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 · TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2013 · VOL. CXXXV, NO. 82 · yaledailynews.com
INSIDE THE NEWS MORNING EVENING
CLOUDY CLOUDY
27 31
CROSS CAMPUS
CANCER GENES LINKED TO BRAIN TUMOR
LEADERSHIP
ATHENÆUM
WOMEN’S TENNIS
Former general heads hands-on program at the School of Management
TOO MANY STUDENT ART GUIDES FOR ONE CAMPUS
On their home turf, Bulldogs defeat Florida International, Arkansas
PAGE 6-7 SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
PAGE 3 NEWS
PAGE 3 CULTURE
PAGE 12 SPORTS
DeStefano eyes final year
Pranking the president. When
University President Richard Levin visited the Yale Club of New York last Saturday for a reception honoring his 20-year presidency, he proved to be receptive to practical jokes. All attendees who went to shake Levin’s hand were told to give the departing president a small blue plastic bead, a practice they had been told was a Yale tradition. But after receiving a substantial collection of beads, Levin explained to the crowd that the bead tradition was, in fact, a prank that had been pulled on him during his first year as president. Well played, Mr. President.
BY JULIA ZORTHIAN STAFF REPORTER Administrators and faculty, including members of the Women Faculty Forum, convened for a panel in Linsly-Chittenden Hall on Monday night to discuss the reasons why a university with such a diverse undergraduate body has a faculty overwhelmingly composed of white males. The panel, which was co-sponsored by the Yale College Council and the News, consisted of President-elect Peter Salovey, Yale College Dean Mary Miller, Deputy Provost Frances Rosenbluth, Anthropology Chair Richard Bribiescas, EE&B Chair Paul Turner, WFF Chair Priya Natarajan and WFF report author Allison Tait. Panelists covered topics such as unequal mentorship for ladder faculty members within departments and cultural burdens placed on women as possible reasons for this imbalance.
#Hillary2016? Hillary Clinton
LAW ’73 has launched a new website, hillaryclintonoffice. com, that contains nothing but a large photo of the former secretary of state and a “contact” button. The mysterious website has already furthered speculation that Clinton may be considering a 2016 presidential run. Hmm…
Think textbooks are expensive? Well, prices may
soon go up. Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy announced Monday morning that Amazon will open a distribution center in the state in the next two years, a move that is projected to employ over 300 workers and allow the state to levy a sales tax on all Amazon purchases. Starting this November, the state will charge a 6.35 percent sales tax on all Amazon products.
And the YCC said, let there be light. Roughly two months
after the YCC released its Campus Safety Report, Yale Facilities has reported fixing lights in a number of places, including Temple Street, Chapel Street, Wall Street and around Swing Space. But if you still walk in darkness, don’t worry: The YCC announced that they will “continue investigating the status of campus lighting.” Phew. Rising star. Though Sarah
Solovay ’16 did not win the Hitlab Emerging Artist Competition, which would have given her the chance to perform at a Grammys Weekend event in Los Angeles, Calif., she was still named one of 10 finalists in the national competition. In a Q&A with the News, Solovay said she loves being a musician at Yale because of the University’s diverse community.
Attention. Submissions for the Wallace Prize are currently being accepted. All fiction and creative nonfiction pieces are due to 202 York St. on Feb. 28 by 5 p.m. Winners will receive cash prizes and their submissions will be printed in the Yale Daily News Magazine. THIS DAY IN YALE HISTORY
2008 Students reflect on Hillary Clinton’s LAW ’73 round-table discussion, which she held with the Yale Child Study Center the day before. Submit tips to Cross Campus
crosscampus@yaledailynews.com
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Panel tackles faculty diversity
KATHRYN CRANDALL/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
Mayor John DeStefano Jr. focused on education, the economy, public safety and the budget during the State of the City. BY DIANA LI STAFF REPORTER With one year left before he steps down as New Haven’s longestserving mayor, John DeStefano Jr. delivered his final State of the City address Monday night. Speaking to a crowded chamber at City Hall, DeStefano stressed the need for the city to continue focusing on four areas in his speech: education, the economy, public safety and the budget. He said that among those four things, improving public schools is particularly a top priority.
“There’s lots more, but those are the four big things for us,” DeStefano said. “There are 330 days, four hours and seven minutes that taxpayers have me left on their payroll, and I intend to earn my keep in this most inspiring of places in the job that’s really the best.” DeStefano outlined three main goals under education reform: eliminating the achievement gap, cutting dropout rates and ensuring that high school students are both financially and academically prepared to graduate from college. A college education is increas-
ingly necessary for industries “where the work is today,” DeStefano said, adding that an increasing percentage of jobs require a college degree. He pointed to New Haven Promise and the above-average college retention rates of Promise recipients as evidence that New Haven is making progress in college preparation for high school students. The mayor also discussed unemployment and the state of the economy. He cited companies such as
Tait presented statistics and information the WFF included in its report, “The View from 2012,” which showed that while the number of women faculty has increased from 17 percent in 2001 to 24 percent in 2011–’12, white males still make up 66 percent of the faculty body. “The progress I think reveals it is possible to make change, to make an impact, to actually do things that address this challenge,”
SEE STATE OF THE CITY PAGE 4
SEE DIVERSITY PAGE 5
Anti-crime initiative under NAACP scrutiny BY JACK NEWSHAM CONTRIBUTING REPORTER New Haven officials have rallied around an anti-crime initiative after the Connecticut National Association for the Advancement of Colored People criticized the program for endangering the civil rights of minority communities. Project Longevity, an ongoing anticrime initiative launched in November 2012, seeks to combine federal, state and local resources to offer community support to members of violent groups if they renounce violence, while threatening such groups with increased scrutiny if any member engages in gun violence. But the Connecticut NAACP expressed worry last month that the program could unfairly target and disrupt minority communities. “The massive scope of Project Longevity raises significant concerns regarding the potential impact on those who are not directly associated with these gangs, but because of familial or neighborhood association may also become targets,” the Connecticut NAACP said in a statement last month. The Connecticut NAACP’s description of Project Longevity has met opposition from several people affiliated with the initiative. The “overwhelming majority” of individuals targeted by Project Longevity have a criminal record, said New Haven Rev. William Mathis, the pro-
It’s not about affirmative action. It’s about increasing the pool so we are choosing from the best.
gram manager. Those who are subject to “call-ins,” a meeting in which an offer of community support and the threat of increased scrutiny are put forward, Mathis said, “have been identified by intelligence” as individuals involved in violent groups.
Project Longevity targets people and only people who have been charged with serious violent crimes. ANNA MARIOTTI Spokeswoman, City Hall “Project Longevity targets people and only people who have been charged with serious violent crimes,” said City Hall spokeswoman Anna Mariotti in response to the NAACP’s criticism. Alderman Brian Wingate, the chairman of the Public Safety Committee of the Board of Aldermen, said that despite the NAACP’s criticism, he remains tentatively supportive of Project Longevity. Alderman Justin Elicker FES ’10 SOM ’10, who is running for mayor, maintains that Project Longevity is an effective “tool” to reduce violence. “I understand that the project is not SEE LONGEVITY PAGE 5
FRANCES ROSENBLUTH Deputy provost, Yale University
University student center considered BY KIRSTEN SCHNACKENBERG STAFF REPORTER Students from Yale College, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and the 12 professional schools are collaborating for the first time to draft a proposal for a University-wide student center. On Wednesday, the newly formed Student Center Ad Hoc Committee — which is comprised of 20 undergraduates and graduate students — met in the Hall of Graduate Studies to craft a student center proposal they hope to submit to administrators this spring. The student center would expand upon existing meeting spaces , connect undergraduates and graduates, and offer activities for students seeking dry late-night options, committee members said, but the committee currently has no formal administrative backing nor specific ideas about funding or location. “It is clear to me that we really need a student center. Students are gathering in ways that the colleges and their spaces simply can’t accommodate, and it is becoming harder and harder for masters to protect their space,” Council of Masters Chair Jonathan Holloway said. “But the real problems are funding and space.” Graduate Students Assembly Chair Lauren Tilton GRD ’16 said the committee — led by YCC member Nick Styles ’14, Graduate and Professional Schools Senate Senator Lucas Thompson GRD ’13 and herself — was
formed after all three student bodies voted earlier this month to participate in a joint effort to propose a student center. Tilton and YCC President John Gonzalez began a discussion about collaborating to form a student center proposal in the fall, Tilton said.
Students are gathering in ways that the colleges and their spaces simply can’t accommodate. JONATHAN HOLLOWAY Chair, Council of Masters Holloway said he thinks the main obstacles facing the Student Center Ad Hoc Committee are finding a space and funding, but he added that finding a location near the two new residential colleges would be ideal to draw students to the area. There have been many smaller attempts to offer late-night, nonalcoholic recreational options for students, including Global Grounds and the Saybrook Underbrook coffeehouse, Holloway said, but these attempts have “probably not been enough.” In discussions between the Council of Masters and University Council Committee on Alcohol in Yale SEE YCC PAGE 4
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YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2013 · yaledailynews.com
OPINION
.COMMENT “It's so nice to hear that Filipinos excel and stand out in other counyaledailynews.com/opinion
An absent YCC T
here was something a little ridiculous in the coverage of the resignation of two Yale College Council members last week — and I don’t mean having to remember whether it’s Debby Abromov '14 or Danny Avraham '15 who’s going to represent us as the Council’s vice president this semester. Rather, what was particularly striking was the discrepancy between how YCC members spoke of the news and how other Yale students seem to be treating it. We had YCC President John Gonzalez '14 helpfully informing us that, “These two departures are really, really big,” before going on to lament the impact of the resignations on the trust the Yale student body holds for the YCC. Events Director Bryan Epps ’14 went so far as to predict a change in voter preferences, anticipating that students will from now on demand of YCC candidates more detailed information about their future plans. But while remaining YCC members seem eager to forestall any further resignations, the voters whose trust was arguably breached don’t seem to give a damn. Far from witnessing outpourings of public outrage — or even interest — I haven’t so much as overheard a conversation in which the names of the departing YCC members were even mentioned. And while the article covering the announcement garnered an impressive 16 online comments, most are from supporters of departing YCC Secretary Leandro Leviste’s '15 mother, who holds political office in the Philippines. In other words, students just don’t care that a couple names and positions on the YCC have had their relation to each other switched around; they don’t seem to think that the YCC vice president, or secretary, has any relation to them. But criticizing student apathy implies that proposals went unnoticed that deserve our attention. And when it comes to the YCC’s actions so far this year, I can’t think of anything it’s done that deserves our attention. OK, that might be a little unfair. Expanded dining hall offerings during Fall, Thanksgiving and Winter Break were worthwhile enough, and as I’m not currently on a meal plan, I may be underestimating the value of the YCC-inspired improvements to dining hall salad bars. Judging from a few guest-swipe meals, however, the refurbished ones don’t seem like anything to write home about. Indeed, reading the YCC’s own 2013 Mid-Year report reveals a totally depress-
ing lack of real accomp l i s h ments. The tiny number of actual achievements (salad bars, small HARRY discounts LARSON at restaurants during Nothing in Camp Yale) are grouped Particular together with a somewhat longer list of marginally interesting proposals (later dates to withdraw from a class, or convert from Credit/D/Fail). All other things equal, it seems like the Council may have set the stage for a couple of small improvements to student life over the next couple years. But the report certainly gave us no clue as to how the YCC might meaningfully improve student life, or why the news that its members might be changing should garner any student interest. I’ve previously defended the YCC against those who decried its small-bore agenda. But that was a different YCC, which had achieved genderneutral housing for juniors, as well as longer lunch hours at Durfee’s. Even after the YCC’s initial success, some were still angry that half of Yale College did not yet have the right to live with people of the opposite sex. Now, it doesn’t even seem like gender-neutral housing for sophomores is anywhere on the YCC agenda.
WHY DON'T WE CARE ANYMORE ABOUT YCC? Yale already gives its students unparalleled resources and opportunities, so it’s not shocking that we don’t demand dramatic change — or much of anything — from our elected representatives. Still, last year’s YCC proves that an actively pursued, incremental agenda can tangibly improve student life. This year’s council has forgotten that lesson. So long as students can’t name a battle the YCC has fought and won on their behalf, they won’t care if a couple of its members decide to quit. I have no doubt that the YCC takes the resignation of two of its members very seriously. I doubt anyone else does. HARRY LARSON is a junior in Jonathan Edwards College. His column runs on alternate Tuesdays. Contact him at harry.larson@yale.edu .
tries.”
