George” said they were impressed by the extra legroom in the seats, Scarpa said. Theatergoers have also commented on the reduced line in the ladies’ room, Borenstein added. In addition to making the theater more comfortable for patrons, the architecture and aesthetics of the theater were revamped. Rick Wies, the project architect, said he does not know what his favorite architecture change is because “all the pieces are like children,” although he said he is extremely proud of the new ceiling and the bar area which both took substantial work.
It really makes it clear how hard the arts community works to do what they do. RICK WIES Architect, renovation project Wies said that he was glad to be involved in the project, adding that he considered its completion a positive reflection on New Haven’s arts community. “It really makes it clear how hard the arts community works to do what they do and how difficult it is to marshal the resources to upgrade facilities that are so badly needed for this theater and for others elsewhere,” Wies said. “It was so gratifying to see it all get pulled together and the community to get together and support it financially.” Scarpa said $3.6 million of the $3.8 million is already raised, adding that he is “really confident” in the theater’s ability to raise the rest of the money. The Tow Foundation donated $1.25 million for the renovation. Contact MONICA DISARE at monica.disare@yale.edu .
LONG WHARF THEATRE
The Long Wharf Theatre’s renovations, which include a lighting grid for the main stage, cost $3.8 million.
Students develop jazz culture
YDN
Yale Concert Band and Yale Jazz Ensemble perfom a tribute to Cole Porter and Glenn Miller at Woolsey Hall in 2010. BY SARAH SWONG STAFF REPORTER Late on Saturday night, computer science professor and Saybrook College Master Paul Hudak, New Haven bassist Jeff Fuller and Harvey Xia ’16 came together as jazz musicians. In the dimly lit Saybrook Underbrook, the piano, bass and alto saxophone trio played nine standard tunes for an hour and a half for an audience of roughly 15 students. This small combo jazz ensemble’s performance was brought to life by the recently established Coffehouse Coda series, which has sponsored biweekly jazz performances in the Underbrook since Nov. 10. Earlier this semester, the Yale Jazz Collective, a student group that promotes jazz at Yale, partnered with Hudak to invite New Haven musicians and Yale students to perform as part of the series in duos, trios or other small groups from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. on Saturday nights. On Sunday afternoons, the Collective also hosts weekly jam sessions for both experienced jazz musicians and newcomers, Hudak said. The Coffeehouse Coda series resulted from Hudak’s personal effort to promote jazz in Saybrook and the Collective’s efforts to play small jazz combo, he said. The performances follow the Underbrook Coffeehouse that takes place from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturday nights and bring Yale student bands and other rock and pop performers from the New England area. “Students can play just for the fun of it, but if they think ‘we have a gig in two weeks, we better rehearse and get better’ — those opportunities are really important,” Hudak said. The Coffeehouse Coda and jam sessions are the first steps in developing a jazz scene at Yale, three Jazz Collective members said. Academic and extracurricular opportunities for jazz at Yale have been lacking compared to those at peer institutions for roughly the past three decades, when most of Yale’s competitors began to invest in formal jazz programs, Jazz Collective Vice President Julian Reid ’13 said. By lobbying the Music Department and higher-level administrators for academic opportunities, creating a community of jazz musicians and promoting jazz events on campus, Reid said the Collective hopes to nurture jazz culture at Yale. While many of Yale’s music professors have jazz experience and expertise, peer institutions including Columbia, Princeton and Harvard offer faculty members and resources specifically for jazz studies. Currently, the University offers
only a handful of jazz theory and history classes, and the School of Music focuses exclusively on classical music with the exception of Willie Ruff’s Duke Ellington Jazz Series and Fellowship, which brings famous jazz musicians to Yale and New Haven. At Columbia, undergraduates can pursue a special concentration in jazz studies along with a major, and Princeton offers a certificate, the equivalent of a minor, in jazz studies. Both schools also give academic credit for performance — through both private lessons and ensemble work — which Yale offers at both the undergraduate and professional levels for classical musicians but not for jazz performers, leading many jazz-oriented undergraduates to pursue their music independently of the school or department. To jump-start course offerings in jazz that focus on improvisation, the Jazz Collective is designing a residential college seminar that it hopes to get approved for next fall, Jazz Collective President Sam Frampton ’15 said. The class would ask professional musicians from the New England area, and potentially Yale faculty members, to teach jazz performance, improvisation, theory and history, he said. Patrick McCreless, the director of undergraduate studies for music, said the department would welcome more jazz courses into the curriculum given demonstrated student demand, citing as potential jazz professors Brian Kane, a theorist who plays jazz guitar, and professor Michael Veal, an ethnomusicologist who plays the saxophone. Yet the small faculty size and liberal arts focus of Yale’s Music Department limits potential course offerings, he added. School of Music professor and Jazz Ensemble Director Thomas Duffy said he would be interested in teaching informal workshops on jazz performance and improvisation, but that he sees formal classes as potentially more effective for motivating students to make a consistent commitment to jazz. Duffy said he sees the extracurricular Jazz Ensemble as the “easiest” outlet for extracurricular jazz performance on campus given its regular rehearsal schedule, faculty and budget support and the infrastructure of the larger Yale Bands organization. But the Jazz Ensemble is a 17-piece big band, which may only appeal to some performers, Frampton said. The Jazz Collective hopes to develop opportunities for small groups that are even more improvisational, Hudak, who is also the Collective’s faculty advisor, said.
Frampton explained that the “smoky club” atmosphere of small ensemble performance could help expose students — both performers and listeners — to jazz culture beyond the music itself. The Collective organized its jam sessions, he added, to offer another “raw” look at jazz. Before lobbying for institutional change, the Jazz Collective must demonstrate enough consistent student demand for jazz, Frampton said. This requires mobilizing jazz musicians already at Yale to ask for jazz opportunities and help create popular support by exposing the rest of the Yale community to jazz. Reid said the group hopes to put jazz music at the front of student consciousness with a weeklong festival in April that will bring professionals from New Haven and New York and organize interdisciplinary jazz lectures and student performances — including jazzrelated a cappella groups. Reid added that concrete examples of Yale’s commitment to jazz, such as a residential college seminar or festival, could help convince jazz-oriented prospective students to enroll at Yale, which would build the jazz community over time. He recalled speaking with high school seniors who expressed skepticism over opportunities for jazz at Yale, some of whom chose other schools because of their interest in jazz. “You want visiting students to see an active thriving community here,” Frampton said. But the residential college seminar and jazz festival may face monetary challenges, Hudak said. The seminar program does not typically pay its professors, so the group may face difficulty recruiting a teacher. Creative and Performing Arts Awards cannot fund events by performers from outside Yale, so the jazz festival and Coffeehouse Coda may need to find other sources of funding. Hudak added that administrators have supported jazz events like the Coffeehouse Coda in the past since they also provide alternative ways of socializing. As an alcohol-free option on a Saturday night, the coffeehouse can be a model for other arts events where students “[don’t] think they have to get plastered,” he said. “[Student jazz musicians] get to be creative and do cool things, while other students can be entertained for the night too,” Hudak said. The Jazz Collective is comprised of roughly 15 student members. Contact SARAH SWONG at sarah.swong@yale.edu .
Universities nationwide reconsider standardized tests BY AMY WANG STAFF REPORTER Colleges and universities across the country are increasingly ridding their applications of a standardized testing requirement. More than 800 schools nationwide no longer require high school applicants to report their SAT or ACT scores, according to a list compiled by the National Center for Fair & Open Testing (FairTest). The number of schools that offer testoptional or test-flexible policies — which include several top-tier institutions such as Middlebury College, Bowdoin College, Wake Forest University and New York University — has grown quickly in recent years. Bob Schaeffer, public education director for FairTest, said he would like to see Yale join the trend toward testoptional applications because the University has been moving away from strictly numbersbased admissions and he thinks the change would be a logical
next step. “It’s very unclear how significant [a] role the SAT plays at hyper-competitive schools which could easily admit entering classes with nothing but 800s if they so chose,” Schaeffer said.
Hyper-competitive schools … could easily admit entering classes with nothing but 800s if they so chose. BOB SCHAEFFER Public education director, FairTest Schaeffer said at Yale, where a portion of applicants have undergone test coaching, “you don’t really know whether [a score] is the score of a kid who took the test cold or one who took a $1000 Princeton Review course.” Those who come from families with
stronger financial backgrounds can “buy themselves a leg up,” he added. Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Jeffrey Brenzel said in an email to the News that he still believes that standardized tests provide relevant information for the Admissions Office because they indicate an applicant’s ability to handle collegelevel work. He said he does not know whether Yale will ever consider becoming a test-optional university. Yale currently asks its applicants to take either the SAT with two SAT subject tests or the ACT Plus Writing test. Lisa Rattray, who has been an SAT prep teacher for over 20 years, said she thinks standardized tests serve as useful shortcuts for universities’ admissions committees to evaluate applicants without wasting valuable time. But, she added, she has “mixed feelings” about the tests’ fairness to students who do not have the advantage of tutoring. “It’d be great if they could come up with something else,”
Rattray said. “There are still so many kids that are probably capable of doing well that aren’t being looked at because they might not be great test-takers.” Executive Director of The Education Conservancy Lloyd Thacker said he believes students overestimate the role of tests in the admissions process because “as a society, we have become too test-oriented.” Still, he added, schools that choose to be test-optional must recognize the trade-off between the benefits — such as diversification of the student body — and the consequences of a potentially lessqualified class. Tim Levin ’93, founder and CEO of New York-based tutoring organization Bespoke Education, said he does not see the importance of the SAT or ACT diminishing in the future. For better or for worse, he said, college rankings such as U.S. News and World Report have “a real stronghold on colleges,” and many schools are so concerned about their rankings that standardized tests have
become “less of a vehicle to judge students than they are a way to judge colleges.” “I think that any test is going to be inherently unfair to certain groups of people,” Levin said. “This is an issue that many are trying to address. I think admissions officers are very aware of this and would tell you they [do consider] a student’s background.” Lola Ajao, a New York high school student about to begin the college application process, said she thinks that requiring the SAT or ACT on applications is “a good idea in theory” as a method of universal comparison. But she added that she thinks tests put students of lower socio-economic standing at a disadvantage. Dianna Exe, a high school student from Ottawa, Canada, said she thinks the SAT requirement is unfair to international applicants because a majority of the SAT’s material is not taught in the Canadian curriculum until the 12th grade, so Canadian appli-
cants may not be on equal footing with American applicants. The majority of American universities currently require standardized tests for admission. Contact AMY WANG at amy.wang@yale.edu .
