T H E O L D E ST C O L L E G E DA I LY · FO U N D E D 1 8 7 8
NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT · MONDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2013 · VOL. CXXXV, NO. 96 · yaledailynews.com
INSIDE THE NEWS MORNING EVENING
SUNNY CLOUDY
35 42
CROSS CAMPUS Did you watch the Oscars?
Then you must have seen Meryl Streep DRA ’75. That is all. From president to conductor.
While attending the YaleHarvard basketball game on Saturday, President-elect Peter Salovey went beyond the role of a traditional spectator: During the middle of the game, Salovey asked the conductor whether he could take the lead and conduct the Yale Precision Marching Band. The conductor agreed, and Salovey reportedly spent the next few minutes directing the musical ensemble as he waved his arms around in circles.
Joining the race. The quest for the mayor’s office became a four-man race on Tuesday when New Haven firefighter Salvatore Consiglio Jr. announced his bid to replace Mayor John DeStefano Jr. A resident of the Fair Haven neighborhood, Consiglio said he plans to run as an Independent, a choice that will let him bypass the Democratic primary scheduled for September.
MEN’S HOCKEY BULLDOGS CLINCH IVY LEAGUE TITLE
WARD 14
INDO-PACIFIC
CHEN GUANGCHENG
After falling in special election, Alberto Bustos claims immigrant bias
YUAG EXHIBITS ART FROM MADAGASCAR TO EASTER ISLAND
Blind Chinese dissident talks escape from house arrest, civil rights
PAGE B3 SPORTS
PAGE 3 CITY
PAGE 3 CULTURE
PAGE 5 NEWS
DOD nixed training center in 2012 BY JULIA ZORTHIAN STAFF REPORTER Despite initial reports to the contrary, the School of Medicine will not open a training center for soldiers using a grant from the Department of Defense. Ken McGraw, deputy public affairs officer of U.S. Special Operations Command, confirmed to the News Sunday that USSOCOM will not provide Yale with funds to establish the Center for Excellence in Operational Neuroscience — a pro-
gram that would teach soldiers interviewing techniques developed by School of Medicine psychiatry professor Charles Morgan. Though the program had not yet been formally proposed to the University, Morgan told the News in January that the Department of Psychiatry was in the process of negotiating to secure a $1.8 million grant from the Department of Defense. But on Sunday, McGraw said that USSOCOM had already rejected Morgan’s proposal a year ago. “The project had not gone
through the appropriate channels there, nor here fully,” University President Richard Levin said Sunday. “[USSOCOM] basically decided to scrap the idea.” After McGraw indicated in a Thursday statement to the New Haven Register that USSOCOM had awarded the University a $1.8 million grant, School of Medicine Dean Robert Alpern said representatives from the school called USSOCOM in confusion because they had no knowledge that any funding had
been approved by the Department of Defense. Alpern said members of the federal department told him the information had been a misstatement, and it released a statement the following day saying that USSOCOM would not fund the center, Alpern said. McGraw said that when members of his office received an inquiry about the status of the center, they found a former project officer from USSOCOM’s science and technology office currently on active
TEDxYale ‘solves for y’
Third highest. Yale fundraised the third-highest amount of money nationwide during the 2012 fiscal year, pulling in a total of $543,905,260, according to the Council for Aid to Education’s annual fundraising survey. Donations fell slightly from last year’s $580 million. Altogether, roughly 3,500 U.S. colleges and universities raised $31 billion, a 2.3 percent increase from the 2011 fiscal year. Divesting across the Ivies.
A fossil fuel divestment conference at Swarthmore College over the weekend drew representatives from 77 different divestment campaigns, including Yale’s. Representatives from Fossil Free Yale traveled to the liberal arts college to discuss divestment, environmentalism and social justice.
Rising tuition costs. For the
first time, the price of tuition at Princeton will surpass $40,000. But the university is offering a financial aid plan, “Private College 529 Plan,” that could cut that price in half if Princeton parents choose to invest in the program today. THIS DAY IN YALE HISTORY
1922 Commons is expected to open today after being temporarily closed for the two past days following a walkout by the entire dining hall staff. Submit tips to Cross Campus
crosscampus@yaledailynews.com
ONLINE y MORE cc.yaledailynews.com
SEE DOD PAGE 4
Yale Health considers sex change surgery BY CYNTHIA HUA STAFF REPORTER
A toast to 50 most. In honor
of the classic campus favorite, “Rumpus’s 50 Most,” several Yalies have launched a parody account showing off the 50 best-looking toasts. That’s right — the 50 most attractive pieces of bread. The Tumblr features a series of bread slices toasted to different levels, with one attractive toast broken up in pieces and another in the form of Cinnamon Toast Crunch.