'BANTAYBULEE' ON 'YCC SEES EXECUTIVE BOARD SHAKEUP'
God and us at Yale I
n 1951, William F. Buckley Jr. wrote that religion at Yale was under assault. In 2013, it feels as though that assault is long over, but we all lost the war in our own ways. This topic is a veritable minefield, so I’ll preface this column by saying that I recognize it is dangerous to generalize. My observations are based on my own experiences and those people with whom I’ve discussed these thoughts, so the usual caveats about “highly scientific” straw polls apply. The plural of anecdote is not data, but I think these suggestions can be valuable, even if they are not universally applicable. In 2013, religion is still an incredibly vibrant part of the broader Yale quilt, thanks to a patchwork collection of various active student groups like the Muslim Students’ Association, Yale Students for Christ and many more. But the quilt is a particularly apt metaphor here. Religion, more than anything else at Yale, is a distinctly separate and discrete activity relative to the more terrestrial matters that fill our lives. In this regard, we are neither melting pot nor stew. Social spaces like common rooms, dining halls and local establishments play host to a diverse array of verbal battles over politics, and students are challenged to defend their beliefs. Hookups, relationships, sex and love get their fair share of play
via workshops and conversations both gossipy and sincere. On the other hand, personal relationships with MICHAEL God and reliinstituMAGDZIK gious tions, or questions about Making existence and the fundaMagic mentals of the moral life, are more seldom discussed — or at least not in the mixed company of believers or nonbelievers. Perhaps an exception should be noted for courses on philosophy and religion, but I hardly think those classes count as natural environments where people express and engage with their deeply personal beliefs. Some in the undergraduate body say they are happy to relegate their struggle with sublime beings and the meaning of it all to the few minutes of a Shabbat “sermon” on Fridays at Slifka or an hour of Catholic Mass at St. Thomas More’s. Others engage in more frequent bouts of serious philosophical discussion and self-reckoning, but only amidst communities of like-minded peers. The end result is that there is precious little public discussion going on about God and what it all means or why we are here (aka Life, the Universe and Every-
thing). In a way, that’s understandable. For one thing, we live in a hyperscheduled bubble, where social and even romantic interactions are often governed by the almighty Google Calendar. It’s hard enough to stop and just be happy or cherish life, let alone give deeper thought to the deepest questions. These ponderous concerns seem to have no practical impact or bearing on our immediate, day-to-day lives, and so they are condemned to the back burner.
BRING BACK SPIRITUAL DIALOGUE ON CAMPUS But the other reason behind our lack of spiritual reckoning is that talking about these things takes us to a vulnerable place that we often aren’t willing to turn to — a place only revealed in the wake of the blackest tragedies, after the 9/11s and the Sandy Hooks. On the terrible days when discussions of public policy and cultural values fall dismally short, we publically share our more primal and raw feelings. It is then that we rage together against an unrelenting God and an unsympathetic universe, or find our only solace in the
thought of a paradisiacal afterlife. But when the memory of these events fades, so do our exposed emotions and feelings, and we return to the state of affairs where we are thoroughly uncomfortable asking and answering the big questions. In a country where 80 percent of people still identify as religious, one of the breeding grounds for its future leaders has not learned how to speak the language of God. But the theological and spiritual have informed important contemporary conceptions of human dignity, the relationship between forgiveness and justice and an ingrained appreciation for entities greater than ourselves. Even those Yalies who are atheists have something valuable to add to the discourse about life’s biggest mysteries, for they are also products of a culture influenced by religion and faith, and have a unique perspective as rebels against it. Engaging with these issues constitutes an important part of our common cultural character. Religion has important implications for our development as Yalies and as humans. From whatever background we approach it, we would do well to inject something of the divine into everyday life. MICHAEL MAGDZIK is a senior in Berkeley College. His column runs on Tuesdays. Contact him at michael.magdzik@yale.edu .
GUEST COLUMNIST CHLOE DRIMAL
Upstairs at the psychic’s F
our weeks ago, a psychic I found on Living Social told me I had lost my soul mate. I laughed and told her I was happily single, but she touched my hand and assured me I wasn’t. She went on to comfort me and say that with just a small fee of $150 she could make it all better. I declined and wondered about the people who spent that kind of money, but then quickly realized I was currently sitting across from a psychic who already had my money. When I left her office, I hadn’t fully grasped the effect her words would have on me. But looking back on it, the signs were apparent — I immediately walked across the street into Sunglass Hut and bought a new pair of aviators, maxing out my debit card. I then proceeded to drive home to dig up pictures of my ex. In one psychic visit, my entire livelihood had been turned upside down. Prior to it, the term “boyfriend” had made me nauseous — being single was just too much fun. But this stranger assured me I was wrong, assured me that I had found my one and only, only to lose him. For what-
ever reason, I believed her. Two weeks later, I found myself at Lilly’s Pad at a fraternity formal that had “outsourced to Trinity” because the brothers were bored of us Yale girls. If that wasn’t bad enough, I quickly observed that I was one of two senior girls. Needless to say, my ex-boyfriend woke up to a voicemail the next morning. Which I followed up with six Snapchats, the last one being, “Yes I know I’m the crazy ex.” (At least the ephemeral nature of Snapchat makes it impossible from him to ever use my snaps as evidence for the necessity of a restraining order.) I blame my crazy-ex syndrome on this psychic. Blame her for this fleeting virus of insecurity that took over my mind, and blurred the way I saw things. She could have said, “Oh wow, you are having a hell of a time being single, huh?” and made me smile. But instead she said, “You lost your soul mate, tough luck,” which made me cringe. Immediately, in a room filled with crystal balls, tarot cards and candles, I felt trapped in my
past, a place I hadn’t thought about all year. I felt insecurities arise that didn’t before. They didn’t because I had been so focused on my present, focused on the work I had to get done so I could go to Sunday Funday. Now, I know not everyone sees a psychic; I’m not that deluded. But unavoidably one does come across a picture of an ex; one does have to sit in the dining hall, paper in hand, and read about the basket he missed yesterday that could have won the game. Our pasts will forever want to creep into our minds. And if we let them, we’ll only be hurting our futures. Insecurities will surface that anchor us back, hindering us from exploring our potentials. Our pasts have merely become fictitious stories, inspired by true events. The “soul mate” is gone for a reason. That missed basket wasn’t your fault — the pass could have been different, or the team could have been up by more. If we dwell on what could have been, we’ll miss out on our presents. If we put effort into a guy we don’t like, just because we’re
scared of being single, we may miss out on laying on a rooftop till 4 a.m. with friends passing a bottle of tequila, talking about dreams or the drunk girl that fell into her pizza at Yorkside a few hours before. We can’t know that we made the right choices; we can only believe that we did our best. Psychics, friends, mothers and newspapers will come along, reminding us of our pasts, pulling us back and creating insecurities. We can’t stop them. But we can stop the way they affect us. We need to remember that sometimes searching for a way to end our anxieties can create new ones. We need to remember that sometimes the people we go to for advice can be wrong. The weatherman makes mistakes, a pilot can fly off course and the psychic you find on Living Social may have a faulty crystal ball. In the end we can’t know our futures, but that’s okay as long as we remember the beauty of our present. CHLOE DRIMAL is a senior in Calhoun College. Contact her at chloe.drimal@yale.edu .
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A new generation of activists for divestment I
’ll always remember the first time I went into Linsly-Chittenden Hall on Old Campus — it was the first Yale building I visited during Bulldog Days 2007, following my freshman host to class. Two years later, I sat in one of LC’s large lecture halls for “Environmental Politics and Law” and picked my major. Today, as a grad student, I spend most of my time in class on Science Hill or potlucking in East Rock, but last Saturday I returned to LC for a meeting on fossil fuel divestment at Yale. Upstairs, a group of gangly, idealistic undergrads talked about their effort and invited us to an after-party at the Saybrook 12-pack. Their tone was hopeful: The group had just successfully presented their 50-page report on the need for and implications of divestment to the Yale Advisory Committee on Investor Responsibility. Legendary environmental activist Bill McKibben Skyped in. There was BAR
pizza. The whole thing was such a weird combination of nostalgia and completely new, positive, powerful engagement that I felt the need to write. The skinny on the fossil fuel divestment campaign is this: Yale’s ethical investment guidelines should preclude our financial support of an industry with devastating global consequences. The climate change advocacy group 350.org has been mobilizing students nationwide to encourage their university administrations to stop investing their endowment in companies that produce and sell fossil fuels. These products represent a huge contribution to our current global climate emergency — a crisis that includes the hottest year on record for the U.S. in 2012, millions of displaced climate refugees, massive biodiversity loss and even more dire projections for the future. Whether you are troubled by how actions of rich countries
are increasing flooding, drought, displacement and disease in the Global South or just pissed about losing power last fall in your East Village apartment, climate change affects as all. And beyond the impacts of their products, fossil fuel companies themselves represent a challenge because of their unchecked political power. This campaign is aimed at publicly shaming the unethical practices of the industry, reducing their influence. Yale’s fossil fuel divestment is such a tiny, tiny part of the solution we need to build a sustainable human society and protect our home planet. Each day I work in the environmental field, I understand more of the extent of these problems. In my research in Bhutan, I see glacial melt and erratic monsoon cycles already threatening Himalayan water security and livelihoods. Here at home, I watch my peers identify ever-growing challenges, and work harder for
increasingly difficult solutions. It is easy to get discouraged. But seeing a group of undergrads take on both the fossil fuel industry and our responsibility for climate change, I was inspired and re-energized. Many of my Yale College friends have moved on and into lives that don’t center on social and environmental responsibility. Many current students will soon do the same. Here is something they, and we, can do: Consider signing the petition asking Yale to divest from fossil fuels. Support climate change mitigation, support a positive legacy for your school or alma mater and support the hard work of students like us who want to squeeze in changing the world between dining hall brunch and cheap beer in a party suite. HILARY FAXON is student at the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and a 2011 graduate of Silliman College.
YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2013 · yaledailynews.com
PAGE 3
NEWS
“If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.” MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO ROMAN PHILOSOPHER AND STATESMAN
Athenæum supports undergraduate art exploration BY YANAN WANG STAFF REPORTER As student guides gear up for another semester of tours, a new undergraduate art interest group called The Elihu Athenæum is attempting to carve a space for itself alongside the established programs run by the Yale University Art Gallery and the Yale Center for British Art. Formed a year ago, The Elihu Athenæum brands itself as “a society of Yale undergraduate art historians.” Founder Thomas Burns ’13 said he created the club due to his dissatisfaction with the available avenues for undergraduates to pursue their interest in art history and engage with the University’s museums. After transferring from Northeastern University in 2010, Burns said it was difficult to find a sense of central community within Yale’s Art History Department. The two pre-existing art history groups — the YUAG guides and the YCBA guides — allow for only a limited number of students to participate, he said, and they do not fulfill the needs of all the students in the major. “The Art History Department is very fractioned,” Burns said. “There was no universal place for everyone.” The Elihu Athenæum elected its new board this January. Current President Sinclaire Marber ’15, who is also a YUAG guide, said she hopes to expand the club’s membership and organize regular events geared toward helping undergraduates take advantage of the University’s galleries. The club sends out a monthly newsletter to its panlist detailing upcoming events hosted by the two University museums, as well as club-organized movie screenings and local gallery trips. Last fall, The Elihu Athenæum members visited Exit Art, a nonprofit cultural center in New York City, shortly before its scheduled closure. “In addition to planning our own activities, the group is about helping students take advantage of the existing opportunities around them,” Marber said. “It’s a platform through which to inform people about events and have a group of people to go to
these events with.” Marber said about 10 to 15 people attend each event. Meanwhile, meetings are open to everyone on the panlist and do not demand a set commitment from members. Josh Isackson ’15, the club’s treasurer, said he came to The Elihu Athenæum hoping to learn about art in a more informal setting. The group’s casual nature and broad artistic scope set it apart from the more formalized tour guide groups, Marber said. She added that the YUAG’s guide programs are “very targeted towards learning how to give a tour,” and the guide programs at both galleries require participants to attend weekly meetings.