COLLEGES WITH OP TIONAL SAT A N D AC T BOWDIN COLLEGE
Instituted test-optional policies in 1969 WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY
Test-optional since 2008 NEW YORK UNIVERSITY
Test-optional since 2009 DEPAUL UNIVERSITY
Test-optional since 2011
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YALE DAILY NEWS · THURSDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
FROM THE FRONT Teaching award planned TEACHING FROM PAGE 1 whom will be nontenured faculty members who teach undergraduates — was made possible by a recent gift to the University, which enables Yale to “recognize and reward” great teachers. Miller said the award’s emphasis on junior faculty is particularly important, since Yale has been known for being less supportive of untenured professors. “I’ve spoken to longtime members of the Yale faculty, and they might say that Yale long had a reputation for not giving much weight to teaching and mentoring in the evaluation and promotion and tenuring of younger faculty,” Miller said. Rosenbluth said the initiative is not designed to just reward naturally talented professors, but instead aims to incentivize improvement and critical examination of teaching strategies. Rosenbluth said the newly expanded Yale Teaching Center will provide workshops, forums and other programs to help professors learn from one another and enhance the quality of their teaching. She added that many of these programs will assist junior faculty in particular, though the resources will be available to all professors. Rosenbluth said the faculty steering committee overseeing this initiative will be composed of 10 faculty members, five of whom will be selected next semester, who will serve for two-year terms. The steering committee’s exact duties have yet to be decided, Salovey said, though he added that the committee may advise the Teach-
ing Center, help select teaching award winners and advise the University on issues like online education. Most professors interviewed said they were unaware of the initiative, though all said bal-
Yale long had a reputation for not giving much weight to teaching and mentoring in the … tenuring of younger faculty. MARY MILLER Dean, Yale College ancing research and teaching can be difficult at large universities. “It’s certainly the case that all American universities with both a research mission and a teaching mission have to find ways to balance those two missions when they conflict,” said philosophy professor Scott Edgar. “If the Provost’s Office at Yale is looking to find new ways to balance those two, that’s a good thing.” Edgar added that he had not yet seen the announcement of the initiative. At the start of this semester, Yale had 682 tenured or tenuretrack professors in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Contact SOPHIE GOULD at sophie.gould@yale.edu. Contact JANE DARBY MENTON at jane.menton@yale.edu .
“There is a higher court than courts of justice, and that is the court of conscience. It supercedes all other courts.” MAHATMA GANDHI LEADER OF THE INDIAN INDEPENDENCE MOVEMENT
In bias case, promotions allowed NEW HAVEN 10 FROM PAGE 1 During a pretrial conference, counselors for the plaintiffs and the city met in closed chambers and struck a deal in front of Judge Matthew Frechette — if the plaintiffs win the case in trial, the city must retroactively promote them and provide full monetary recompense. In return, the plaintiffs agreed to drop the request for the injunction, allowing the city to move forward with planned promotions based on the 2011 test. “The bottom line is that the plaintiffs have an adequate remedy in law and therefore had no basis for seeking this injunction,” city corporation counsel Victor Bolden said outside the courtroom. After meeting in closed chambers, the attorneys moved into open court, where they presented the agreement on the record in front of Judge William Hadden Jr. At the request of the plaintiffs’ attorney, John Williams, Bolden stipulated that were the plaintiffs to be successful in court, the city would guarantee the plaintiffs promotions. The city would create new positions or “bump,” as Williams said, current sergeants to other spots if there were not enough openings for the plaintiffs. When Williams filed the injunction in mid-November, he argued that allowing the city to make promotions based on the 2011 exam results would create a shortage of sergeant positions for his clients in the event of their victory. After the hearing, though, Williams said he is satisfied with the legal remedy available to his plaintiffs, seeing no “irreparable injury” in their retroactive promotions. Williams told the News that Wednesday’s development does not change the case at all, as the city still has the burden of proving it had legitimate reason to throw out the 2009 test results early.
“What’s clear is that every move they made was ethnically motivated. Our chances of showing they acted unlawfully with regard to the promotions list is good,” Williams said. “In the pretrial, the city’s lawyers said the early dismissal of the exam results was justified simply because they have the power to do that. Judge Frechette was clearly unconvinced. He looked up and said, ‘That’s it?’”
the same individuals as witnesses. Regardless of the outcome of the case, a number of the New Haven 10 may be promoted based on the 2011 exam, the results of which will be released early next week. Williams, despite calling the exam “totally subjective,” remained hopeful that some of his clients would be promoted. The case, which was filed in late 2011, has been compared to a previous case, Ricci v. DeStefano, in which 20 firefighters — the “New Haven 20” — sued the city over racial discrimination in the implementation of the results of a promotional exam. The Supreme Court, which heard the case in 2009, ruled in favor of the plaintiffs.
What’s clear is that every move they made was ethnically motivated. JOHN WILLIAMS Plaintiffs’ attorney
Contact MATTHEW LLOYD-THOMAS at matthew.lloyd-thomas@yale.edu. Contact ISAAC STANLEY-BECKER at issac.stanley-becker@yale.edu.
Williams said that the only change resulting from the hearing is the city’s expressed willingness to make retroactive promotions, which he said eliminated the need for an injunction. Bolden, who will continue to represent the city along with private attorney Nicole Chomiak in the proceedings next fall, said that the case will now come down to the suit under the Connecticut Fair Employment Practices Act. Bolden said the plaintiffs’ allegations of racial bias in hiring practice lack standing. “This will all come out in litigation in the fall,” Chomiak told the News, but declined to comment further. Williams and Bolden arrived in court Wednesday morning expecting to delve into the arguments for and against the suit. As part of his preparation, Williams subpoenaed eight city administrators, including members of the Civil Service Board and Police Commission, to appear before the court. Bolden called many of
N E W H AV E N 1 0 C O U RT CA S E In late 2011, 10 New Haven police officers filed suit against New Haven claiming the city discriminated based on race in promotional practices. The 10 argue that when the Civil Service Board threw out the results of a promotional exam after only one year, instead of the usual two, because no Latino officers passed the exam, the city illegally discriminated. The city argues it was within its right to dismiss the results of the exam.
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YALE DAILY NEWS · THURSDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
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NEWS
“The real secret of magic lies in the performance.” DAVID COPPERFIELD EMMY AWARD-WINNING ILLUSIONIST
Art auction supports Sandy relief BY ROSA NGUYEN STAFF REPORTER The School of Art held a charity auction Wednesday to provide support for victims of Hurricane Sandy. Students, faculty and New Haven art connoisseurs gathered in the school’s Green Gallery to bid on 66 pieces of original student, faculty and alumni artwork. Bidders were given the choice to donate to one of five causes — the Red Cross, AmeriCares Hurricane Sandy Disaster Relief Fund, Occupy Sandy, Breezy Point Disaster Relief Fund or Printed Matter, a nonprofit bookstore that was severely flooded during the storm. The auction, spearheaded by photography professor Lisa Kereszi ART ’00, raised $3,885 in total, said Patricia DeChiara, the school’s director of academic affairs. “We try to support organizations where [a higher] percentage of money is [spent] in the affected area,” said Associate Dean of the School of Art Samuel Messer, who helped organize the event. Messer, a longtime resident of New York, said he witnessed the devastation firsthand in areas such as Rockaway and Chelsea, where the hurricane destroyed many galleries. He added that the auction was not meant to benefit the art community alone. After watching an NBC television special that raised money for victims of Hurricane Sandy, Kereszi said she was inspired to take action.
“I just felt a sense of being stuck and unable to help from here [in New Haven],” Kereszi said. “I wanted to somehow do more than just donate 50 bucks here, 20 bucks there.” Kereszi donated several pieces to the auction, including “Joe’s Junkyard” — an autographed book illustrating photographs of scrapped cars — and prints entitled “Red Room” and “Girls on the Beach.” The auction also included a variety of acrylic paintings, prints, photographs and a sculpture made of used videocassette tapes.