duty who told McGraw that USSOCOM was providing the $1.8 million grant to Yale for a research and training center — information McGraw used to write the Thursday statement he retracted the next day. After searching for more information, he said, the unit launched an investigation late Thursday and found that the project officer had proposed Morgan’s Center for Excellence in Operational Neuroscience, but that the pro-
students and alumni. TEDxYale Curator Paul Fletcher-Hill ’15 said the event allowed speakers and audience members to engage with ideas outside of their usual schedules. “We wanted to hear the speakers’
Though Stanford, the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard and Brown offer health insurance coverage for students to receive gender reassignment surgery, Yale is still reviewing its policies for the procedure. The Yale Health Plan does not currently cover gender reassignment surgeries for students, but coverage was extended to faculty and staff at the managerial and professional levels in 2011 and to the unionized workforce last month. Dr. Paul Genecin, director of University Health Services, said he has noticed “increasing interest” both at Yale and other Ivy League institutions in offering insurance coverage for the procedure. Yale Health has received “a small number” of requests from students for gender-related surgery insurance coverage in the past, he said, and changes to student
SEE TEDX PAGE 6
SEE YALE HEALTH PAGE 4
JOYCE XI/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Activist Ronan Farrow LAW ’09 (left) discussed his experience working with Hillary Clinton LAW ’73 at TEDxYale. BY JASMINE HORSEY STAFF REPORTER Twenty-two speakers from across the world descended on campus for TEDxYale’s second annual conference Saturday. Audience members from the Yale and New Haven communi-
ties packed the Shubert Theater for the seven-hour event, called “Solve for y.” The day was divided into four sessions, titled “Hypothesize,” “Experiment,” “Theorize” and “Predict,” and offered ticketholders the opportunity to hear from speakers including Mayor John DeStefano Jr. and Yale professors,
Petition seeks student voice BY ISAAC STANLEY-BECKER STAFF REPORTER If a collection of city lawmakers, youth advocates, parents and students have their way, two New Haven Public Schools students may soon sit on the Board of Education. In advance of Tuesday’s charter review commission meeting, the Citywide Youth Coalition is circulating a petition calling for student representation on the school board as a potential change to the city’s charter. Boasting 87 signatures as of Sunday evening, the petition asks Ward 8 Alderman Michael Smart, who heads the 15-member Board of Aldermen-appointed commission, to include this change in his recommendations to the full Board of Aldermen in May. At that time, the board will decide whether to put the changes to referendum in November. After four public hearings, the commission will begin deciding Tuesday which changes, if any, it will ask the board to put on the ballot. Supporters of the petition, including Ward 1 Alderman Sarah Eidelson ’12, claim the change will ensure accountability to students, allowing youth representatives to have a say in decisions regarding curriculum, credit requirements and teacher evaluations. The request
Yale Corporation plans lab renovations BY JULIA ZORTHIAN STAFF REPORTER
ISAAC STANLEY-BECKER/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
The petition calling for student representation on the New Haven Board of Education is supported by Ward 1 Alderman Sarah Eidelson ’12. is part of a broader discussion of the composition of the board, as some residents and city officials are calling for elections in place of mayoral appointments to choose board members. Both Ward 10 Alderman Justin Elicker
FES ’10 SOM ’10 and Connecticut State Rep. Gary HolderWinfield, who are emerging front-runners in the mayoral race, have come out in support SEE STUDENT REPS PAGE 6
Fellows of the Yale Corporation allocated money for plans to renovate laboratory classrooms in Sterling Chemistry Laboratory and furthered discussion with President-elect Peter Salovey about his preparations for the presidency when they convened on campus this weekend for their annual February meeting. The Yale Corporation’s February meeting, one of its five meetings per year, is typically intended to give the fellows exposure to different parts of campus rather than holding the regular committee meetings, University President Richard Levin said. This year, the corporation met with several administrators, staff members and professors for updates and spent time alone with Salovey as part of his transition to the presidency. Levin also said the fellows met with science and math professors to learn about STEM developments and traveled up Science Hill to visit classrooms before approving funding to design higher-quality teaching
laboratories in Sterling Chemistry Laboratory. “Putting in higher-quality teaching laboratories [is] a few years away,” Levin said. “But it’s something we really feel is important to accomplish.”
It’s really important that [President-elect Salovey] develop his own relationship with the [Yale Corporation]. RICHARD LEVIN President, Yale University Levin said the renovations will probably take three or four years to complete. The Yale Corporation’s decision is part of the continuing process of improving elementary science and math courses and renovating facilities on Science Hill. Last year, he said, the corporation decided to allocate money for renovating lecture classSEE YALE CORP. PAGE 6