The Art History Department is very fractioned. There was no universal place for everyone. THOMAS BURNS ’13 Founder, The Elihu Athenæum Burns said he also hopes The Elihu Athenæum will enliven spaces around campus that are currently devoid of art. The group is collaborating with YUAG Director Jock Reynolds to install Sol LeWitt’s “Wall Drawing No. 587” in the basement that Ezra Stiles College and Morse College share. “I generally hate white walls,” Burns said. “I hope that through outside funding, we can start a program which utilizes temporary installations of art from renowned artists to be displayed outside of gallery walls.” The benefit of studentled installations is that members receive firsthand exposure to working in the art world, Burns explained. The Elihu Athenæum’s projects will give students an understanding of the hurdles that public arts commissions, museums and nonprofit organizations must overcome to acquire or display art. Burns cited the Sterling
THOMAS BURNS
Members of the Elihu Athenæum will install Sol Lewitt’s “Wall Drawing No. 587” in the Morse and Stiles Underground Crescent. Chemistry Laboratory as an example of an on-campus space that has been neglected. “No part of Yale should ever look like a sad office building,” Burns lamented. Art history professor Edward
Leadership program debuts BY ALEKSANDRA GJORGIEVSKA STAFF REPORTER With the help of a former brigadier general in the U.S. Army, the School of Management has designed a new hands-on leadership development program for its students. The two-year initiative, which is integrated with the school’s core curriculum, aims to teach leadership skills through a combination of academic coursework and practical experience. Thomas Kolditz, a former Army official who taught at the West Point Military Academy before joining SOM in July 2012 to run
FOCUSES OF THE LEADERSHIP TRAINING PROGRAM INDIVIDUAL
Acquiring knowledge of personal strengths and weaknesses; upholding leadership commitments INTERPERSONAL
Giving and receiving feedback; developing emotional intelligence and communication skills ORGANIZATIONAL
Developing and implementing vision and strategy; organizational design and organizational culture GLOBAL
Creating and maintaining community, ethics, social responsibility and accountability; crosscultural awareness
the new leadership program, said students will participate in leadership courses and work on a final capstone project, adding that a team of seven coaches will be available to advise students on their leadership progress during one-on-one meetings. SOM administrators said the program differs from its counterparts at peer institutions because of its focus on hands-on rather than theoretical learning. “Most business schools have leadership development, but what makes our program unique is that it doesn’t pretend that leadership comes primarily through teaching theory or doing a lot of workshops,” said David Bach ’98, SOM senior associate dean for executive MBA and global programs. “At SOM, there is the recognition that most of it comes from experience and practice.” The final project for the leadership program will allow students to apply their course work to real-world settings. Bach and other administrators said they could not speculate on the specific nature of the capstone projects as the leadership training program is tailored to students’ individual interests, and the first class of students participating in the full program will begin their projects next year. Current first-year students are the first group to participate in the program’s leadership courses, while second-year students are permitted to participate in some aspects of the program, such as the one-on-one coaching component. Anjani Jain, SOM senior associate dean for the full-time MBA program, said the school’s curriculum included a leadership development component before Kolditz’s arrival but added that its prior efforts to teach leadership were “less pervasive and less structured.” Kolditz said most business
schools develop leadership skills among their students through classroom teaching, and that leadership programs at other schools are often not mandatory. His program’s length, inclusivity and focus on experiential learning make it unique within U.S. business school circles, he said. He added that he designed the leadership training program with an eye for student diversity within SOM. “We want students to own their development, which is why the program is highly tailored to each individual within SOM,” he said. “Many of our graduates go to diverse cultures to lead, as opposed to adhering to some imaginary common aspiration.” After the program’s general infrastructure has been tested during the current academic year, SOM administrators said they plan to customize the initiative to the various degree types the school offers. Libby Stegger SOM ’13 said she has been able to approach 15 different people involved in the leadership training program for feedback on her leadership skills, adding that she plans to work one-on-one with a coach to “help identify ways to improve and grow.” “While it was always true that SOM is a leadership lab, [Kolditz’s] strategy for and implementation of the leadership development program offers concrete language, time and support to those who want to hone leadership skills more intentionally,” said Caitlin Sullivan SOM ’13, SOM student government president. The leadership development program was sponsored by a donation from Forrest E. Mars ’53 and John F. Mars ’57. Contact ALEKSANDRA GJORGIEVSKA at aleksandra.gjorgievska@yale.edu .
Cooke commended The Elihu Athenæum for providing a more accessible and collaborative way for students to engage deeply with the galleries’ collections. “Not everyone wants to do the gallery guides prep work or to
be involved in the kind of competition involved in becoming a guide,” Cooke said. “There are some people who just want a relationship with the gallery that is on their own terms.” The Elihu Athenæum will
travel to New York City on Feb. 17 to see exhibits at the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Contact YANAN WANG at yanan.wang@yale.edu .
Library rolls out new website BY SOPHIE GOULD STAFF REPORTER Students visiting the Yale University Library home page will now see a very different website from the one available online over the past several years. The new home page, launched in early January, aims to help students and faculty find research materials quickly and easily, said Andrew Predmore, web operations manager for the library, adding that the new page will also work better with mobile devices and will represent all of Yale’s libraries rather than just the largest ones. One of its new features is Study Space Scheduling, a “self-service” online system in which students and faculty can book a room ahead of time for a meeting or study session in one of Yale’s libraries. Predmore, who has been working on the new site since last February, said he designed it with the intention of making it more intuitive than the previous website, adding that the new webpage requires fewer clicks to access various library resources than the old website did. “We were trying to take the things that were most used by students and faculty and make them more prominent on the website,” said Kathleen Bauer, the library’s director of usability and assessment. Bauer said the new website is less cluttered and prominently displays the parts of the library that students and faculty access most, according to library data. She added that the library created the study space booking system because students complained that they could not reserve study spaces in advance. Bauer said the site, which is not moderated and requires just a Yale email address to make a reservation, has only received a handful of bookings so far, but she added that she expects the volume to increase as midterm season comes around. Apart from the bookings site, the new library homepage also features a list of study spaces on campus created in order to help students find alternate study spots on campus while Sterling Memorial Library undergoes renovation, Predmore said. Though the “study places” page currently only includes rooms in Sterling and Bass, Bauer said it will soon include more rooms in other libraries.
She added that students will also be able to sort by criteria such as proximity to computers, printers or coffee. In order to design the new website, Bauer said librarians conducted a series of testing sessions with students this fall, adding that the tests used “paper prototypes” of the new website until they could move onto the computer. Students gave useful feedback about the usefulness of various features of the website, Predmore said, adding that he also used data from Google Analytics, which tracks page views and the number of times users click on various parts of a website, to create the new home page with “students’ needs” in mind.
We are constantly evaluating what works and what doesn’t. ANDREW PREDMORE Web operations manager, Yale University Library “We are constantly evaluating what works and what doesn’t,” Predmore said, adding that the new website is built in a way that allows him and other library staff to tweak small sections of the webpage without disrupting the rest of the site. Though the library has plans to continue improving its website, the Orbis catalog, which members of the Yale community use to reserve library books, will likely remain the same, Predmore said. He added that he must exercise greater care when changing aspects of the Orbis site, as many professors and researchers have grown accustomed to and depend on its current functionality. Five of eight students interviewed were unaware of the new website, and those that had used it were split about whether it is an improvement over the old version. “Once I have something figured out, I’d rather keep the format I know,” Kara Fikrig ’15 said. Librarians announced the creation of the study space reservation site on Jan. 23. Contact SOPHIE GOULD at sophie.gould@yale.edu .
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YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2013 · yaledailynews.com
FROM THE FRONT
“A great city is not to be confounded with a populous one.” ARISTOTLE GREEK PHILOSOPHER AND POLYMATH
DeStefano delivers last State of the City
Center to connect undergrads, grads YCC FROM PAGE 1
KATHRYN CRANDALL/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
In his annual State of the City address, Mayor John DeStefano Jr. said that improving public schools is a top priority for the coming year. STATE OF THE CITY FROM PAGE 1 Alexion Pharmeceuticals and Higher One as examples of business developments in New Haven that produce jobs and have the potential to lower the unemployment rate in the city. “From 100 College Street to the popup business downtown, we want to create jobs and keep the mill rate down, we have to be welcoming and encouraging to developers, businessmen and visitors,” he said. To bolster development and provide affordable housing, DeStefano urged the Board of Aldermen to modify zoning laws, enabling “smart mixed-use, scale-appropriate projects,” and to develop a formal process for dealing with tax agreements for housing and mixed-use projects. With regard to public safety, the mayor advocated for continuing the
community policing model reintroduced to the city by New Haven Police Chief Dean Esserman. He also spoke about gun control in light of the Newtown, Conn. shootings and urged people to express their opinions and participate in public debate. DeStefano finished his address with a discussion of the city’s financial struggles. With 43 percent of its revenue from the state of Connecticut, New Haven largely depends on the financial health of the state. “You have heard me say more than a few times that when the state catches a cold, the city gets pneumonia. The state has a $1.4 billion cold this year,” DeStefano said. The mayor added that while Connecticut may cut aid to New Haven, these cuts are “not going to help the state’s economy” and that people should be “prepared to advocate for
what’s right, what’s fair and what’s smart.”
There are 330 days, four hours and seven minutes that taxpayers have me left on their payroll, and I intend to earn my keep. JOHN DESTEFANO Mayor, New Haven “I do like those four points he outlined because those points align with the agenda the board has,” said Ward 22 Alderman Jeanette Morrison, who added that she was particularly pleased
with the mayor’s attention to college retention rates. “It seems like we’re all coming together as one because we really have the same priorities.” Ward 1 Alderman Sarah Eidelson ’12 also said that she felt the mayor highlighted many of the “same priorities” as those of the board, such as increased public safety through community policing and employment measures such as the New Haven jobs pipeline. Nicole Hobbs ’14, president of the Yale College Democrats, said that she thought DeStefano did a “great job” and that he correctly identified key issues the city should address, such as gun violence prevention and education reform. DeStefano is currently serving out his 10th term as mayor. Contact DIANA LI at diana.li@yale.edu .
KATHRYN CRANDALL/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
New Haven residents gathered in City Hall Monday evening to listen to Mayor John DeStefano Jr.’s final State of the City address.
College last month, he said the idea of a student center came up as a way to promote a healthy culture around nighttime activities at Yale. University Secretary and Vice President for Student Affairs Kimberly Goff-Crews said students have expressed interest in having more spaces available to meet with one another, and a University-wide student center could offer a solution. No administrators serve on the Ad Hoc Committee, and GoffCrews added she does not know of any administrators actively engaged in discussions about a student center. Styles and Tilton said the proposal is still in early stages, so they had not yet finalized with which administrators they planned to work. At Wednesday’s meeting, the committee divided the work among the three groups, which will present their findings when the committee reconvenes on Feb. 27. Members of the YCC will survey all the current services and spaces — including common and seminar rooms, butteries, theaters and athletic facilities — currently available in the residential colleges, Styles said. The GSA will examine student center models at peer institutions including other Ivies, MIT and UVA, and the GPSS will examine which spaces and student life services are currently available in Yale’s graduate and professional schools, he added. “When the Ad Hoc committee reconvenes in late February, we will use the information the three bodies have gathered to hopefully draft a proposal,” Styles said. “At that point, we will look more specifically at questions about the space and funding needed for this center.” Gonzalez and Tilton said a student center would help centralize resources on campus and facilitate meetings with students from different residential colleges. “If you look at Yale’s resources, they are very spread out. The Chaplain’s Office is sort of randomly on Old Campus, the Dean’s Office is in SSS,” Gonzalez said. “At most universities, these resources are condensed into one location so they’re easier to utilize.” Students interviewed said a student center would be effective in offering additional meeting space, but do not think the space would diversify late-night options at Yale unless the space was student-run. “It would have to be studentrun or student-branded,” Caroline Smith ’14 said. “Maybe if it were a student job, because there has to be a coolness factor. The most important thing is the vibe of the entire place.” Grace Chiang ’15 said that Yale is “definitely short on meeting spaces,” and she has often run into problems scheduling gatherings including students from several different residential colleges. The student center will only draw students if it is located close to central campus and offers a range of services in addition to meeting spaces, such as food and music, Chiang said. Five YCC members currently serve on the Student Center Ad Hoc Committee. Contact KIRSTEN SCHNACKENBERG at kirsten.schnackenberg@yale.edu .
recyclerecyclerecyclerecycle
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YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2013 · yaledailynews.com
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FROM THE FRONT
“The quality, not the longevity, of one’s life is what is important.” MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. AMERICAN CLERGYMAN AND LEADER OF THE AFRICAN-AMERICAN CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT
Faculty mentorship considered DIVERSITY FROM PAGE 1
SARI LEVY/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Faculty and administrators, including President-elect Peter Salovey, participated in Monday’s panel on faculty diversity.
Salovey said. “The fact that this progress is slow but steady reveals as well that we need to do a lot more.” Salovey said the school is approaching the end of a five-year initiative to increase faculty diversity and will start a new cycle immediately afterward. He did not mention specific policies the University will enact, but he said he hopes to promote diversity no matter the cost to the University and to set numerical goals for diversity hires. Search committees charged with filling a faculty position on campus are all taught the idea of “unconscious bias” before they start evaluating candidates to try to eliminate a cultural bias against women or minorities, Rosenbluth said. She added that administrators are looking to implement peer-on-peer training and workshops about avoiding unconscious bias to “even the scale” for minority applicants. Salovey and Rosenbluth said the process of attaining more diverse faculty members involves throwing out a larger net during the hiring process, since chasing minority faculty members already employed at peer schools does not improve the overall composition of higher education. “What we’re trying to accomplish is to make the labor market for faculty positions more competitive, more excellent, have more integrity,” Rosenbluth said. “It’s not about affirmative action. It’s about increasing the pool so we are choosing from the best.” Panelists also considered the issue of adequate mentorship for women and minority faculty members. As all faculty members seek tenure, Rosenbluth said, they are paired with mentors within their departments and receive mentorship from their chairs to ensure they feel supported through the tenure process and help them understand which benefits to request during salary negotiations with the Provost’s Office. Moving forward, the faculty can
additionally use a University-wide mentoring program, recently piloted by the WFF. Participants in the panel also discussed the tendency for women to leave academia for reasons such as raising a family. Miller said the lack of affordable day care in New Haven remains a serious problem. She remembered having her first child while on the faculty. She said women faculty members were expected to have their children over the winter or summer vacations, adding that the “provost was essentially in bed with you” during the planning stages. While panelists and audience members cracked the occasional joke, tension grew during several audience questions, including a question from Alexander Hamilton DIV ’15 about African-American faculty feeling unwelcome on campus. “What does it communicate to our students when they see African-Americans dominating the grounds crews on campus, in the cafeteria, but not in front of the blackboard?” Hamilton asked. Turner responded by saying he agreed and “it’s a shame that everybody in the services here at Yale is a person of color.” Six audience members interviewed said they were glad the forum addressed an issue as important as diversity, but they still had additional questions about the University’s specific plans to ensure more diverse hires. School Of Management professor Connie Bagley, a WFF member who wrote the report, said she thinks the forum started slowly but ultimately guaranteed accountability on the part of administrators, who committed to continue addressing the problem in front of students and faculty members. The Women Faculty Forum was started in 2001 and promotes equality and scholarship about gender equality on Yale’s campus. Contact JULIA ZORTHIAN at julia.zorthian@yale.edu .