Everyone lost a lot [in the hurricane], and a painting is the least I could contribute to help. KATI GEGENHEIMER ART ’13 Contributor, charity auction Kati Gegenheimer ART ’13 donated an enamel and acrylic painting she titled “Let The Mussels Do the Talking,” an abstract work she selected due to its nautical theme. “Everyone lost a lot [in the hurricane], and a painting is the least I could contribute to help,” Gegenheimer said. Erin Desmond ART ’14 contributed an untitled photograph from her series “People in My Bed,” which depicts two people in an embrace on a bed’s golden
MARIA ZEPEDA/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
The School of Art’s Wednesday auction raised $3,885 for Hurricane Sandy relief charities. sheets. She explained that she chose the work due to its focus on interpersonal connections, which are the foundation of giving. Maria Lorenz, an assistant professor at the School of Art, contributed one of the most popular works at the auction. The print — which sold for $240 —
was an inked collagraph, a type of print, depicting a net found in New York City’s Jamaica Bay, one of the areas devastated by Sandy. “I was almost hesitant to include [the print] because it’s connected to tidal and coastal disasters — I feel like there’s a precedent of human disaster,” Lorenz said. “But I chose it
Conservatives mull climate change
because it had to do with the harbor, and that was an area that was affected by the hurricane.” Six spectators said they enjoyed seeing the artwork at the event and appreciated the good cause motivating the auction. “The artwork has a lot of optimism,” said Joseph Cifferelli, a New Haven-based picture
Former U.S. Rep. Bob Inglis, a Republican, said that his party is failing the nation by not delivering climate change solutions. BY DHRUV AGGARWAL STAFF REPORTER Bob Inglis, a former six-term Republican U.S. representative from South Carolina, spoke Wednesday night in William L. Harkness Hall on harnessing free markets for environmentalism. The event, attended by about 15 students, was co-sponsored by the Yale College Republicans and the Yale chapter of Ducks Unlimited, a wetlands conservation group. Inglis was on campus as part of his conservative-led educational campaign called the “Energy Enterprise Initiative,” which calls for the elimination of fuel subsidies, attaching a proper cost to fuels and changing the structure of energy taxes. While identifying himself as “very conservative” and highly rated by the Christian Coalition and the National Rifle Association, Inglis said the claim that climate change was a legitimate problem was a hard sell for his state’s right-leaning constituents during the Republican primary. Inglis, who lost to a tea party candidate in the 2010 Republican primaries, attributed his defeat to his support of measures combating climate change. Inglis said he used to deny the existence of climate change and gained votes from opposing Al Gore’s view on stopping climate change. How-
ever, he said his perspective on the issue was changed by a conversation with his son, Robert Inglis ’07, who told him to “clean up [his] act on the environment.” He added that his visit to Antarctica as a member of the House Subcommittee on Energy and Environment showed him physical evidence of climate change. Inglis discussed the various initiatives taken as part of the Energy Enterprise Initiative, including writing competitions aimed at conservative students in red states. Elizabeth Henry ’14, chairwoman of the Yale College Republicans, said Inglis offered a unique view on the issue that she had not heard before. “It’s great to hear policy views not just like that of the National Review”, she said. “There’s an increasing number of conservatives coming to speak at Yale, but they say pretty much the same thing.” Inglis said he believes climate change is real but does not believe the science to explain the phenomenon is settled. He claimed this view is accurate given available statistics, adding that his “faith informs my reaction to the data.” He said the Republican Party is failing the nation by not delivering solutions for climate change. Helder Toste ’16, who attended the talk, said climate change and its economic implications are important
issues to him, especially since he hails from California, a coastal state. “I think what he’s proposing is a straightforward, conservative solution … but we need to implement it in the next three years,” Toste said. Inglis called for true cost comparisons of energy across countries, arguing that oil subsidization in countries including Iran and Iraq distorts market forces. He also called for developing countries like China and India to tax carbon at the same rate as the U.S. and advocated for import taxes on developing countries that do not institute such policy. He called for America to use free enterprise to solve the problem “before the Chinese do it.” When asked about the role of free markets in environmentalism, economics professor Robert Mendelsohn said in an email to the News that for natural resources, the government needs to “get the price right … But once the prices are set, the private sector is best left alone to manage the resource.” The event marked the undergraduate leg of Inglis’ visit to Yale, which also included a talk with the Federalist Society and the Environmental Law Association at the Yale Law School. Contact DHRUV AGGARWAL at dhruv.aggarwal@yale.edu .
Contact ROSA NGUYEN at rosa.nguyen@yale.edu .
Performance studies grows BY ANYA GRENIER STAFF REPORTER
PHILIPP ARNDT/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
framer and mixed-media artist. “The art has a little playfulness to it.” In January 2010, the School of Art held a charity auction to raise money for Haitian earthquake relief.
For the members of the Interdisciplinary Performance Studies at Yale (IPSY) initiative, all the world’s a stage. Funded by a 2010 grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, IPSY makes possible postdoctoral fellowships, workshops and events with visiting artists. The initiative continues the mission of the Performance Studies Working Group, which was established through a separate Mellon grant in 2003, said professor Joseph Roach, who spearheaded the program. IPSY furthers Yale’s presence in the field of performance studies in the absence of a formal department in the area, he explained. While the University offers a range of specific courses about performance studies and related topics — some taught by the IPSY fellows — Yale does not offer a single, integrated performance studies program analogous to those at schools such as Brown University and New York University. “I like to joke that [IPSY] is like a department intellectually — only you don’t have to go to faculty meetings,” Roach said. Performance studies encompasses a larger range of forms of human performance than theater programs or departments usually do, said IPSY postdoctoral fellow Elise Morrison, who has a Ph.D. in theatre and performance studies from Brown University. Some of the daily performances the discipline considers do not directly involve the stage, such as those of athletics and folk rituals, as well as the performance of gender, she added. “It’s a lens through which you can critique or analyze a lot of different kinds of behaviors,” Morrison said. “It bleeds into the idea of the performance of everyday life.” The Performance Studies Working Group holds weekly discussions, which Roach said are largely attended by graduate students from a variety of schools and disciplines seeking to expand the scope of their research through exposure to other perspectives. American studies student Joey Plaster GRD ’17 said in an email that the Working Group has both introduced him to the methods of the performance studies field and proven extremely useful for his own academic research. He added that expanding research methods to include performance is particularly useful for studying marginalized subjects who may not have left a written trace. “Performance studies allows us to rethink the transmission of cultural history from a place other than the written word,” Plaster said. “Approaching things as performance means regarding them not as things but as networks of relations, and this approach can be applied to theatrical productions as much as
religious ritual and representational politics.” As the program enters its second academic year, Morrison is joining Dominika Laster as an IPSY postdoctoral fellow. Both Laster and Morrison have backgrounds in performance studies, and their undergraduate teaching positions this year are made possible by the 2010 Mellon grant. Laster’s yearlong course, which centers on the experimental theater of Polish artist Jerzy Grotowsky, encourages students to conduct original research drawing on fields ranging from anthropology and ethnomusicology to science and religious studies.
Performance studies allows us to rethink the transmission of cultural history. JOEY PLASTER GRD ’17 Member, Performance Studies Working Group “We pose a certain question and use any disciplines that can help us answer it,” Laster said. “[The students] basically develop a new methodology.” Postdoctoral Associate in the Integrated Humanities at Yale Lynda Paul MUS ’12 and Mellon Fellow in the History of Art Department John Cooper are also affiliated with IPSY, though their positions are funded through different awards. Annemarie McDaniel ’16, a student in Paul’s ENGL 114 class “Fantasy, History, and Ideology in Popular Culture: Disney and Society,” said Yale should explore even more opportunities for interdisciplinary study. “We live in an interdisciplinary world,” McDaniel said. “I think teaching that [to undergraduates] is really crucial to help us become problem solvers.” While Cooper said Yale could be seen as conservative in not creating an independent performance studies department like those at other universities, he said he believes the University is making the correct decision in allowing “gesturing towards that space.” Even without a department to call home, Roach said Yale’s postdoctoral fellows are going on to publish “cutting-edge, disciplinechanging” research in the field. “Performance studies blows up disciplinary distinctions,” Cooper said. “This is our little institution within an institution — a place to explore the future of that.” The IPSY initiative will run through 2015. Contact ANYA GRENIER at anna.grenier@yale.edu .
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YALE DAILY NEWS · THURSDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
FROM THE FRONT
“Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.” MUHAMMAD ALI FORMER PROFESSIONAL BOXER
Service trips challenged
NHPD announces school outreach POLICE FROM PAGE 1
MARIA ZEPEDA/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
The “Moving Beyond Voluntourism” panel discussed concerns with the lack of meaningful volunteerism on international service trips. NEW INITIATIVE FROM PAGE 1 nator. International service during school breaks is becoming increasingly popular on elite college campuses for students who have the time and financial resources to travel abroad, said Talya Zemach-Bersin GRD ’14, a speaker at the panel. When these programs lack adequate preparation, Landy said they can “bolster the privilege and assumed innocence of the already privileged” or allow students to benefit personally and professionally from “the poverty and suffering of the
less privileged” rather than aid communities in need.