Project Longevity targets minorities, NAACP says LONGEVITY FROM PAGE 1 perfect, but I think we need to use all alternatives available,” Elicker said. Emphasizing the history of discriminatory legal treatment faced by African-Americans, the NAACP statement also said that Project Longevity “has the potential to create new opportunities for racial, ethnic and class-based profiling.” But several affiliates of Project Longevity said they do not understand the NAACP’s critique, including Yale Law School professor Tracey Meares, who is assisting with the rollout of Project Longevity. She stressed that the initiative does not violate civil rights. “[Project Longevity] is targeting minority communities in the sense that it’s targeting the communities in which violence is most significant,” Meares said. According to Mathis, people presently on probation or on parole could be forced to attend a call-in under Project Longevity. Other members of violent groups, Mathis said, were invited to call-ins but would not be penalized for not showing up. “We encourage them to share the message so they can avail themselves of services,” Mathis said. The NAACP also critiqued Project Longevity for promising economic and social support that it could not deliver, as
Connecticut faces steep budget deficits. Gary Holder-Winfield, who represents New Haven in the Connecticut House of Representatives and is running for mayor, is co-sponsoring a bill to allocate state funds to cover the police work and community support programs included under Project Longevity. Elicker, meanwhile, said he supported Project Longevity when it was first announced last year. Neither Connecticut NAACP President Scot X. Esdaile nor the Connecticut ACLU returned request for comment Monday afternoon. A representative for the U.S. District Attorney’s Office for Connecticut stated that while the office was aware of the NAACP’s concerns, it had not yet issued a response. The initiative is modeled after similar programs that have reduced gun violence in Boston, Chicago and other cities across the country. While group-related homicides dropped by about half in neighborhoods in Providence, Chicago and Cincinnati, Project Longevity is the first time that the strategy will be implemented on a statewide basis, although the program was first launched in New Haven. New Haven saw 34 homicides in 2011, the highest crime rate in two decades. Contact JACK NEWSHAM at jack.newsham@yale.edu .
PATRICK CASEY/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
United States Attorney General Eric Holder traveled to New Haven in November to announce Project Longevity.
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YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2013 · yaledailynews.com
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SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
“Aerodynamically, the bumblebee shouldn’t be able to fly, but the bumblebee doesn’t know it so it goes on flying anyway.” MARY KAY ASH AMERICAN BUSINESSWOMAN AND FOUNDER OF MARY KAY COSMETICS INC.
Brain tumor genes revealed BY CLINTON WANG STAFF REPORTER Chemotherapy may soon be able to replace surgery as a safer and cheaper treatment for the most common type of brain tumor. A Yale study published Jan. 24 in the journal Science revealed that mutations in just five genes are responsible for the majority of these tumors, called meningiomas. Before the study, only one gene, called NF2, had been linked with meningiomas, but NF2 mutations accounted for only 36 percent of tumors in this study. By understanding the roles of these new genes, scientists may be able to develop drugs to cure patients with meningiomas. “This is the first time we’ve found these new genes that are
causing meningiomas,” said lead author Victoria Clark GRD ’15, M.D./Ph.D. student at the Medical School. “Chemotherapies that target these new pathways could offer a better treatment option than brain surgery.”
It’s early to say whether any specific therapeutic options are useful for treating meningiomas. RAMEEN BEROUKHI Assistant professor, Harvard Medical School The researchers sequenced the coding part of the genomes of 50
SMOL412F
meningiomas and discovered that 90 percent of them showed associations with the NF2 gene and four additional genes — two of which have never before been linked to cancer. The team then analyzed 250 more tumors for those five genes, and found mutations in almost 80 percent of them. Clark said the remaining 20 percent of tumors still needs to be accounted for genetically, adding that an even larger sample size may have revealed other genes responsible for meningiomas. The study confirmed the findings of a Harvard study published Jan. 20 in Nature that had discovered the role of two of the genes in meningioma development. When the meningiomas were categorized by the mutant gene, researchers found that tumors
in certain parts of the brain were much more likely to have one type of mutation than others. This genetic map could help doctors identify a meningioma’s cause by its location in the brain, and deliver the appropriate form of chemotherapy, Clark said. Certain mutations are more common in specific parts of the brain than others, so understanding the distribution of these mutations will help doctors determine the gene responsible for a specific case of meningioma and prescribe a suitable treatment, she added. “It’s early to say whether any specific therapeutic options are useful for treating meningiomas,” said study senior author Rameen Beroukhi, assistant professor at Harvard Medical School.
Chemo-resistant cancer may be treatable
Chemotherapeutic drugs have already been developed to combat two mutations associated with meningiomas, Beroukhi said. One drug has already been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, and the other is undergoing clinical trials. However, researchers have only begun to characterize the two other mutations discovered by the study, and Clark said her next steps will be to conduct a more thorough analysis of how these mutations lead to meningiomas. Each year, 6,500 people are diagnosed with meningiomas in the United States.
BY J.R. REED STAFF REPORTER New treatment opportunities for uterine serous carcinoma (USC) — a highly aggressive, chemotherapy-resistant form of endometrial cancer — could soon be discovered as a result of recent findings produced by a yearlong Yale study. A collaborative 34-member team of Yale scientists, including researchers specializing in gynecological cancer, genetics, pharmacology and biostatistics, studied the tumors of 57 female patients suffering from USC to determine the molecular basis of the tumors’ aggressive behavior. After surgically removing the tumors from the patients, the researchers sequenced each tumor’s genes to find specific mutations critical for these tumors’ development and detected three specific genes frequently mutated in patients suffering from USC. The team’s results were published in the Jan. 28 online edition of the academic journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “We have been able to identify potential molecular pathways that are important to the development of these cancer tumors,” said Yale School of Medicine professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences Alessandro Santin, senior author of the study. “We have opened an avenue for new therapy for this disease, because we now have something to target, which was previously unknown.” He explained that the research team looked for multiple mutations in specific genes to see which genes were causing the tumors. “What we have done is extracted DNA from the tumor cells using exome [geneencoding proteins] sequencing,” Santin said. “Most of the genetic mutations that cause cancer take place in these genes that encode proteins — not 100 percent, but between 85 percent and 90 percent. We looked through all of the 21,000 genes to look for recurring mutations present in specific genes.” The most biologically aggressive sub-
Contact CLINTON WANG at clinton.wang@yale.edu .
KLF4/TRAF4
AKT1/TRAF7
NF2
type of endometrial cancer, USC is only found in 10 percent of all individuals with endometrial cancer. However, USC tumors are incredibly dangerous because of their resistance to standard treatments and their ability to move quickly to an individual’s abdominal cavity. In fact, this cancer typically results in between 4,000 and 5,000 deaths each year and accounts for 50 percent of all deaths for endometrial cancer victims, according to the study. Chair of genetics at Yale Richard P. Lifton, a corresponding author of the study, said the study’s results could lead to new discoveries to help individual patient cases, according to a Jan. 28 Yale News release. “These new findings define the biological basis of this cancer and suggest new opportunities for personalized therapy,” Lifton said. Now that researchers have a better idea of the tumor’s biology and the mutations causing USC, they can target therapies to address these genetic mutations. Moving forward, Santin said the goal is either to take advantage immediately of FDAapproved drugs used for similar mutations in other tumors or to start from scratch and begin new therapy based on the specific genes they found in these tumors. Until the research was produced, doctors did not know the most effective drugs to use to treat this cancer, Santin said. “Now that this has been reported to the scientific community, the point is to make clinics aware to treat patients using this new knowledge,” he said. “We are trying to improve the quality of care and the knowledge base that we can provide to our patients when they develop this devastating USC cancer.” Gilead Sciences Inc., an American biotechnology company that collaborates with Yale, helped support the cost of gene sequencing during the study. Contact J.R. REED at jonathan.t.reed@yale.edu .
SAHELI SADANAND KAREN TIAN
Multiple factors affect HIV prognosis
Viruses struggle to adapt to climate change
BY PAYAL MARATHE STAFF REPORTER
BY CLINTON WANG STAFF REPORTER
In a major advancement for the field of HIV treatment, a new study has identified a more accurate method of suggesting prognosis for HIV patients. The new method, called the Veterans Aging Cohort Study index, takes into account factors such as hemoglobin level, platelet count and comorbidity. Previous models of predicting HIV-related outcomes depended only on levels of CD4, a glycoprotein found on the surface of immune system T-cells, and viral load, an estimate of the amount of virus present in the body. But as improved antiretroviral therapy has lengthened the life expectancy of HIV patients, these two factors are no longer sufficient in developing a patient’s prognosis, said Amy Justice, a professor at the Yale School of Medicine and chief of general internal medicine for the VA Connecticut Healthcare System. Two papers on the accuracy of the VACS index, one using data from a North American cohort and the other using data from a European cohort, were published in the journals JAIDS and AIDS, respectively, on Feb. 1. The VACS index weighs different variables based on their association with mortality, Justice said, adding that prior to this development “doctors didn’t have a good way of combining all the available information together” to make an accurate prediction of life expectancy. Once the index was formulated, Justice and her co-authors evaluated its accuracy by analyzing data from 40,000 HIV patients in North American and European cohorts of the VACS, she said. The researchers found that the VACS index was more accurate than the restricted indices in predicting HIV-related mortality, Justice said. “Now that people with HIV are living full lives, we need a way
The severe heat waves and blizzards incurred by climate change have caused even viruses to have trouble adapting to randomly fluctuating temperatures. A study published Jan. 31 in the journal Evolution demonstrated
that viruses cannot adapt well to an environment with erratic temperature shifts within a range of 8 degrees Celsius, though they thrived when subjected to predictable fluctuations in temperature or incubated at either temperature extreme. After the viruses were subjected to a given temperature pat-
GRAPH ABILITY OF VIRUSES TO ADAPT TO DIFFERENT TEMPERATURE PATTERNS 3.0
37° Assay 29° Assay
ANNELISA LEINBACH
A new method of suggesting prognosis for HIV patients, called the Veterans Aging Cohort Study index, looks beyond the CD4 levels and viral load of previous prognoses. to intervene with complications earlier and we need to get doctors to pay attention to more than CD4s and viral loads,” said University of Toronto professor Sean Rourke, another co-author of the study. But the implications of these findings go even further than giving individual patients more accurate prognoses. The new HIV markers identified can be used in clinical trials to test the success of different treatments and to “prioritize medications in terms of their overall benefit and lack of harm,” Justice said, adding that the index may lead to the development of more effective HIV treatments. Her next goal is to continue analysis of similar patient records and, by next year, publish a paper on how risk
of mortality changes over time as a patient’s levels of markers such as hemoglobin and platelet count are modified, she said. Work on the new index began when Justice became interested in the idea of comorbidity and its relationship to HIV outcomes approximately 10 years ago. Justice said she noticed that half of the HIV patients with whom she dealt in the tests she was running were coinfected with hepatitis C, but her idea was initially met with skepticism. “At the beginning, people thought, ‘Why would we want to look at comorbidity?’ because all they really wanted to do was manage CD4 and viral load,” Justice said. “But the national scene changed once doctors recognized that HIV patients are living lon-
ger now, and that there have to be other things going on that we should take into account in our management.” She added that in many instances a patient’s CD4 and viral load might be at healthy levels, but comorbid factors like liver or kidney failure could still decrease life expectancy. Rourke said his next goal is to continue studying the link between HIV and neurocognitive impairment, which is a comorbidity that has not yet found its way into scientific literature. The VACS Index Risk Calculator became available as a website and smartphone app in January. Contact PAYAL MARATHE at payal.marathe@yale.edu .
Relative Fitness (ability to reproduce and survive)
2.5
tern for around 100 generations, a sample of the evolved virus population was tested at both high and low temperatures — 37 degrees Celsius and 29 degrees Celsius, respectively — to gauge how well it could cope with those temperature extremes. When exposed to a constant temperature, viruses evolve to become “specialists” for that temperature, surviving and reproducing best at that specific temperature. When exposed to regular patterns of temperature change, viruses instead become generalists that can withstand a wide range of temperatures. On the other hand, viruses that experience random temperature fluctuations are subject both to periods of relatively constant temperatures and to periods of rapid heating or cooling. Thus, they are unable to adapt either as generalists or as specialists.
It’s reasonable to believe that organisms that mutate at a lower rate may have more trouble adapting.
2.0
1.5
BARRY ALTO Professor of arbovirology, Univeristy of Florida
1.0
0.5
0.0 High (37°C) Low (29°C)
Periodic
Temperature Pattern
Random
“The virus populations are chasing a moving target,” said Barry Alto, lead author of the study and University of Florida professor of arbovirology. “So certain molecular changes in the virus that are beneficial in one environment may be detrimental in other.” There has been relatively little research on how well organisms can adapt to different patterns in the environment. Even though the temperature fluctuations were not designed to simulate those observed or predicted by climate change, this study represents a preliminary demonstra-
MOHAN YIN
tion that the random nature of environmental change may hinder organisms’ abilities to adapt, said senior author Paul Turner, chair of Yale’s Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department. This may be bad news for Earth’s flora and fauna, as viruses typically adapt to new environments more quickly than animals and plants can do so. If viruses do not readily adapt to environments with randomly fluctuating temperatures, it seems unlikely that animals would fare any better. “It’s reasonable to believe that organisms that mutate at a lower rate may have more trouble adapting,” Alto said. But the current experimental setup is a far cry from a simulation of climate change, and Alto and Turner said they are not jumping to conclusions yet. Next, Turner said he wants to replicate the experiment using more real-
istic scenarios, including methods of virus transport. His next study will test how similar temperature patterns affect viruses transported by mosquitoes rather than pure viruses. Turner added that he hopes these findings may encourage other researchers to examine experimental variables that fluctuate randomly in the environment. “Relatively few studies in evolutionary biology look at random changes in environmental conditions,” Turner said. “This opens up a lot of possibilities to investigate [random] processes.” In the United States, 2,558 monthly heat records and 272 monthly snow records were broken over the past 365 days. Contact CLINTON WANG at clinton.wang@yale.edu .
The not-so-dreamy Dreamliner Like many people, I find flying fairly stressful. No matter how many plane safety statistics I read, I can’t help finding turbulence incredibly disconcerting. This is why I try to spend most flights asleep; flying is a lot better when you don’t know what’s happening! Air travel isn’t just stressful for us unfed and squished-in travelers; it’s also a profit struggle for airlines and plane manufacturers. Boeing, one of the biggest plane manufacturers, was pinning its hopes on the Dreamliner 787 – a lighter, more fuel-efficient passenger plane. Unfortunately for Boeing, the Dreamliner has faced a serious setback. In early December, one of United Airlines’ Dreamliners was diverted when an electric generator failed midflight. Then, a battery caught fire in a grounded (and empty) Dreamliner in Boston. Most scarily, an All Nippon Airways flight had to make an emergency landing shortly after takeoff in Japan when pilots smelled smoke in the cockpit. All 50 Dreamliners currently used by airlines have been grounded while investigators and Boeing try to figure out what happened. The Dreamliner — not exactly a modest name — was billed as a highly improved passenger jet when it debuted in 2007. It has a lighter, carbon-based composite structure and, in a first for a commercial jet, it uses primarily an electricity-based system to control functions such as deicing and window-dimming (previously controlled by hydraulics-based systems). Boeing opted to use lithium ion batteries as opposed to the more traditional but heavier nickel cadmium batteries in their electrical outfitting. Fuel consumption would be reduced 20 percent relative to comparable planes. Boeing was hoping that the Dreamliner would be profitable by 2015, as more Dreamliner jets were delivered. It was already known that the lithium ion batteries used in the Dreamliner were problematic. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) tested the specific lithium ion batteries now in the Dreamliner back in 2010 and found that though very powerful, they were also the most flammable lithium ion battery option. They are already used in many small, personal appliances such as cell phones and laptops. These appliances use relatively little energy, so the risk of the battery overheating and igniting is low. Nonetheless, lithium batteries have caused problems in the past. In 2006, Sony had to recall
batteries used in many laptops due to shortcircuiting. Several other manufacturers have recalled batteries in laptops due to overheating concerns and resulting explosions. Lithium batteries in planes use far more power than those in laptops or phones, which means they are more at risk for overheating and deforming. There are safeguards in place on Dreamliners to prevent batteries from overheating — there are venting systems for pressure buildups, as well as a controller that will shut off the battery if temperatures increase beyond a particular threshold. The safeguards do appear to be working most of the time. All Nippon Airways has revealed that it replaced 10 Dreamliner batteries last year after they displayed abnormalities; five of these batteries held unexpectedly low charge, suggesting that the batteries will not be as long-lasting as Boeing hoped.
BILLED AS THE NEXT BIG PLANE, DREAMLINER FALLS SHORT As of right now, American and Japanese investigators are unsure what sparked the recent battery fires. Boeing does not plan on changing the batteries used in the Dreamliner. The company argues that the recent slew of battery replacements indicates that built-in safeguards were properly activated and that maintenance, not the intrinsic nature of the battery, is at fault in the recent battery fires. It is understandable that Boeing is not motivated to change the design of their plane, as much of the benefit of the Dreamliner would be lost with a heavier, less powerful battery. Boeing made a betterthan-expected fourth-quarter profit and is counting on making more Dreamliner deliveries soon. However, Dreamliners should not be flown until investigators determine not only the cause of the battery fires but also evaluate battery maintenance procedures. Flying is stressful enough — we don’t need to add explosive batteries to the mix. SAHELI SADANAND is an immunobiology student at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Contact her at saheli.sadanand@yale.edu .
PAGE 6
YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2013 · yaledailynews.com
YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2013 · yaledailynews.com
PAGE 7
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
“Aerodynamically, the bumblebee shouldn’t be able to fly, but the bumblebee doesn’t know it so it goes on flying anyway.” MARY KAY ASH AMERICAN BUSINESSWOMAN AND FOUNDER OF MARY KAY COSMETICS INC.
Brain tumor genes revealed BY CLINTON WANG STAFF REPORTER Chemotherapy may soon be able to replace surgery as a safer and cheaper treatment for the most common type of brain tumor. A Yale study published Jan. 24 in the journal Science revealed that mutations in just five genes are responsible for the majority of these tumors, called meningiomas. Before the study, only one gene, called NF2, had been linked with meningiomas, but NF2 mutations accounted for only 36 percent of tumors in this study. By understanding the roles of these new genes, scientists may be able to develop drugs to cure patients with meningiomas. “This is the first time we’ve found these new genes that are
causing meningiomas,” said lead author Victoria Clark GRD ’15, M.D./Ph.D. student at the Medical School. “Chemotherapies that target these new pathways could offer a better treatment option than brain surgery.”
It’s early to say whether any specific therapeutic options are useful for treating meningiomas. RAMEEN BEROUKHI Assistant professor, Harvard Medical School The researchers sequenced the coding part of the genomes of 50
SMOL412F
meningiomas and discovered that 90 percent of them showed associations with the NF2 gene and four additional genes — two of which have never before been linked to cancer. The team then analyzed 250 more tumors for those five genes, and found mutations in almost 80 percent of them. Clark said the remaining 20 percent of tumors still needs to be accounted for genetically, adding that an even larger sample size may have revealed other genes responsible for meningiomas. The study confirmed the findings of a Harvard study published Jan. 20 in Nature that had discovered the role of two of the genes in meningioma development. When the meningiomas were categorized by the mutant gene, researchers found that tumors
in certain parts of the brain were much more likely to have one type of mutation than others. This genetic map could help doctors identify a meningioma’s cause by its location in the brain, and deliver the appropriate form of chemotherapy, Clark said. Certain mutations are more common in specific parts of the brain than others, so understanding the distribution of these mutations will help doctors determine the gene responsible for a specific case of meningioma and prescribe a suitable treatment, she added. “It’s early to say whether any specific therapeutic options are useful for treating meningiomas,” said study senior author Rameen Beroukhi, assistant professor at Harvard Medical School.
Chemo-resistant cancer may be treatable
Chemotherapeutic drugs have already been developed to combat two mutations associated with meningiomas, Beroukhi said. One drug has already been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, and the other is undergoing clinical trials. However, researchers have only begun to characterize the two other mutations discovered by the study, and Clark said her next steps will be to conduct a more thorough analysis of how these mutations lead to meningiomas. Each year, 6,500 people are diagnosed with meningiomas in the United States.
BY J.R. REED STAFF REPORTER New treatment opportunities for uterine serous carcinoma (USC) — a highly aggressive, chemotherapy-resistant form of endometrial cancer — could soon be discovered as a result of recent findings produced by a yearlong Yale study. A collaborative 34-member team of Yale scientists, including researchers specializing in gynecological cancer, genetics, pharmacology and biostatistics, studied the tumors of 57 female patients suffering from USC to determine the molecular basis of the tumors’ aggressive behavior. After surgically removing the tumors from the patients, the researchers sequenced each tumor’s genes to find specific mutations critical for these tumors’ development and detected three specific genes frequently mutated in patients suffering from USC. The team’s results were published in the Jan. 28 online edition of the academic journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “We have been able to identify potential molecular pathways that are important to the development of these cancer tumors,” said Yale School of Medicine professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences Alessandro Santin, senior author of the study. “We have opened an avenue for new therapy for this disease, because we now have something to target, which was previously unknown.” He explained that the research team looked for multiple mutations in specific genes to see which genes were causing the tumors. “What we have done is extracted DNA from the tumor cells using exome [geneencoding proteins] sequencing,” Santin said. “Most of the genetic mutations that cause cancer take place in these genes that encode proteins — not 100 percent, but between 85 percent and 90 percent. We looked through all of the 21,000 genes to look for recurring mutations present in specific genes.” The most biologically aggressive sub-
Contact CLINTON WANG at clinton.wang@yale.edu .
KLF4/TRAF4
AKT1/TRAF7
NF2
type of endometrial cancer, USC is only found in 10 percent of all individuals with endometrial cancer. However, USC tumors are incredibly dangerous because of their resistance to standard treatments and their ability to move quickly to an individual’s abdominal cavity. In fact, this cancer typically results in between 4,000 and 5,000 deaths each year and accounts for 50 percent of all deaths for endometrial cancer victims, according to the study. Chair of genetics at Yale Richard P. Lifton, a corresponding author of the study, said the study’s results could lead to new discoveries to help individual patient cases, according to a Jan. 28 Yale News release. “These new findings define the biological basis of this cancer and suggest new opportunities for personalized therapy,” Lifton said. Now that researchers have a better idea of the tumor’s biology and the mutations causing USC, they can target therapies to address these genetic mutations. Moving forward, Santin said the goal is either to take advantage immediately of FDAapproved drugs used for similar mutations in other tumors or to start from scratch and begin new therapy based on the specific genes they found in these tumors. Until the research was produced, doctors did not know the most effective drugs to use to treat this cancer, Santin said. “Now that this has been reported to the scientific community, the point is to make clinics aware to treat patients using this new knowledge,” he said. “We are trying to improve the quality of care and the knowledge base that we can provide to our patients when they develop this devastating USC cancer.” Gilead Sciences Inc., an American biotechnology company that collaborates with Yale, helped support the cost of gene sequencing during the study. Contact J.R. REED at jonathan.t.reed@yale.edu .
SAHELI SADANAND KAREN TIAN
Multiple factors affect HIV prognosis
Viruses struggle to adapt to climate change
BY PAYAL MARATHE STAFF REPORTER
BY CLINTON WANG STAFF REPORTER
In a major advancement for the field of HIV treatment, a new study has identified a more accurate method of suggesting prognosis for HIV patients. The new method, called the Veterans Aging Cohort Study index, takes into account factors such as hemoglobin level, platelet count and comorbidity. Previous models of predicting HIV-related outcomes depended only on levels of CD4, a glycoprotein found on the surface of immune system T-cells, and viral load, an estimate of the amount of virus present in the body. But as improved antiretroviral therapy has lengthened the life expectancy of HIV patients, these two factors are no longer sufficient in developing a patient’s prognosis, said Amy Justice, a professor at the Yale School of Medicine and chief of general internal medicine for the VA Connecticut Healthcare System. Two papers on the accuracy of the VACS index, one using data from a North American cohort and the other using data from a European cohort, were published in the journals JAIDS and AIDS, respectively, on Feb. 1. The VACS index weighs different variables based on their association with mortality, Justice said, adding that prior to this development “doctors didn’t have a good way of combining all the available information together” to make an accurate prediction of life expectancy. Once the index was formulated, Justice and her co-authors evaluated its accuracy by analyzing data from 40,000 HIV patients in North American and European cohorts of the VACS, she said. The researchers found that the VACS index was more accurate than the restricted indices in predicting HIV-related mortality, Justice said. “Now that people with HIV are living full lives, we need a way
The severe heat waves and blizzards incurred by climate change have caused even viruses to have trouble adapting to randomly fluctuating temperatures. A study published Jan. 31 in the journal Evolution demonstrated
that viruses cannot adapt well to an environment with erratic temperature shifts within a range of 8 degrees Celsius, though they thrived when subjected to predictable fluctuations in temperature or incubated at either temperature extreme. After the viruses were subjected to a given temperature pat-
GRAPH ABILITY OF VIRUSES TO ADAPT TO DIFFERENT TEMPERATURE PATTERNS 3.0
37° Assay 29° Assay
ANNELISA LEINBACH
A new method of suggesting prognosis for HIV patients, called the Veterans Aging Cohort Study index, looks beyond the CD4 levels and viral load of previous prognoses. to intervene with complications earlier and we need to get doctors to pay attention to more than CD4s and viral loads,” said University of Toronto professor Sean Rourke, another co-author of the study. But the implications of these findings go even further than giving individual patients more accurate prognoses. The new HIV markers identified can be used in clinical trials to test the success of different treatments and to “prioritize medications in terms of their overall benefit and lack of harm,” Justice said, adding that the index may lead to the development of more effective HIV treatments. Her next goal is to continue analysis of similar patient records and, by next year, publish a paper on how risk
of mortality changes over time as a patient’s levels of markers such as hemoglobin and platelet count are modified, she said. Work on the new index began when Justice became interested in the idea of comorbidity and its relationship to HIV outcomes approximately 10 years ago. Justice said she noticed that half of the HIV patients with whom she dealt in the tests she was running were coinfected with hepatitis C, but her idea was initially met with skepticism. “At the beginning, people thought, ‘Why would we want to look at comorbidity?’ because all they really wanted to do was manage CD4 and viral load,” Justice said. “But the national scene changed once doctors recognized that HIV patients are living lon-
ger now, and that there have to be other things going on that we should take into account in our management.” She added that in many instances a patient’s CD4 and viral load might be at healthy levels, but comorbid factors like liver or kidney failure could still decrease life expectancy. Rourke said his next goal is to continue studying the link between HIV and neurocognitive impairment, which is a comorbidity that has not yet found its way into scientific literature. The VACS Index Risk Calculator became available as a website and smartphone app in January. Contact PAYAL MARATHE at payal.marathe@yale.edu .