None of these trips will happen unless kids want to do them. AARON LEWIS ’14 Attendee, “Moving Beyond Voluntourism” The accomplishments of short-term service trips are often intangible, said Iva Popa ’14, president of Reach Out, a group
on campus that organizes service trips abroad during breaks. The service accomplished is often a “two-way street” and students who conduct service abroad typically become more involved with service after they return, Popa said. She added that two years ago, students who traveled to Uganda through Reach Out formed the Ugandan Hope Network — a student group that supports nonprofit efforts in Uganda — after returning. Aaron Lewis ’14, who attended the panel Wednesday night said he is uncertain about the International Network’s ability to fix
what he sees as a systemic problem with the validity of international service trips. “None of these trips will happen unless kids want to do them,” Lewis said. “The motivation is coming from the students therefore, and not so much the organizations that are holding these programs.” Dwight Hall is the largest student-run service organization in the country. Contact CYNTHIA HUA at cynthia.hua@yale.edu .
intended to build positive relationships between the police department and students. “The New Haven Police Department is committed to community policing, which is why we initiated this program,” said NHPD Chief Dean Esserman in an official statement. “When kids get to know their neighborhood police officer at school and then see him again when they get off the bus in the afternoon, that creates a bond. That officer is one more positive role model in that child’s life.” New Haven Public Schools Superintendent Reginald Mayo added he wants city youth “to look at New Haven police officers as role models, mentors and friends.” Discussions to create this program first began at the beginning of the school year in September. The NHPD committed to sending officers to every local public school within three days of school opening, and after conducting the visits, the police department sought to institutionalize continued outreach with New Haven students, said NHPD Lt. Luiz Casanova. He added that after meeting with the city’s board of education, the NHPD partnered with 30 grade schools throughout the Elm City to launch the initiative, which currently remains unnamed. “Kids of New Haven are precious to all of us,” Casanova said at yesterday’s press conference, speaking to a class of second-graders. “We want the kids of our school system to become familiar with the police.”
Both officers and school administrators present at the event emphasized that the program is not intended to involve police in student discipline. “The officer is not in there as a disciplinarian, he is there to try to get the kids to understand that the police officers are friendly people that they can go to and establish meaningful relationships with the cops,” said Sgt. Ricardo Rodriguez. “Our goal of going into schools is not to arrest kids.” Glen Worthy, Hill School’s principal, noted that the school has never needed to involve police in a student disciplinary issue, adding that “once police officers come into a school to arrest kids, especially elementary school, then as adults we’ve done something wrong.” This partnership between the NHPD and local schools is also intended as a strategy to reduce crime throughout the city, said Clark, who described the initiative as a “generational investment in the community.” “There’s so much negative perception [of cops]: that’s where the fear comes from,” Clark said. “My job here is to mold these kids not to be afraid of police officers, but to develop positive bonds with them.” New Haven currently has six full-time school resource officers who are specially trained to deal with students and are normally assigned to the city’s high schools. According to Sgt. Rodriguez, Esserman plans to boost their numbers to 15 next September. Contact LORENZO LIGATO at lorenzo.ligato@yale.edu. Contact PATRICK CASEY at patrick.casey@yale.edu .
YALE DAILY NEWS · THURSDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
PAGE 7
BULLETIN BOARD
TODAY’S FORECAST Sunny, with a high near 42. North wind 3 to 6 mph.
TOMORROW
SATURDAY
High of 47, low of 40.
High of 52, low of 41.
NUTTIN’ TO LOSE BY DEANDRA TAN
ON CAMPUS THURSDAY, DECEMBER 6 11:35 AM Kyogen Demonstration. Come and see a lecture and demonstration of kyogen, a form of comic theater from medieval Japan. Katsumi Yanagimoto, a Kyoto-based kyogen actor, will introduce the tradition, demonstrate its conventions and perform scenes from two farcical plays. Saybrook College (242 Elm St.), Underbrook Theater. 6:00 PM Rated RB: Rhythmic Blue’s Fall Semester Show. Looking to see the hottest hip-hop show on campus? Come to Rated RB — but be warned, the following show has been approved for restricted audiences only by the Swag Association of America, Inc. for extreme dance moves, killer choreo and excess swag. Morse College (304 York St.), Crescent Theatre.
DOONESBURY BY GARRY TRUDEAU
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 7 2:00 PM Jake Tapper at Yale. ABC Senior White House Correspondent Jake Tapper will discuss his new book “The Outpost: An Untold Story of American Valor.” Tapper will be interviewed by Mark Oppenheimer, director of the Yale Journalism Initiative, about documenting the extraordinary and haunting events that befell one army outpost in Afghanistan. The event is open to the Yale community and the general public. William L. Harkness Hall (100 Wall St.), Room 116.
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 7 1:00 PM Second Annual Conference for Undergraduate Women in Science & Engineering at Yale Open to all undergraduates interested in learning about career opportunities and issues facing women in science. Featuring Dean of the School of Engineering & Applied Science T. Kyle Vanderlick as the keynote speaker, eight different panels and an activities fair of undergraduate organizations. William L. Harkness Hall (100 Wall St.), Room 115.
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Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle
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YALE DAILY NEWS · THURSDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
NATION
“Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich.” NAPOLEON BONAPARTE FRENCH MILITARY AND POLITICAL LEADER
Party leaders Cadet quits West Point discuss ‘cliff’ BY DAVID ESPO ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON — For the first time in days, President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner spoke by phone Wednesday about the “fiscal cliff” that threatens to knock the economy into recession, raising the prospect of fresh negotiations to prevent tax increases and spending cuts set to kick in with the new year. Officials provided no details of the conversation, which came on the same day the president, hewing to a hard line, publicly warned congressional Republicans not to inject the threat of a government default into the already complex issue. “It’s not a game I will play,” Obama told a group of business leaders as Republicans struggled to find their footing in talks with a recently re-elected president and unified congressional Democrats. Among the Republicans, Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma became the latest to break ranks and say he could support Obama’s demand for an increase in tax rates at upper incomes as part of a comprehensive plan to cut federal deficits. Across the Capitol, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said Republicans want to “sit down with the president. We want to talk specifics.” He noted that the GOP had made a compromise offer earlier in the week and the White House had rejected it. Officials said after the talk between Obama and Boehner, R-Ohio, there was no immediate plan for a resumption of negotiations to avert the cliff. At the same time, they said that for the first time in a few days, at least one top presidential aide had been in touch with Republicans by email on the subject. Each side has been declaring that the crisis can be averted if the other will give ground. “We can probably solve this in about a week, it’s not that tough,” Obama said in lunchtime remarks to the Business Roundtable. It has been several days since either the president or congressional Democrats signaled any interest in negotiations that both sides say are essential to a
compromise. Presidential aides have even encouraged speculation that Obama is willing to let the economy go over the “fiscal cliff” if necessary and gamble that the public blames Republicans for any fallout. Eventually, Democrats acknowledge, there will be compromise talks, possibly quite soon, toward an agreement that raises revenues, reins in Medicare and other government benefit programs, and perhaps raises the government’s $16.4 trillion borrowing limit. For now, the demonstration of presidential inflexibility appears designed to show that, unlike two years ago, Obama will refuse to sign legislation extending top-rate tax cuts and also to allow public and private pressure to build on the Republican leadership.
We can probably solve this in about a week, it’s not that tough. BARACK OBAMA President, United States Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner underscored the president’s determination when he told CNBC the administration was “absolutely” prepared to have the economy go over the so-called cliff if its terms aren’t met. “The size of the problem is so large that it can’t be solved without rates going up,” he said. So far, the GOP has offered to support non-specified increases to raise tax revenues by $800 billion over a decade but has rejected Obama’s demand to let the top income tax rate rise from 35 percent to 39.6 percent. To buttress their case, Republican officials in Congress pointed to numerous proposals that Obama has previously advanced that could generate the same amount of revenue he is seeking — without raising rates. The list includes limiting the tax deductions taken by upper-income taxpayers, raising taxes on the oil and gas industry and curbing or eliminating the deductibility of tax-exempt bonds.
JIM MCKNIGHT/ASSOCIATED PRESS
United States Military Academy cadets stand in formation at the United States Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. BY MICHAEL HILL ASSOCIATED PRESS ALBANY, N.Y. — A cadet quitting West Point less than six months before graduation says he could no longer be part of a culture that promotes prayers and religious activities and disrespects nonreligious cadets. Blake Page announced his decision to quit the U.S. Military Academy this week in a muchdiscussed online post that echoed the sentiments of soldiers and airmen at other military installations. The 24-year-old told The Associated Press that a determination this semester that he could not become an officer because of clinical depression played a role in his public protest against what he calls the unconstitutional prevalence of religion in the military. “I’ve been trying since I found
that out: What can I do? What can I possibly do to initiate the change that I want to see and so many other people want to see?” Page said. “I realized that this is one way I can make that change happen.” Page criticized a culture where cadets stand silently for prayers, where nonreligious cadets were jokingly called “heathens” by instructors at basic training and where one officer told him he’d never be a leader until he filled the hole in his heart. In announcing his resignation this week on The Huffington Post, he denounced “criminals” in the military who violate the oaths they swore to defend the Constitution. “I don’t want to be a part of West Point knowing that the leadership here is OK with just shrugging off and shirking off respect and good order and discipline and
obeying the law and defending the Constitution and doing their job,” he told the AP. West Point officials on Wednesday disputed those assertions. Spokeswoman Theresa Brinkerhoff said prayer is voluntary at events where invocations and benedictions are conducted and noted the academy has a Secular Student Alliance club, where Page served as president. Maj. Nicholas Utzig, the faculty adviser to the secular club, said he doesn’t doubt some of the moments Page described, but he doesn’t believe there is systematic discrimination against nonreligious cadets. “I think it represents his own personal experience and perhaps it might not be as universal as he suggests,” said Utzig, who teaches English literature. One of Page’s secularist class-
mates went further, calling his characterization of West Point unfair. “I think it’s true that the majority of West Point cadets are of a very conservative, Christian orientation,” said senior cadet Andrew Houchin. “I don’t think that’s unique to West Point. But more broadly, I’ve never had that even be a problem with those of us who are secular.” There have been complaints over the years that the wall between church and state is not always observed in the military. The Air Force Academy in Colorado in particular has been scrutinized for years over allegations from non-Christian students that they faced intolerance. A retired four-star general was asked last year to conduct an independent review of the overall religious climate at the academy.