Relative Fitness (ability to reproduce and survive)
2.5
tern for around 100 generations, a sample of the evolved virus population was tested at both high and low temperatures — 37 degrees Celsius and 29 degrees Celsius, respectively — to gauge how well it could cope with those temperature extremes. When exposed to a constant temperature, viruses evolve to become “specialists” for that temperature, surviving and reproducing best at that specific temperature. When exposed to regular patterns of temperature change, viruses instead become generalists that can withstand a wide range of temperatures. On the other hand, viruses that experience random temperature fluctuations are subject both to periods of relatively constant temperatures and to periods of rapid heating or cooling. Thus, they are unable to adapt either as generalists or as specialists.
It’s reasonable to believe that organisms that mutate at a lower rate may have more trouble adapting.
2.0
1.5
BARRY ALTO Professor of arbovirology, Univeristy of Florida
1.0
0.5
0.0 High (37°C) Low (29°C)
Periodic
Temperature Pattern
Random
“The virus populations are chasing a moving target,” said Barry Alto, lead author of the study and University of Florida professor of arbovirology. “So certain molecular changes in the virus that are beneficial in one environment may be detrimental in other.” There has been relatively little research on how well organisms can adapt to different patterns in the environment. Even though the temperature fluctuations were not designed to simulate those observed or predicted by climate change, this study represents a preliminary demonstra-
MOHAN YIN
tion that the random nature of environmental change may hinder organisms’ abilities to adapt, said senior author Paul Turner, chair of Yale’s Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department. This may be bad news for Earth’s flora and fauna, as viruses typically adapt to new environments more quickly than animals and plants can do so. If viruses do not readily adapt to environments with randomly fluctuating temperatures, it seems unlikely that animals would fare any better. “It’s reasonable to believe that organisms that mutate at a lower rate may have more trouble adapting,” Alto said. But the current experimental setup is a far cry from a simulation of climate change, and Alto and Turner said they are not jumping to conclusions yet. Next, Turner said he wants to replicate the experiment using more real-
istic scenarios, including methods of virus transport. His next study will test how similar temperature patterns affect viruses transported by mosquitoes rather than pure viruses. Turner added that he hopes these findings may encourage other researchers to examine experimental variables that fluctuate randomly in the environment. “Relatively few studies in evolutionary biology look at random changes in environmental conditions,” Turner said. “This opens up a lot of possibilities to investigate [random] processes.” In the United States, 2,558 monthly heat records and 272 monthly snow records were broken over the past 365 days. Contact CLINTON WANG at clinton.wang@yale.edu .
The not-so-dreamy Dreamliner Like many people, I find flying fairly stressful. No matter how many plane safety statistics I read, I can’t help finding turbulence incredibly disconcerting. This is why I try to spend most flights asleep; flying is a lot better when you don’t know what’s happening! Air travel isn’t just stressful for us unfed and squished-in travelers; it’s also a profit struggle for airlines and plane manufacturers. Boeing, one of the biggest plane manufacturers, was pinning its hopes on the Dreamliner 787 – a lighter, more fuel-efficient passenger plane. Unfortunately for Boeing, the Dreamliner has faced a serious setback. In early December, one of United Airlines’ Dreamliners was diverted when an electric generator failed midflight. Then, a battery caught fire in a grounded (and empty) Dreamliner in Boston. Most scarily, an All Nippon Airways flight had to make an emergency landing shortly after takeoff in Japan when pilots smelled smoke in the cockpit. All 50 Dreamliners currently used by airlines have been grounded while investigators and Boeing try to figure out what happened. The Dreamliner — not exactly a modest name — was billed as a highly improved passenger jet when it debuted in 2007. It has a lighter, carbon-based composite structure and, in a first for a commercial jet, it uses primarily an electricity-based system to control functions such as deicing and window-dimming (previously controlled by hydraulics-based systems). Boeing opted to use lithium ion batteries as opposed to the more traditional but heavier nickel cadmium batteries in their electrical outfitting. Fuel consumption would be reduced 20 percent relative to comparable planes. Boeing was hoping that the Dreamliner would be profitable by 2015, as more Dreamliner jets were delivered. It was already known that the lithium ion batteries used in the Dreamliner were problematic. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) tested the specific lithium ion batteries now in the Dreamliner back in 2010 and found that though very powerful, they were also the most flammable lithium ion battery option. They are already used in many small, personal appliances such as cell phones and laptops. These appliances use relatively little energy, so the risk of the battery overheating and igniting is low. Nonetheless, lithium batteries have caused problems in the past. In 2006, Sony had to recall
batteries used in many laptops due to shortcircuiting. Several other manufacturers have recalled batteries in laptops due to overheating concerns and resulting explosions. Lithium batteries in planes use far more power than those in laptops or phones, which means they are more at risk for overheating and deforming. There are safeguards in place on Dreamliners to prevent batteries from overheating — there are venting systems for pressure buildups, as well as a controller that will shut off the battery if temperatures increase beyond a particular threshold. The safeguards do appear to be working most of the time. All Nippon Airways has revealed that it replaced 10 Dreamliner batteries last year after they displayed abnormalities; five of these batteries held unexpectedly low charge, suggesting that the batteries will not be as long-lasting as Boeing hoped.
BILLED AS THE NEXT BIG PLANE, DREAMLINER FALLS SHORT As of right now, American and Japanese investigators are unsure what sparked the recent battery fires. Boeing does not plan on changing the batteries used in the Dreamliner. The company argues that the recent slew of battery replacements indicates that built-in safeguards were properly activated and that maintenance, not the intrinsic nature of the battery, is at fault in the recent battery fires. It is understandable that Boeing is not motivated to change the design of their plane, as much of the benefit of the Dreamliner would be lost with a heavier, less powerful battery. Boeing made a betterthan-expected fourth-quarter profit and is counting on making more Dreamliner deliveries soon. However, Dreamliners should not be flown until investigators determine not only the cause of the battery fires but also evaluate battery maintenance procedures. Flying is stressful enough — we don’t need to add explosive batteries to the mix. SAHELI SADANAND is an immunobiology student at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Contact her at saheli.sadanand@yale.edu .
YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2013 · yaledailynews.com
NATION
T Dow Jones 13,880.08, -0.93%
S
PAGE 8
S&P 500 1,495.75, -1.15%
S
NASDAQ 3,131.17, -1.51
T 10-yr. 1.97%, -0.04
S
Oil $96.03, -0.15%
T Euro $1.3500, -0.0200
Authorities storm bunker, rescue young boy
JAY HARE/ASSOCIATED PRESS
An Ozark, Ala., ambulance carries the boy, named Ethan, out of the area where a gunman had held him hostage since last Tuesday. BY TAMARA LUSH AND KATE BRUMBACK ASSOCIATED PRESS MIDLAND CITY, Ala. — Officers stormed an underground bunker in Alabama where a 5-year-old boy had been held hostage for nearly a week, rescuing the child and leaving the boy’s abductor dead, officials said Monday. Steve Richardson with the FBI’s office in Mobile said at a news conference Monday afternoon that negotiations had deteriorated with 65-year-old Jimmy Lee Dykes. Dykes, who a week earlier had abducted the child from a school bus after fatally shooting the driver, had been
seen with a gun. Officers believed the boy was in imminent danger, Richardson said.
She must have had a direct line to God because shortly after she left, they heard the news. MELISSA NIGHTON City clerk, Midland City Officers stormed the bunker just after 3 p.m. CST to rescue the child, who was taken to a hospital
Obama stays firm on gun control BY NEDRA PICKLER AND JULIE PACE ASSOCIATED PRESS MINNEAPOLIS — President Barack Obama declared Monday on his first trip outside Washington to promote gun control that a consensus is emerging for universal background checks for purchasers, though he conceded a tough road lay ahead to pass an assault weapons ban over formidable opposition in Congress. “We should restore the ban on military-style assault weapons and a 10-round limit for magazines,” Obama said in a brief speech, standing firm on his full package on gun-control measures despite long odds. Such a ban “deserves a vote in Congress because weapons of war have no place on our streets or in our schools or threatening our law enforcement officers.” The president spoke from a special police operations center in a city once known to some as “Murderapolis” but where gun violence has dropped amid a push to address it from city leaders. Officers stood behind him, dressed in crisp uniforms of blue, white and brown. The site conveyed Obama’s message that a reduction in violence can be achieved nationally, even if Americans have sharp disagreements over gun control. That includes members of his own party in Washington. Suggesting he won’t get all he’s proposing, he said, “We don’t have to agree on everything to agree it’s time to do something.” The president unveiled his guncontrol plans last month after the shootings at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school. But many of the proposals face tough opposition from some in Congress and from the National Rifle Association. Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has said he
wants to give the bans on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines a vote. But he will not say whether he will support either, and advocates and opponents alike predict they are unlikely to pass. Putting the controversial measures up for a vote could put some Democratic senators in a tough spot. That includes some from conservative-leaning states who are up for re-election next year and face the prospect of voting against either fervent gun-rights supporters or Obama and guncontrol supporters in the party’s base.
Weapons of war have no place on our streets or in our schools or threatening our law enforcement officers. BARACK OBAMA 44th president, United States Reid himself came in for criticism for declining to stand with the president by Minneapolis’ Democratic mayor, R.T. Rybak, who accompanied Obama while he was in town. “He’s dancing around this issue and people are dying in this country,” Rybak said of Reid on MSNBC. Democratic lawmakers and aides, as well as lobbyists, say an assault weapons ban has the least chance of being approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee that is working up the legislation. They say a ban on high-capacity magazines is viewed as the next least likely proposal to survive, though some compromise version of it might, allowing more than the 10-round maximum that Obama favors.
in nearby Dothan. Officials have said the child has Asperger’s syndrome. However, it was not immediately clear how Dykes died. Daryle Hendry, who lives about a quarter-mile from where Dykes’ bunker was located, said he heard a boom Monday afternoon, followed by what sounded like a gunshot, all around the time officials said they stormed the bunker. Melissa Nighton, the city clerk in Midland City, said a woman had been praying in the town center Monday afternoon. Not long after, the mayor called her with news that Dykes was dead and that the boy was safe.
“She must have had a direct line to God because shortly after she left, they heard the news,” Nighton said. Neighbors described Dykes as a man who once beat a dog to death with a lead pipe, threatened to shoot children for setting foot on his property and patrolled his yard at night with a flashlight and a firearm. Government records and interviews with neighbors indicate that Dykes joined the Navy in Midland City, serving on active duty from 1964 to 1969. His record shows several awards, including the Vietnam Service Medal and the Good Conduct Medal. During his service, Dykes
was trained in aviation maintenance. He had some scrapes with the law in Florida, including a 1995 arrest for improper exhibition of a weapon. The misdemeanor was dismissed. He also was arrested for marijuana possession in 2000. He returned to Alabama about two years ago, moving onto the rural tract about 100 yards from his nearest neighbors. Ronda Wilbur, a neighbor of Dykes who said the man beat her dog to death last year with a pipe, said she was relieved to be done with the stress of knowing Dykes was patrolling his yard and willing to shoot at anyone or any-
thing that trespassed. “The nightmare is over. It’s been a long couple of years of having constant stress,” she said. Authorities have said Dykes gunned down 66-year-old bus driver Albert Poland Jr. before taking the boy from the bus. Poland, who was buried Sunday, has been hailed as a hero for protecting the other nearly twodozen children on board from harm. “This man was a true hero who was willing to give up his life so others might live,” Gov. Robert Bentley said in a news release Monday after learning of the boy’s rescue.