Wash. legalization celebrated GENE JOHNSON ASSOCIATED PRESS SEATTLE — Legal marijuana possession becomes a reality under Washington state law on Thursday, and some people planned to celebrate the new law by breaking it. Voters in Washington and Colorado last month made those the first states to decriminalize and regulate the recreational use of marijuana. Washington’s law takes effect Thursday and allows adults to have up to an ounce of pot — but it bans public use of marijuana, which is punishable by a fine, just like drinking in public. Nevertheless, some people planned to gather at 12 a.m. Thursday to smoke up in public beneath Seattle’s Space Needle. Others planned a midnight party outside the Seattle headquarters of Hempfest, the 21-yearold festival that attracts tens of thousands of pot fans every summer. “This is a big day because all our lives we’ve been living under
the iron curtain of prohibition,” said Hempfest director Vivian McPeak. “The whole world sees that prohibition just took a body blow.” Seattle Police spokesman Sgt. Sean Whitcomb said he doesn’t expect officers to write many tickets to the celebrants. Thanks to a 2003 law, marijuana enforcement remains the department’s lowest priority. Even before Initiative 502 passed on Nov. 6, police rarely busted people at Hempfest, despite widespread pot use, and the city attorney here doesn’t prosecute people for having small amounts of marijuana. Washington’s new law decriminalizes possession of up to an ounce for those over 21, but for now selling marijuana remains illegal. I-502 gives the state a year to come up with a system of state-licensed growers, processors and retail stores, with the marijuana taxed 25 percent at each stage. Analysts have estimated that a legal pot market could bring Washington hundreds of millions of dollars a year
ELAINE THOMPSON/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Marijuana legalization supporter Rick Steves sits with a poster used to advertise his business in Edmonds, Wash. in new tax revenue for schools, health care and basic government functions. But marijuana remains illegal under federal law. That means federal agents can still arrest people for it, and it’s banned from
federal properties, including military bases and national parks. The Justice Department has not said whether it will sue to try to block the regulatory schemes in Washington and Colorado from taking effect.
DESIGN We’re the best-looking desk at the YDN.
We see you. design@yaledailynews.
YALE DAILY NEWS · THURSDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
PAGE 9
WORLD
“In modern war there is nothing sweet nor fitting in your dying. You will die like a dog for no good reason.” ERNEST HEMINGWAY AMERICAN AUTHOR AND JOURNALIST
Islamists battle opponents in Egypt BY HAMZA HENDAWI AND AYA BATRAWY ASSOCIATED PRESS CAIRO — Egypt descended into political turmoil on Wednesday over the constitution drafted by Islamist allies of President Mohammed Morsi, and at least 211 people were wounded as supporters and opponents battled each other with firebombs, rocks and sticks outside the presidential palace. Four more presidential aides resigned in protest over Morsi’s handling of the crisis, and a key opponent of the Islamist president likened Morsi’s rule to that of ousted authoritarian leader Hosni Mubarak. Both sides were digging in for a long struggle, with the opposition vowing more protests and rejecting any dialogue unless the charter is rescinded, and Morsi pressing relentlessly forward with plans for a Dec. 15 constitutional referendum. “The solution is to go to the ballot box,” declared Mahmoud Ghozlan, a spokesman for Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood, asserting the charter was “the best constitution Egypt ever had.” The clashes outside the presidential palace in Cairo’s Heliopolis district marked an escalation in the deepening crisis. It was the first time supporters of rival camps fought each other since last year’s anti-Mubarak uprising, when the authoritarian leader’s loyalists sent sword-wielding supporters on horses and camels into Cairo’s Tahrir square in what became one of the uprising’s bloodiest days. The large scale and intensity of the fighting marked a milestone in Egypt’s rapidly entrenched schism, pitting Morsi’s Brotherhood and ultra-conservative Islamists in one camp, against liberals, leftists and Christians in the
other. The violence spread to other parts of the country later Wednesday. Anti-Morsi protesters stormed and set ablaze the Brotherhood offices in Suez and Ismailia, east of Cairo, and there were clashes in the industrial city of Mahallah and the province of Menoufiyah in the Nile Delta north of the capital. Compounding Morsi’s woes, four of his advisers resigned, joining two other members of his 17-member advisory panel who have abandoned him since the crisis began. Mohamed ElBaradei, a leading opposition reform advocate, said Morsi’s rule was “no different” than Mubarak’s. “In fact, it is perhaps even worse,” the Nobel Peace Prize laureate told a news conference after he accused the president’s supporters of a “vicious and deliberate” attack on peaceful demonstrators outside the palace.
History will give no mercy and the people will not forget. MOHAMED ELBARADEI Opposition advocate “Cancel the constitutional declarations, postpone the referendum, stop the bloodshed, and enter a direct dialogue with the national forces,” he wrote on his Twitter account, addressing Morsi. “History will give no mercy and the people will not forget.” The opposition is demanding that Morsi rescind the decrees giving him nearly unrestricted powers and shelve the controversial
NASSER NASSER/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Protesters opposed to Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi chanted slogans near burning garbage at Tahrir Square in Cairo. draft constitution the president’s Islamist allies rushed through last week in a marathon, all-night session shown live on state TV. The huge scale of the opposition protests has dealt a blow to the legitimacy of the new charter, which Morsi’s opponents contend allows religious authorities too much influence over legislation, threatens to restrict freedom of expression and opens the door to Islamist control over day-today life.
In addition, the country’s powerful judges say they will not take on their customary role of overseeing the referendum. Zaghloul el-Balshi, secretary general of the state committee organizing the referendum, said on the private Al-Hayat television that he would not go ahead with preparations for the vote until the fighting stopped and Morsi rescinded his decrees. The country’s new attorney general, a Morsi appointee, hit back, ordering an investigation of
Israel-Europe relations frayed
Ahmed El-Zind, chairman of the judges’ union that is spearheading the call for a boycott. Wednesday’s clashes began when thousands of Morsi’s Islamist supporters descended on an area near the presidential palace where some 300 of his opponents were staging a sit-in. The Islamists, members of Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood, chased the protesters away from their base outside the palace’s main gate and tore down their tents.
Syrian war spills over into Lebanon BY BASSEM MROUE ASSOCIATED PRESS
GERMAN PRESS OFFICE
German Chancellor Angela Merkel welcomed the prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, in Berlin. BY GEIR MOULSON ASSOCIATED PRESS BERLIN — It was supposed to be an amicable meeting between close friends. Instead, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Germany has been soured by Berlin’s refusal to oppose a Palestinian U.N. statehood bid and anger throughout Europe over Israeli plans to expand settlements around Jerusalem. The sensitivity of Netanyahu’s trip to one of Israel’s closest allies in Europe offers a taste of the increasing displeasure on the continent at his government’s seeming intransigence, particularly over Jewish settlements on lands the Palestinians want for a future state. Europeans, however, appear at a loss to develop an effective strategy of their own to pressure Israel to move forward on a moribund peace process with the deeply divided Palestinians. And it was unclear how hard Germany was prepared to push the Israelis. The European Union came nowhere near a united front when the U.N. General Assembly voted last week to upgrade the Palestinians’ diplomatic status — effectively recognizing a Palestinian state in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza Strip, territories captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war. In a slap to Israel, its closest European allies — Britain, Germany, Italy
and France — all abstained or voted with the Palestinians. The Czech Republic, where Netanyahu stopped on his way to Berlin, was the only EU country to join the U.S. and Israel in voting against the measure.
It would be insincere to hide the fact that I was disappointed by the German vote at the United Nations. BENJAMIN NETANYAHU Prime minister, Israel Germany’s decision to abstain rather than vote against a Palestinian state shocked Israel and sets the scene for tense talks between Netanyahu and Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday night and Thursday. The issue overshadowed the two governments’ official program of cooperation on science, education and business at an annual meeting of their two Cabinets. Israel’s next move heated the atmosphere further: Its announcement Friday that it would move ahead on plans to build 3,000 settler homes in a strategic corridor near Jerusalem. Palestinians said the settlement, whose construction would be years away, effectively cuts the West Bank
in two and breaks the link between the West Bank and east Jerusalem — their hoped-for capital. “It would be insincere to hide the fact that I was disappointed by the German vote at the United Nations — like many people in Israel,” Netanyahu told the German daily Die Welt. “I think Chancellor Merkel was of the opinion that this vote would somehow encourage peace. In fact, the opposite happened.” Since the settlement announcement, at least six European countries — Britain, France, Spain, Sweden, Denmark and Italy — and the EU in Brussels have called in Israeli ambassadors to protest the plan. Germany didn’t join them, but still issued a sharp expression of displeasure. Merkel has long criticized Israel’s settlement activities, and her spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said the move was “undermining confidence” in Israel’s “readiness to negotiate.” On Wednesday, however, Israel pushed the settlement plan further along in the planning pipeline, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he would seek U.N. Security Council help in blocking the construction. Nevertheless, German analysts say they don’t see a fundamental change in Germany’s overall policy toward Israel. Support for Israel has been a cornerstone of German policy — in part due to the sense of responsibility rooted in the Nazi Holocaust.
The protesters scattered into side streets, where they chanted anti-Morsi slogans as the Islamists shouted, “The people demand the implementation of God’s law!” After a brief lull, hundreds of Morsi opponents arrived and began throwing firebombs at the president’s backers, who responded with rocks. The clashes continued well after nightfall and spread from the immediate vicinity of the palace to residential streets nearby.
TRIPOLI, Lebanon — The families of Lebanese men killed in Syria last week say their relatives were more interested in nice clothes and vacations than fighting a civil war. Yet Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime branded them foreign jihadists — and their deaths set off three days of new spillover violence. Gunmen loyal to opposite sides in Syria’s civil war battled Wednesday in the streets of the Lebanese city of Tripoli. The fighting has killed six people and wounded nearly 60 since Monday, security officials said. The bloodshed is a sign of just how vulnerable Lebanon is to getting sucked into the Syrian crisis. The countries share a porous border and a complex web of political and sectarian ties that is easily enflamed. Among the 17 Lebanese men who turned up dead in Syria last week were Bilal al-Ghoul and his childhood friend, Malek Haj Deeb, both 20. Malek’s older brother, Jihad, said the two men sympathized with the rebellion, but they were not fighters. “Malek used to see the videos of dead Syrians and cry,” Jihad Haj Deeb told The Associated Press in Tripoli, as gunfire and explosions echoed near his home in the poor neighborhood of Mankoubeen. “He used to say, ‘May Bashar fall soon, God willing.’” A giant poster hung in the entrance of the home, with photos of three of those killed in Syria and a sign that read: “Our dead are in heaven, and yours are in hell.” Haj Deeb and Bilal al-Ghoul’s older brother, Omar, said the men must have been kidnapped and handed over to Syrian authorities by a pro-Syrian Lebanese group. They said their brothers were not members of any political or Islamic group but were observant Muslims. “My brother doesn’t know how to hold a rifle,” Haj Deeb said. The Lebanese men killed in Syria were Sunni Muslims, like the majority of rebels trying to overthrow Assad’s regime. Assad and much of his inner circle belong to the Alawite sect, which is an offshoot of Shiite Islam. The fighting in Lebanon comes at a time of deep uncertainty in Syria, with rebels battling government troops near Assad’s seat of power in Damascus. In Brussels, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton reiterated concerns that “an increasingly desperate Assad regime might turn to chemical weapons” or lose control of them to militant groups.
She also said NATO’s decision on Tuesday to send Patriot missiles to Turkey’s southern border with Syria sends a message that Ankara is backed by its allies. The missiles are intended only for defensive purposes, she said. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu was quoted Wednesday in the Turkish newspaper Sabah as saying that Syria has about 700 missiles, some of them long-range. Syria has been careful not to confirm it has chemical weapons, while insisting it would never use such weapons against its own people.
My brother doesn’t know how to hold a rifle. JIHAD HAJ DEEB Brother, kidnapping victim But as the regime wobbles, there are fears the crisis will keep spiraling outside its borders. Fighting has spilled over into Turkey, Jordan and Israel since the uprising began more than 20 months ago, but Lebanon is particularly susceptible. Seventeen times bigger than Lebanon and four times more populous, Syria has long had powerful allies there, including the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah. For much of the past 30 years, Lebanese have lived under Syrian military and political domination. That grip began to slip in 2005, when former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was assassinated in Beirut. Widely accused of involvement — something it has always denied — Syria was forced to withdraw its troops. But Damascus has maintained power and influence in Lebanon. Syria’s state-run news agency, SANA, reported that 17 Lebanese “gunmen” were killed inside Syria last week, and on Sunday, Syrian TV aired footage of the dead. Bassam al-Dada, a political adviser for the rebel Free Syrian Army, said the group believes the Lebanese men were the victims of a “complicated Syrian intelligence operation” aimed at showing that foreign fighters are involved in fighting in Syria. According to their relatives, Malek Haj Deeb and Bilal al-Ghoul left their parents’ homes a week ago saying they were going to downtown Tripoli. Hours later, the families grew concerned and started calling the men’s mobile phones.
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YALE DAILY NEWS · THURSDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
AROUND THE IVIES
“Maybe Christmas, the Grinch thought, doesn’t come from a store.” DR. SEUSS FROM “HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS!”
T H E C O L U M B I A D A I LY S P E C TAT O R
Harlem nonprofit eyes second renaissance BY SHARON LIAO STAFF WRITER In the summer of 2008, Harlem residents Alize Beal and Tiffany Bender returned from their freshman years at Howard and Syracuse universities, respectively. Soon after they got home, 14 teenagers were killed in a 125th Street shootout. Upset by the violence, Beal and Bender hosted a gala to honor anti-gun violence activists and local organizations that provided positive examples for Harlem youth. “From then, we kept running with it, and it formed into what it is today,” Beal said. Today, Beal and Bender, both 23, are the co-founders of Youth Under New Guidance Harlem, a burgeoning nonprofit that seeks to end violence and promote education among Harlem youth. They started the organization in 2008 with a goal of encouraging a second Harlem Renaissance, and they’ve been expanding it since then. Last month, they were honored with the Making a Difference Award from BET Network’s “Black Girls Rock!” “For all the people who have moved into the Harlem area, regardless of what race or background they come from, we need to understand where Harlem came from,” Beal said. “We need the youth to understand that as well. If they understand that and who they are, they will see the positive and change their behavior.” At YUNG Harlem, Beal and Bender currently have programs across five “Pillars of Renaissance” — the arts, education, community safety, health and
entrepreneurship — and staple events including networking events for COLUMBIA young Harlem professionals and a citywide college tour. The college tour, in which YUNG representatives visit city high schools to encourage students to apply to college, gets high schoolers “excited about school in ways they’ve never been excited before,” Beal said. “We offer real-life, real-deal knowledge about the first year of college and the application process,” Beal said.
We are bringing back the age of education, moving urban students into education and job opportunities. ABDUL KARIM ABDULLAH Chairman, Be GR8 Foundation Starting Dec. 16, YUNG will visit high schools throughout Harlem, including Frederick Douglass Academy, Thurgood Marshall, Bread and Roses, Wadleigh and the Environmental Studies School. Tiarra Currie, a clinical psychology master’s student at Teachers College, will speak on the tour, and she hopes that her story will inspire students. She and her brother were raised by a single mother
LUKE HENDERSON / COLUMBIA SPECTATOR
Tiffany Bender (left) and Alize Beal are the co-founders of YUNG Harlem, a burgeoning nonprofit. in a poor neighborhood, and she ultimately graduated from college and is now enrolled in graduate school. “I am there as evidence that college is possible and we can be successful as long as we have a plan,” Currie said in an email. “These kids get to see people like me, who look like them, show them that we don’t have to be a victim or be labeled to negative expectations.” And for the first time this year, the organization will be offering $1,000 scholarships to one student at each of the seven schools
it visits, in partnership with the Brooklyn-based jewelry company Aspiring and the Be GR8 Foundation. Organizers will pick names out of a bowl to determine which attendees win scholarships. The organization has been expanding rapidly and taking advantage of current events. A school where it hosts a toy drive recently offered it space for afterschool programs, which will become its next initiative, and in October, it hosted a presidential debate watch party with the Be GR8 Foundation.
T H E H A R VA R D C R I M S O N
“We are bringing back the age of education, moving urban students into education and job opportunities,” said Abdul Karim Abdullah, chairman of the Be GR8 Foundation and a friend of Beal’s from Syracuse. “We bring our vision to the streets.” Beal sat in the audience of the “Black Girls Rock!” awards show last year, and this year she and Bender were onstage accepting an award. Bender said that the exposure was good for the organization. “We had this national platform,” she said. “It’s about show-
ing young girls that if you dream big, you work hard, anything is possible.” Beal and Bender have made YUNG Harlem possible while working other jobs — Bender is an associate producer at Sway in the Morning on SIRIUS XM, and Beal is an IT consultant for media and advertising with TEK Systems. They both hope to transition to working on the organization fulltime in the future — especially since they want to expand it to other cities. But for now, they’re OK with the arrangement they have.
T H E D A I L Y P E N N S Y L VA N I A N
Harvard, shelter aid homeless Faculty couples BY JACOB LYNCH AND ALEX SAICH STAFF WRITER For the first time in recent memory, Harvard Campus Services and the Harvard Square Homeless Shelter have teamed to bring holiday cheer to Harvard Square’s homeless population. Last week, Campus Services placed collection boxes in upperclassmen dining halls and in Annenberg. Using donations from undergraduates and faculty, the organizations plan to assemble holiday care packages to be distributed at the shelter. Charles A. Hobbs, an administrative director at the homeless shelter, said his organization is accepting donations ranging from hats and scarves to wrapped treats and gifts. “We’ve never done this before, but it seems like a great idea,” Hobbs said. “I’m sure it’s going to have a really positive impact on the holiday season for these individuals. We really want to make as large an impact as we can.” The boxes will be removed on Dec. 14, according to University spokesperson Lauren M. Marshall. Harvard has collaborated with the homeless shelter in a number of other ways. The University donates leftover food from the dining halls to the shelter to feed the homeless, sending several hundred meals a month,
VESPERS Music for St. Mark’s by Rosenmüller and Legrenzi, ca 1670
BY REBECA TENNEY STAFF WRITER
I’m sure it’s going to have a really positive impact on the holiday season for these individuals. CHARLES A. HOBBS Administrative director, Harvard Square Harvard took the initiative to form this partnership, Hobbs said. “It was actually the school that reached out to us about making a donation,” Hobbs said. “We have an ongoing relationship with them, but this is the first time that they’ve reached
yale institute of sacred music presents
VENETIAN
face job concerns
according to Marshall. Harvard also donates approximately 1 4 , 0 0 0 meals a year HARVARD go to the Greater Boston Food Bank. According to Hobbs, Campus Services has also formed a partnership with Phillips Brooks House Association, an umbrella organization for social service groups. Through Dec. 14, PBHA will seek donations of new or gently used hats, gloves, coats and sweaters for the shelter’s care packages.