GOP considers Hagel filibuster BY DONNA CASSATA ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON — Republican Sen. John McCain, a sharp critic of Chuck Hagel’s nomination as defense secretary, said Monday he will not support a filibuster of President Barack Obama’s pick, even though he declined to say whether he intends to vote for confirmation. “I do not believe a filibuster is appropriate and I would oppose such a move,” McCain told reporters Monday, two days after Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell raised the possibility of forcing a showdown vote. In the fiercest exchange of Hagel’s confirmation hearing last week, McCain questioned the nominee about the Iraq war and whether he was right or wrong in opposing an additional 30,000 U.S. troops in 2007. The Arizona senator said he still has questions on the nomination and “was not happy with his (Hagel’s) failure to answer a really simple question.” But McCain insisted he would not support use of the filibuster, a procedural tactic which can derail a confirmation vote and which can be stopped only by the votes of 60 of the 100 senators. Several other Republican senators echoed McCain about a step that would be historic on a Cabinet choice. Nominees facing stiff opposition or serious ethical questions typically have withdrawn before any vote. The last nominee to be defeated was John Tower, President George H.W. Bush’s choice for defense secretary who failed on a 53-47 vote in 1989 amid accusations of drinking and womanizing. “It would be unprecedented for the Senate not to allow an up-or-down vote on a president’s Cabinet nomination, but I haven’t made any decision about a vote,” said Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said she was “not inclined to support a filibuster regardless of my ultimate decision” on the nominee. Republican Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, who opposes Hagel’s nomination, said he would not support a filibuster. Even Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who suggested the administration reevaluate its choice, said “filibustering is something I do very reluctantly.”
J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Chuck Hagel, right, President Obama’s nominee to become secretary of defense, shakes hands at the end of his confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill last Thursday. In interview this past weekend, McConnell gave Hagel a poor grade for his testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee and said opposition to the former Republican senator leading the Pentagon was growing. “Whether that means he will end up having to achieve 60 votes or 51 is not clear yet,” the Kentucky senator, who is seeking re-election, said Saturday at the opening of his campaign headquarters in Louisville. Hagel seemed ill-prepared under withering cross-examination from committee Republicans in nearly eight hours of testimony last Thursday. He was repeatedly pressed about past statements and votes on Israel, Iran and nuclear weapons, with GOP lawmakers suggesting he wasn’t sufficiently supportive of Israel or anti-Iran. Senate Democrats, who hold the majority, continue to stand behind the nomination, and no Democrat has said he or she would vote against the president’s pick for his second-term national security team. Hagel, 66, is a decorated Vietnam combat veteran who served two terms as Nebraska senator. About a dozen Republican have said they will oppose their former colleague and several others have indicated they are likely to vote no. Democrats hold a 55-45 advantage in the Senate and two Republicans have
announced their support for Hagel Sens. Thad Cochran of Mississippi and Mike Johanns of Hagel’s home state of Nebraska. Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., a member of the leadership, said he would oppose Hagel, but would not back a filibuster. McConnell’s failure to rule out a filibuster marks the first time the leader has suggested it could be an option. In the past, when Republicans occupied the White House, GOP senators have argued strenuously that nominees should get an up-or-down Senate vote, especially Cabinet picks. Last Friday, White House spokesman Jay Carney said the administration would be “stunned if, in the end, Republican senators chose to try to block the nomination of a decorated war veteran who was once among their colleagues in the Senate as a Republican.” The White House insisted on Monday that the president stands behind the nominee. “The issue here is `how will an individual do the job,’ and there’s no question in the president’s mind that Sen. Hagel will do the job well,” Carney said aboard Air Force One. The Senate Armed Services Committee could vote as early as Thursday on the nomination and refer it to the full Senate. Democrats hold a 14-12 edge on the panel.
YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2013 · yaledailynews.com
PAGE 9
BULLETIN BOARD
TODAY’S FORECAST
TOMORROW
A chance of snow, mainly before 9 a.m. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 32.
THURSDAY
High of 38, low of 19.
High of 35, low of 29.
THAT MONKEY TUNE BY MICHAEL KANDALAFT
ON CAMPUS TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 5 12:00 PM “Religion and American Politics: How Religious Are American Voters?” The talk will feature Alan Cooperman of the Pew Center’s Forum on Religion and Public Life and Steven B. Smith, a political science professor at Yale. Cooperman oversaw Pew’s analysis of religious voting patterns in 2012 and also will discuss results from Pew’s most recent report on the religious affiliations of Americans. Smith will discuss political theology and Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural address. Questions and a general discussion will follow and lunch will be served. All are welcome! Yale Law School (127 Wall St.), Room 120.
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 6
ZERO LIKE ME BY REUXBEN BARRIENTES
5:15 PM “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down” Talk by English professor Anne Fadiman on her book “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down,” 15 years after it was first published. Free and open to the general public. Sponsored by the Program for Humanities in Medicine. Anlyan Center (300 Cedar St.), Auditorium.
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 7 4:30 PM Jackson Town Hall Meeting with Kofi Annan The meeting will feature Kofi Annan, the seventh secretary-general of the United Nations. Yale Law School (127 Wall St.), Levinson Auditorium. 7:30 PM Connecticut Poetry Circuit Prize Reading Undergraduate poetry prize-winner, Amelia Urry ’13, and co-winners from other Connecticut colleges and universities will read from their verse. Timothy Dwight College (63 Wall St.), Master’s House.
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CLASSIFIEDS
CROSSWORD ACROSS 1 Iraq’s main port 6 Nonspecific feeling 10 Ukr. and Lith., once 14 Find repulsive 15 Waffle maker 16 Be on the mend 17 Dine 19 Hathaway of “Les Misérables “ 20 Afrikaans speaker 21 Creator of Q and M 22 Chicks together 23 Back muscle, familiarly 24 Commonly controlled substance 27 ’50s flop 29 His #4 was retired by the Giants in 1948 30 Social suffix 31 Sink below the horizon 33 Public hanging 34 Pontiac muscle cars 35 Roy Orbison classic 39 __ even keel 40 Glasgow veto 41 Shelley’s “To a Skylark,” e.g. 42 Reunion gp. 43 D.C. figure 44 Inviting door sign 48 1967 Human BeIn attendee 53 Gardner of the silver screen 54 Country bordered by Niger and Nigeria 55 Binary digit 56 WWII British gun 57 __ Grey tea 58 Awe-inspiring place where you might find the ends of 17-, 24-, 35- and 48Across? 61 “__ sow, so shall ...” 62 Sword with a bellshaped guard 63 Upper body 64 “So __ say” 65 River down under? 66 English Derby site
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By C.C. Burnikel
DOWN 1 Go on and on 2 Like an American in Paris 3 Some linens 4 Howl with laughter 5 First animal shelter 6 Like superpopular YouTube clips 7 Goodnight girl of song 8 Fluffy wrap 9 Terminate 10 Broken piece 11 Title for Miss Mexico? 12 Deserted 13 Big hammers 18 Cartoonist Keane 22 Lunch menu letters 24 Robert of “The Sopranos” 25 Like many gangster movies 26 When tots become terrible? 28 “Pardon the Interruption” channel 32 Opera hero, often 33 Gobbled up
Monday’s Puzzle Solved
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34 FBI guys 35 Being walked, say 36 Deli order 37 After-shower powder 38 Pigged out (on) 39 Quirky 43 Ink holder 45 Volga region natives 46 “Yeah, but ...” 47 Hit-or-miss
2/5/13
SUDOKU EASY
2/5/13
49 __ Post, first pilot to fly solo around the world 50 Sweetie pie 51 Book end? 52 “Life of Pi” director Ang 56 Sow’s supper 58 Four-time All-Pro Patriots receiver Welker 59 Choose (to) 60 Numbered hwy.
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YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2013 · yaledailynews.com
WORLD
“All men are jealous of Timbuktu because Timbuktu is removed from men, it’s the wholeness men have fractured, the sacred extreme they’ve traded away.” TOM ROBBINS AMERICAN AUTHOR
French troops to quit Timbuktu
JEROME DELAY/ASSOCIATED PRESS
French troops secure a demining team that is clearing the road to the strategic city of Gao, Mali. BY BABA AHMED ASSOCIATED PRESS TIMBUKTU, Mali — In a new phase of the Mali conflict, French airstrikes targeted the fuel depots and desert hideouts of Islamic extremists in northern Mali overnight Monday, as French forces planned to hand control of Timbuktu to the Malian army this week. After taking control of the key cities of northern Mali, forcing the Islamic rebels to retreat into the desert, the French military intervention is turning away from the cities and targeting the fighters’ remote outposts to prevent them from being used as Saharan launch pads for international terrorism. The French plan to leave the city of Timbuktu on Thursday, Feb. 7, a spokeswoman for the armed forces in the city said Monday. French soldiers took the city last week after Islamic extremists withdrew. Now the French military said it intends to move out of Timbuktu in order to push farther northeast to the strategic city of Gao. “The 600 soldiers currently based in Timbuktu will be heading toward Gao in order to pursue their mission,” said Capt. Nadia, the spokeswoman, who only provided her first name in keeping with French military protocol. She said that the force in Timbuktu will be replaced by a small contingent of French soldiers, though she declined to say when they would arrive. On Monday, French troops in armored personnel carriers were still patrolling Timbuktu. In the city’s military camps, newly arrived Malian troops were cleaning their weapons Monday and holding meetings to prepare to take over the security of the city once the French leave. There are signs that the Islamic rebels are beginning a guerrilla-type of conflict from their desert retreats as land mine explosions
have killed four Malian soldiers and two civilians throughout the northern region in recent days. The two civilians died in an explosion from a land mine, or an improvised explosive device, on the road in northeastern Mali that links Kidal, Anefis and North Darane, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a statement Monday. Four soldiers were killed last week by a land mine explosion in the northeast area near Gossi. The French reported that two other land mines have been found in that vicinity, and early Monday they detonated one of the mines. French airstrikes targeted the Islamic extremists’ desert bases and fuel depots in northern Mali overnight. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on France-Inter radio Monday that the strikes hit the Kidal region, near the border with Algeria, for the second night in a row. The extremists “cannot stay there a long time unless they have ways to get new supplies,” he said. French Mirage and Rafale planes also pounded extremist training camps as well as arms and fuel depots from Saturday night into the early hours of Sunday, north of the town of Kidal and in the Tessalit region. France’s Defense Ministry said Monday night that 25 depots and training centers had been targeted by fighter jets and attack helicopters. The French intervened in Mali on Jan. 11 to stem the advance of the al-Qaida-linked fighters, who had taken over the country’s north, enforced harsh rules on the population and plotted a terrorist attack in neighboring Algeria. The French troops arrived when the Islamic extremists threatened to move farther south. After pushing extremists out of key northern cities, France is now pushing to hand over control of those sites to African forces from a United Nations-authorized force made up of thousands of troops from nearby countries.
US unsure of Iran’s space claims BY BRADLEY KLAPPER ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON — The United States expressed doubt on Monday about Iran’s claim that it safely returned a monkey from space, saying it is questionable that the monkey survived — or if the flight happened at all. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said a lot of questions remained “about whether the monkey that they reportedly sent up into space and reportedly came down was actually the same monkey, whether he survived.” “The Iranians said they sent a monkey, but the monkey that they showed later seemed to have different facial features,” Nuland told reporters. “He was missing a little wart.” Tehran blames the confusion on Iranian media for initially using a photo of a backup monkey. It says the monkey orbited and returned safely, and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad added Monday that he would consider being Iran’s first astronaut in space. Nuland described Ahmadinejad’s proclamation as an “interesting choice,” but was more diplomatic than Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who joked about Ahmadinejad’s ruminations earlier Monday. “Wasn’t he just there last week?” McCain said in a tweet and linked to a story about the space-orbiting monkey. Faced with criticism, McCain said in another tweet, “lighten up folks, can’t everyone take a joke.” But it wasn’t funny to Michigan Rep. Justin Amash, a Republican, who tweeted, “Maybe you should wisen up & not make racist jokes.” Jonathan McDowell, a Harvard astronomer who tracks rocket launchings and space activity, backed up Iran’s claim that monkey space flight was real. However, he had a slightly dif-
MOHAMMAD AGAH/ASSOCIATED PRESS
In this picture obtained from the Iranian Students News Agency, scientists surround a monkey before a space launch. ferent explanation for the photo mix-up, saying the simian with the mole died during a failed space mission in 2011. Iran has never confirmed that a monkey died in 2011, or that there was a failed mission that year. Tehran says its goal is a manned space flight. Washington and its allies worry the program may be cover for ballistic missile technology development.