YALE SCHOLA CANTORUM SIMON CARRINGTON, CONDUCTOR FRIDAY, DECEMBER 7 · 5 PM Christ Church Episcopal 84 Broadway at Elm, New Haven PRECONCERT TALK by Kerala Snyder · 4 pm
Free; no tickets required. Information at 203.432.5062 or www.yale.edu/ism.
NICHOLAS M MENDEZ / THE HARVARD CRIMSON
Each house has a box in which members of the Harvard community may drop off used clothing to be donated. out about doing a possible fundraiser,” Hobbs said. According to its website, the Harvard Square Homeless Shelter has provided services for homeless individuals since 1983. It is the only student-run home-
less shelter in the nation, and the first in Harvard Square. The shelter, which heavily draws its volunteers from the Harvard student body, provides housing for up to 24 homeless guests each night.
Finding a job in academia is no easy endeavor. But when academics are married to other academics, finding the ideal job becomes significantly more difficult. Couples trying to obtain faculty positions in the same institution or general location face many dilemmas in what is generally referred to as “the twobody problem.” According to a research report done at Stanford University, more than a third of faculty have partners who are also academics, making it a very common problem to which Penn is no exception. Among Penn’s standing faculty, 41 percent of women and 26 percent of men are partnered with another academic, according to Lubna Mian, director of faculty development and equity programs in the Office of the Provost. “Academic careers usually require a lot of mobility in order to find the sort of job you want,” Mian said, describing one of the central reasons behind the problem. She explained that the twobody problem is a crucial issue
both in faculty recruitment and retention. I n response, Penn takes PENN m ea s u re s to address this issue. For example, Penn is a founding member of the local Higher Education Recruitment Consortium branch. HERC is a centralized database of job postings and resources that academic couples can consult in their dual career searches. “It’s a very simple thing, but also a very effective thing,” Mian said of HERC. In addition, the provost’s office offers salary subsidies in an effort to facilitate hiring the partner of a recruited faculty member into a different Penn school. According to Mian, this is a common hiring tactic, though she believes Penn’s subsidy is higher than at other institutions. President Amy Gutmann also said that Penn’s location makes it easier for dual-career couples to get jobs together — if not at Penn, then in the Philadelphia area.
YALE DAILY NEWS · THURSDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
PAGE 11
SPORTS
“We’re talking about practice. I mean listen, we’re sitting here talking about practice, not a game, not a game, not a game, but we’re talking about practice.” ALLEN IVERSON BASKETBALL PLAYER
Defense cracks down in win
Equality problems persist COLUMN FROM PAGE 12 His success this year was impressive — yet first-year VCU Athletic Director Ed McLaughlin decided in a press release that, “our program needs a different direction.” Finley’s players certainly didn’t think so; distraught fifth-year senior Kristin Boyd didn’t mince words when she relayed McLaughlin’s speech to the team to ESPN: “[McLaughlin] said he wanted somebody to better represent the school.” Those are dangerous words. If that’s what he actually said, how exactly would a new coach “better represent the school” considering the AD himself said the firing was not about Finley’s winloss record? By not being gay? I don’t mean to make it seem like this case is clear-cut. VCU will conduct its own investigation, and Finley says he’ll take legal action if he’s not rehired. But for now, we only know one side of the story. Perhaps the internal facts of the case will reveal a clearly legitimate reason for ending the contract. Yet without additional contrary evidence, it will be extremely tough to prove that his contract was not renewed because of discrimination against his orientation.
MARIA ZEPEDA/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
Guard Janna Graf ’14 scored a season-high 18 points and contributed to a tough Yale defensive effort that held the Rams to 33.9 percent shooting from the floor. WOMEN’S BASKETBALL FROM PAGE 12 ham guard Erin Rooney, who led her team with 15 points. The redshirt junior scored 12 points on 5–9 shooting in the first half, but the Bulldogs limited her to three points on only two shot attempts after halftime. Overall, Yale’s defensive efforts held Fordham to a 33.9 shooting percentage from the field. The teams remained locked in a close battle for the beginning of the second half, and Fordham pulled within one at 39–38 on forward Marah Strickland’s 3-pointer with 16:20 remaining in the game. But from that point, Yale went on a 14–4 run capped by a 3-pointer from
guard Megan Vasquez ’13 that kicked the Bulldogs’ lead into double digits with 6:43 left to play, and the Rams never again challenged the team. “I think this game really showed that we can compete with good teams,” Graf said. The Rams opened their season with a five-game winning streak that included a 58–50 victory over Cornell, though they have now dropped two of their last three. The Bulldogs have been outrebounded in each of their past four games, but they pulled down 27 defensive rebounds last night, three more than their season average. “We’re big-picture-oriented,”
Women’s hockey to face Union, RPI
Contact GRANT BRONSDON at grant.bronsdon@yale.edu .
men. They are getting a little better with every time-out, and Meredith really stepped up tonight and had a great game,” Gobrecht said. Yale has six games remaining before their Ivy League opener against Brown on Jan. 19, including a road trip to Georgetown and Sacred Heart over winter break. “It’s getting close to [Ivy League play], so this win is going to boost our confidence,” Vasquez said. Yale will travel to Brooklyn Heights, N.Y. this Saturday to take on the St. Francis Tarheels. Tipoff is set for 2 p.m.
MARIA ZEPEDA/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
The Bulldogs have the opportunity to break out of a four-way tie for ninth place with contests against RPI and Union this weekend.
Contact DINÉE DORAME at dinee.dorame@yale.edu.
No rest for studentathletes over break WINTER BREAK FROM PAGE 12
W, HOCKEY FROM PAGE 12 improvement to more defensive diversity. “Everone brings something different to help our team. We’ve also focused on quicker and more accurate puck movement, starting from the defense,” Zupon said. New players on the defense have also been a strength. The additions of defenders Kate Martini ’16, the team’s leading scorer, and Tara Tomimoto ’14, who missed last season with a concussion, has helped bolster the team’s depth. “The biggest difference between last year’s defense and this year’s is depth,” Gray said. “We have a well rounded group in which everyone plays a specific role.” After taking on Union on Friday, the Bulldogs face RPI (3–11– 2, 1–5–0 ECAC) on Saturday afternoon. Despite their record, the Engineers’ offense is averaging over a goal per game more than Yale but has yet to pick up a point in games in which it trails after the first period. Since the Elis played no games last weekend, their practice schedule changed as well. “Practice has been a bit shorter this week. Hopefully this light week of practice rests our legs for the weekend,” Leonoff said.
Gobrecht said. “We just want to keep getting better, and I’m glad to see that the team was rewarded for their hard work.” Boardman is averaging over 20 minutes per game this season and went 4–8 from the field to reach 50.0 percent shooting for the second time this season. Her classmate Nyasha Sarju ’16 has also played a major role on the team this year and is averaging 9.8 points per game and shooting 53.6 percent from beyond the arc. Sarju was named to the Ivy League Honor Roll this week after scoring 15 points on 5–7 shooting from the 3-point line in Yale’s 53–47 loss to Army on Saturday. “We also know we have good fresh-
with their families, they said they all believe such commitments are typical of Division I athletics programs and would improve their teams. “I wish I could be home longer but playing a winter sport, you kinda know you’re not going to have a long Thanksgiving break, a winter break or spring break,” said women’s basketball team center Emmy Allen ’16. She added that while she and her teammates all “think it’d be nicer if we could spend more time at home with our families,” the winter training will better prepare the team for conference competition. Although Allen and her teammates will play four times over the break, including an away matchup with Georgetown, the general lack of games on her team’s calendar over the break leads her to assume that practices will be tougher. “Because we won’t be playing many games, we’ll need to have tough practices to stay sharp,” she said. For the men’s basketball team, the winter break road trip has become an annual highlight of the season for the seniors. The team’s coaches try to organize games in areas from where at least one of their seniors hails, forward Matt Townsend ’15 said. “This year we have guys who are from Nevada, the Bay Area in San Francisco and Iowa, so we accordingly got games in these regions,” said Townsend, adding that this makes the road trip feel almost like a homecoming game for the team’s
seniors. He added that the road trip is an effective way for the team to become closer. “We don’t need specific outings [to build team harmony], because just hanging out in hotels and on the road is a great way to know the guys.” While men’s and women’s basketball will travel for games, Yale’s men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams are both heading to Florida for training camps. After a 10-day break to see family, the men’s team will head to Plantation, Fla. for one week of team bonding before training begins on Dec. 27. The women’s swim team will start a day earlier in Coco Beach. “One of the reasons we go to Florida [as opposed to staying in New Haven] is for a morale boost,” said Michael Lazris ’15, adding that if the team was just swimming in New Haven, “swimmers could start feeling depressed that they were still practicing while other students were enjoying their breaks.” Moreover, coaches are particularly tough during winter break, knowing that this is the one time of the year when their athletes are not distracted by schoolwork, Lazris said. “This is the reason why winter break is the part of the season where we’re pushed to our limits,” captain Jared Lovett ’13 said. Yet, as Lazris noted, nothing brings people together more than going through hell together. Contact RISHABH BHANDARI at rishabh.bhandari@yale.edu .
IT’S DISAPPOINTING THAT THIS CONTROVERSY CAN STILL EXIST No matter how the truth shakes out in the end, it’s disappointing that a controversy like this can still exist today. To think of someone being fired simply because he or she is gay is disheartening, especially in a university setting that prides itself on diversity and equality. And this story only reflects the greater problem of acceptance of LGBTQ individuals in the sports world. This isn’t even a more specific discussion about accepting gay players on teams or banning slurs from the playing field — this is a problem of a lack of tolerance and general kindheartedness toward all people. After reading a few different stories about the Finley controversy online, I happened to click on the comments section of the ESPN article. Bad decision. (Note to self: Don’t read the comments on any ESPN article, YouTube video or local news website.) The nearly 3,000 comments had their fair share of homophobic rants — hopefully the result of an extremely vocal minority. But just as disturbing were comments justifying the firing of Finley for any reason other than his win-loss performance as a coach. ESPN commenters bring up the fact that there are no anti-discrimination laws in Virginia preventing VCU from firing Finley because of his orientation — so obviously it’s okay to fire him for that exact reason. Others point out that VCU should have vetted Finley more strongly before hiring someone who’s gay — you know, to avoid another “Jerry Sandusky” problem. Unfortunately, I’m afraid the ESPN comments section is likely a barometer of the feelings many still harbor toward those who are LGBTQ. This hits deeper than just intolerance on the playing field. The attitude toward current topics in sports — for example, Title IX and women in the 1960s and 1970s, or baseball and steroids in the last two decades — says a lot about how those issues are perceived throughout the rest of the country. This isn’t about same-sex marriage or civil unions — this is about respect in sports and therefore society. So, with no disrespect intended toward volleyball and the good folks at VCU, if we have trouble accepting a gay coach at a low-profile volleyball program in 2012, there’s still a lot of work to be done. Contact EVAN FRONDORF at evan.frondorf@yale.edu .
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NCAAB 6 Florida 72 Florida State 47
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TYLER VARGA ’16 ELI EARNS NATIONAL HONOR The sophomore running back added to his list of accolades this season, which include first-team All-Ivy and AllNew England selections, when Beyond Sports Network named Varga an honorable mention FCS All-American after he led the FCS in average all-purpose yards.
KENDALL POLAN ’13 AND KELLY JOHNSON ’16 BULLDOGS NAMED ALL-REGION Polan, who earned her second straight Ivy League Player of the Year award this season, was selected to the American Volleyball Coaches Association’s Northeast All-Region team, and Johnson earned a spot on the Northeast AllRegion Honorable Mention team.
NCAAB 23 OK State 61 USF 49
“It’s getting close to [Ivy League play], so this win is going to boost our confidence. MEGAN VASQUEZ ’13 WOMEN’S BASKETBALL YALE DAILY NEWS · THURSDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
Bulldogs snap four-game slide
EVAN FRONDORF
VCU firing raises questions T
he sports world has seen more than its usual share of controversy over the last week. The horrific murder of Kasandra Perkins by Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher, who later killed himself in front of his head coach and general manager, transcends sports and leaves us with more questions than answers. On a less important scale, NBA commissioner David Stern set a new precedent for league regulation by fining the San Antonio Spurs $250,000 for purposely benching their top players against the Miami Heat. But a story about a college volleyball coach was quickly buried last Friday in the midst of NFL tragedy, NBA uproar and BCS surprises. And no, I’m not talking about the wildly successful Yale volleyball team that finished up its season at the NCAA tournament last week. Former Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU, home of Shaka Smart) women’s volleyball coach James Finley filed a complaint with the university’s Office for Institutional Equity alleging that he was fired from his position because he is gay. Technically, VCU decided not to renew his contract, but this choice ended Finley’s time at the university. Finley’s case is supported by a compelling backstory. While his overall win-loss record during his stint at VCU was only 151– 116 after eight seasons, he had just finished his best season ever, taking his team to a 25–6 record in VCU’s first season in the Atlantic 10 Conference. The Rams ranked third out of 12 teams in the conference and made it to the semifinals of the A-10 tournament. SEE COLUMN PAGE 11
MARIA ZEPEDA/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
Guard Megan Vasquez ’13 scored nine points and dished out a team-high four assists as the Elis broke a four-game slide with a 67–53 victory over Fordham at home. BY DINÉE DORAME CONTRIBUTING REPORTER The women’s basketball team returned to the John J. Lee Amphitheater on Tuesday to snap a fourgame losing streak with a 67–53 victory over the Fordham Rams.
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL After recent losses to Quinnipiac and Army, Yale (2–6, 0-0 Ivy)
pushed past the Rams (5–2, 0–0 Atlantic 10), shooting 50 percent from the field and 50 percent from behind the arc. “We push the pace. That’s what we do,” head coach Chris Gobrecht said. “We caught Fordham at a good time and took advantage of it.” Guard Janna Graf ’14 put up a season-high 18 points, complemented by six rebounds and five steals. Guard Sarah Halejian ’15 had 12 points, followed by guard Megan
Defense on the upswing BY GRANT BRONSDON CONTRIBUTING REPORTER The Yale women’s hockey team looks to maintain its momentum from two weeks ago as it heads to Union and RPI this weekend.
After two back-to-back turnovers within the opening 30 seconds, captain Allie Messimer ’13 opened the scoring with a crucial 3-pointer. The Bulldogs maintained a close game with the Rams and entered halftime with a two-point lead. In the second half, the Bulldogs outscored the Rams 36–24 and held off a strong performance by FordSEE WOMEN’S BASKETBALL PAGE 11
Athletes don’t stop for break BY RISHABH BHANDARI STAFF REPORTER For most Yalies, winter break means time to wind down, relax with family and forget about responsibility. But many Yale athletes on winter sports teams do not enjoy such luxuries. Instead, the men’s and women’s basketball teams, men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams and men’s hockey team, among others, will train and compete throughout winter break with
WOMEN’S HOCKEY The Elis (2–10–0, 1–5–0 ECAC) won in a thrilling overtime contest against the University of Connecticut in the semifinals of the Nutmeg Classic on Nov. 23 for their second victory of the year before falling to Boston College in the tournament finals. But they hope to do even better this week. “Wins this weekend will not only get us crucial points against teams in similar standings as us, but they will give us confidence and momentum going into the second half of the season,” captain Alyssa Zupon ’13 said. Yale is currently in a four-way tie for ninth place in the conference, and only eight teams make the conference playoffs at the end of the season. Both Union and RPI are also in ninth with two points apiece. “Our team has had one goal for the past two weeks … to come out on Saturday with a four point weekend,” defenseman Jamie Gray ’13 said. Union (3–8–2, 0–4–2 ECAC) has averaged fewer than one goal per game in conference matchups this year, leading the Elis to hope that their defense can rise to the challenge of shutting down the Dutchwomen.
Vasquez ’13 and forward Meredith Boardman ’16 who each had nine. Graf, the team’s leading scorer, went 5–5 from the free-throw line, contributing to the team’s 90.9 percentage from the line. The junior guard had two of Yale’s 11 assists, and the Elis assisted seven of their 13 baskets in the second half. “We were working hard to find the open player. Tonight, Janna was smart about where to relocate, and it worked,” Gobrecht said.
a frequency and intensity that often exceeds what is demanded while school is in session. The men’s basketball team will play in Nevada, California and Iowa in a three-game, five-day whirlwind road tour, and players on the women’s basketball team will be given only five days off to stay with family during the entire break. While several athletes interviewed admitted wishing they could spend more time at home SEE WINTER BREAK PAGE 11
MARIA ZEPEDA/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
The Yale defense has improved its goals against average by 1.85 goals since last season and has already doubled its win total from last year with more than half the season remaining. The vastly improved Bulldog defense, which is allowing 3.39 goals per game so far this season compared to 5.24 last year, is a result of defenders’ better understanding of the team’s systems, goaltender Jaimie Leonoff ’15 said. Leonoff’s improved play has also con-
STAT OF STAR PERFORMER THE DAY 10
tributed to the revamped defense. Her .915 save percentage is .050 points higher than her mark last season, when she saw spot action across eleven games. Zupon credits some of the team’s SEE WOMEN’S HOCKEY PAGE 11
BRIANNE BOWEN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
The men’s swimming team will travel to Plantation, Fla. to continue its training over winter break this year.
JANNA TEXT TEXT GRAF TEXT ’14 TEXT LED THE TEXT BULDOGS TEXT TEXT WITH TEXT 18 TEXT POINTS, FIRSTNAME SIX REBOUNDS LASTNAME AND ’## FIVETEXT STEALS TEXT INTEXT TEXT TEXT THEIR WIN TEXT OVERTEXT FORDHAM TEXT TEXT ON TUESDAY. TEXT TEXT. GrafText made textalltext three textoftext her text 3-point textattempts text text text and was text 5–5 text text text from the text free-throw text text line text in text the Elis’ text67–53 text text victory text text as the textteam text snapped text text atext. four-game losing streak.