Syria dismisses retaliation BY ZEINA KARAM ASSOCIATED PRESS BEIRUT — Syria’s defense minister signaled Monday that his country won’t hit back at Israel over an airstrike inside Syria, claiming the Israeli raid was actually in retaliation for his regime’s offensive against rebels he called “tools” of the Jewish state. The remarks suggest the regime’s military options might be severely constrained after 22 months of fighting an uprising that has depleted its weapons and stretched troops thin. Israel has all but confirmed it was behind Wednesday’s airstrike — a humiliating raid just few miles away from the Syrian capital, Damascus, that added another layer of complication to a chaotic uprising and civil war. U.S. officials said the Israelis struck a military research center and a convoy next to it carrying anti-aircraft weapons destined for the Islamic militant group Hezbollah in neighboring Lebanon. Syria vowed to retaliate, but the threats of retribution were seen by many as exceedingly mild, drawing criticism and mockery from rebels and opposition leaders who called it proof of President Bashar Assad’s weakness and acquiescence to Israel. In a televised interview Monday, Syrian Defense Minister Gen. Fahd Jassem al-Freij indicated that Syria may not be planning to retaliate at all. He said Israel attacked the research center near Damascus because rebels were unable to capture it. He called the rebels Israel’s “tools.” He was asked by Syrian state TV why Damascus does not retaliate against Israel. “The Israeli enemy retaliated. When the Israeli enemy
AHIKAM SERI/ASSOCIATED PRESS
An Israeli Iron Dome missile is launched near the city of Be’er Sheva, southern Israel, to intercept a rocket fired from Gaza in 2012. saw that its tools are being chased and did not achieve any [of their] goals, they interfered,” he responded. “It was a response to our military acts against the armed gangs,” alFreij added. “The heroic Syrian Arab Army, which proved to the world that it is a strong army and a trained army, will not be defeated.” In surprisingly candid remarks, al-Freij said that rebels have made Syrian air defenses across the country a focus of their attacks over the past months, attacking some with mortars while attempting to seize others in order to incapacitate them. In response, he said the Syrian leadership decided to station them all in one safe place, leading to “gaps in radar coverage in some areas.” “These gaps became known to the armed gangs and the
Israelis who undoubtedly coordinated together to target the research center,” he said. He suggested the army was overstretched and finding difficulty retaining control over several positions across the country, adding they had to abandon some areas to minimize casualties. Ahmad Ramadan, a member of the opposition Syrian National Council executive bureau, dismissed accusations by Syrian leaders that the Israelis were doing the rebels’ bidding. He also told The Associated Press that the military was using the research center to direct battles against rebels in the suburbs of Damascus. He said the area has witnessed clashes between troops and rebels but that the rebels had not attacked the center itself.
YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2013 · yaledailynews.com
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AROUND THE IVIES
642
Number of Harvard students enrolled in ‘Introduction to Quantitative Methods for Economics’ This is the most popular course of the semester for the first time since course enrollment has been tracked.
B R O W N D A I LY H E R A L D
Med School program to admit first class in 2015 BY KATHERINE LAMB STAFF WRITER The Alpert Medical School’s new integrated primary care and public health curriculum will begin admitting 24 students per class starting in 2015, the school announced Jan. 28. The program may allow students to receive both a master’s degree in population health and a medical degree during their four years. Students will be selected for the program through a separate admission process from the annual Med School admission process and participate in a different four-year curriculum, said Edward Wing, dean of medicine and biological sciences. Instead of attending large lectures, students in the program will learn some material online before attending focused smallgroup sessions, said Ira Wilson, professor of health services, policy and practice and a member of the advisory board that helped develop the program. This format, made possible by the program’s small size, was driven by the notion of the “flipped classroom,” in which students learn basic concepts on their own and then engage with one another to study specific cases and further develop their knowledge, Wilson said. Students will begin studying population health during the first year of medical school, and their clinical years will be formatted differently from those of the majority of medical students in
the country, Wilson said. The advisory board, composed of deans and p ro fe sso rs of the Med BROWN School and Public Health programs as well as representatives from the medical community in Providence and Rhode Island, is led by Professor of Family Medicine Jeffrey Borkan, according to a press release about the program. The board is split into four committees focused on curriculum, admissions and financial aid, resources for the program and fourth-year advanced scholarship — including a possible master’s degree, said Philip Gruppuso, associate dean for medical education and professor of pediatrics. In recent months, the board has formed a clearer, more detailed picture of what the program might entail, Gruppuso said.
UNIQUELY BROWN
While some schools have established dual degree programs that allow students to obtain a medical degree and master’s degree in five years, Brown is paving the way with the possibility of a four-year dual degree, Wing said. The program will “attract people to Brown because it’s new and different,” Wilson said. The separately-admitted cohort with different curricular
activities will differ from schools that have a primary care track and make Brown’s curriculum “almost a one-of-a-kind program in the country,” said Provost Mark Schlissel. “We’ve envisioned the program as a dual degree, but we’ve had only very preliminary meetings as to how a dual degree would work,” Gruppuso said. The main additional requirement the committee has proposed is a thesis focused on a topic in population health, he said. “Because we’re designing a program from the ground up, this is a tremendous opportunity for innovating in medical education,” Gruppuso said. The Med School’s curriculum must be full of general courses to meet the needs of all its students, and there is no room for population health topics to be added to existing courses, Gruppuso said. The small program allows for an alternate pathway through the school with a focus on primary care, he said. The new program will have “a very forward-looking curriculum that will provide something unique to a set of our students,” Schlissel said. The program will expand the University’s growing emphasis on population health and health care delivery, which is already “a prominent part of the landscape at Brown,” Gruppuso said. The University has a prominent Program in Public Health and a new School of Public Health slated
GREG JORDAN-DETAMORE/BROWN DAILY HERALD
The program will promote case-based problem solving in small classes and community engagement. to receive accreditation in 2015. Though the Primary Care and Population Health program will be housed in the Med School, it will be reliant on the School of Public Health faculty, Wing said. “I think the school definitely has (population health and primary care) as a core facet of its culture,” said Peter Kaminski MD’15, one of several students
serving on the advisory committee. The program will provide structure and resources for the many students who are already interested in the field, he said. Many Med School students have expressed interest in a program that incorporates both public health and primary care, and some already conduct individual projects emphasizing the two
areas of study, Kaminski said. The new program received a “wealth of support” from a recent survey of Med School students, according to preliminary reports, Kaminski said. As planning goes forward, student input will be vital “to make sure (the program is) in line with the identity of the Med School and Brown at large,” he said.
C O R N E L L D A I LY S U N
H A R VA R D C R I M S O N
Ithacans protest fracking
Stat 104 emerges as top-enrolled course
BY KRITIKA OBEROI STAFF WRITER While New York State Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) has yet to decide whether to allow hydraulic fracturing, members of the Ithaca and Cornell communities have put their feet down — gathering on Sunday at the Commons to participate in an anti-fracking rally. Protesters expressed their opposition to fracking, or the practice of injecting chemicals and water into the ground to extract natural gas. “We are less frightened of jail cells than of poisoned water,” said Prof. Sandra Steingraber, Ithaca College, environmental studies and sciences. Reed Steberger, a student coordinator for the rally, said that if Cuomo votes in favor of fracking, protestors are prepared to take additional action. “Today’s rally kicks off a week of 13 actions and trainings to prepare New Yorkers for civil disobedience should Governor Cuomo decide to allow fracking,” Steberger said. Julia Fiore, another student coordinator of the rally, criticized the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation and the drafts of fracking regulations it has released. She added that not enough studies have been conducted to prove that fracking is safe. “I think that [fracking] will drastically change the landscape of New York. It’ll harm our economy,” Fiore said. Steingraber said that the greatest problem with fracking is the scientific uncertainty surrounding it. “Do you want to force people to become subjects in an uncontrolled human experiment?” Steingraber said. “Fracking represents the massive industrialization of a landscape.” At the rally, Steberger spoke about the known consequences of fracking, including the release of methane gas. “Expanding the development of natural gas, a greenhouse gas 100 times more potent than carbon dioxide … shows a blatant disregard for basic climate science, and will have consequences for everyone in our generation who will have to live through more extreme weather as climate change intensifies,” he said. Martha Robertson, Chair of the Tompkins County Legislature,
BY FRANCESCA ANNICCHIARICO AND MADELINE R. CONWAY STAFF WRITERS There has been a deviation in Harvard’s most popular course. This spring, 642 students have enrolled in Statistics 104: “Introduction to Quantitative Methods for Economics,” making it Harvard’s biggest course for the first time in recent memory, according to course enrollment data on the website of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Registrar’s Office. Stat 104 narrowly beat Economics 10: “Principles of Economics,” a perennial contender for the title of top-enrolled course of the semester. Ec 10, economics professor N. Gregory Mankiw’s introductory economics course, drew an enrollment of 627. This is the first time that Stat 104 has trumped Ec 10, which was formerly titled Social Analysis 10, since the first semester of course enrollment data available online dating back to the fall of 1999. That fall, 817 students took Ec 10, while only 34 took Stat 104. Statistics lecturer Michael I. Parzen, instructor of Stat 104, attributed the course’s growth to quality teaching and a popular subject matter. “I think the enrollments reflect the hard work of our teaching staff, our attempt to
SEYOUN KIM/CORNELL DAILY SUN
Protestors gather to rally against fracking, or the practice of injecting chemicals and water into the ground to extract natural gas. also stressed the potency of methane released d u r i n g f ra c k i n g . Ro b e r ts o n called the CORNELL promise of energy independence a “second lie.” She added that claims that fracking will not create jobs in New York. According to Robertson, fracking would only create short-term employment and would bring in many out-of-state workers. “Hire … is not the same as a job,” she said. Steberger echoed Robertson, adding that the economic benefits have been overstated. “It’s a boom and it’s a bust,” Steberger said. Also at the rally, Ben Knowles and Jacob Wise — who are part of a coalition at Ithaca College that is
working towards making IC divest its funds from fossil fuel-based industries — proposed divestment from fracking, which would deliberately remove funding from that industry, as a solution. “Divestment is one of the most effective ways that we as students can help resist fracking in New York State,” Wise said. “Not only will it weaken the financial structures of these industries, but it will send a message to our institutions that we aren’t going to stand for this.” Steingraber noted the strength of the anti-fracking movement, and said she hopes Cuomo will disallow fracking. “Those who oppose fracking in New York State are determined, resourceful and organized in a growing movement,” Steingraber said. “All of us will hold [Cuomo] personally responsible for allowing our beautiful state to be colonized and plundered by a brutal, extracting industry.”
make the course as organized as possible, and the increasing visibility of statistics in the private sector,” Parzen wrote in an email. He added that the course’s teachHARVARD ing staff is considering greater use of technology in class to handle the increased enrollment numbers. Pre-Term Planning predictions significantly underestimated the turnout for Stat 104. An additional 238 students signed up for the course than projected by Pre-Term Planning. The course enrollment planning tool was relatively accurate for Ec 10, overestimating actual enrollment by just 18 students. Sociology 190: “Life and Death in the US: Medicine and Disease in Social Context” also saw a significant increase in enrollment this spring. The 408 students who signed up for the course surpass both the Pre-Term Planning prediction of 172 and last spring’s enrollment of 265. In an email, the course’s instructor, sociology professor Nicholas A. Christakis, noted that Sociology 190 has experienced a trend of growing enrollment since he first began teaching it seven years ago.
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DANIEL HABER, CORNELL SOCCER IVY PLAYER EARNS NATIONAL AWARD The former Big Red striker, who left Cornell after his junior season to pursue a professsional career with Maccabi Haifa FC in Israel, was named the 2013 Outstanding Male Jewish Scholar Athlete of the Year by the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame & Museum Committee.
SARAH HALEJIAN ’15 AND ALLIE MESSIMER ’13 ELIS NAMED TO IVY HONOR ROLL The two Bulldog guards earned spots on the Ivy League honor roll for their performances against Harvard and Dartmouth this weekend. Halejian scored a combined 25 points and Messimer added 21 while shooting 56 percent from the 3-point line.
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“We finally put what we have been working on in practice in play at this competition.” LAUREN MILLER ’15 FOILIST, WOMEN’S FENCING YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2013 · yaledailynews.com
Bulldogs fight back after ITA Cable sets BY JASMINE HORSEY STAFF REPORTER After disappointment last weekend at the ITA Kick-Off Weekend in MIssissippi, the Bulldogs made an emphatic comeback by taking down both Florida International and No. 37 Arkansas Friday and Sunday.
WOMEN’S TENNIS Playing on home turf at the Cullman-Heyman Tennis Center, the team launched its weekend with a 6–1 win over Florida International. After losing several key doubles matches in their qualifying bid for the ITA National Championships, the Elis used the opportunity this weekend to experiment with their doubles line-up. Team captain Elizabeth Epstein ’13 said that the team is still working out the doubles pairings that are most effective. “It’s early in the season, and we are still trying to figure out what the best doubles combinations will be,” she said. “I imagine that the doubles lineup will change again next weekend.”
With two regular starters out, people were put at new spots in the lineup and executed under pressure. SARAH GUZICK ’13 Women’s tennis At the No. 1 spot for the first time this season, Amber Li ’15 and Hanna Yu ’15 were dealt an 8–4 blow by the Panthers on Friday. But Epstein and Madeleine Hamilton ’16 were quick to snatch a win in the Bulldogs’ favor, comfortably winning 8–1 at No. 2, while No. 3 pair Sarah Guzick ’13 and Annie Sulli-
van ’14 also secured an easy 8–3 win. The Bulldogs were at ease in singles play, winning five of the six matches in straight sets. Sullivan, Li, Guzick and Hamilton assured quick wins, each dropping no more than three games over the course of two sets. Despite a closely contested first set, No. 2 Epstein prevailed in the tiebreak and went on to win 7–6, 6–0. Playing at No. 3, Yu struggled against the Panthers’ Carlotta Orlando and dropped her match 7–5, 6–0. Sunday saw the Bulldogs confront the Arkansas Razorbacks, ranked No. 37 in the nation to the Elis’ No. 24. Though Yale eventually came out on top 4–3, the Bulldogs opened the day by conceding the doubles point with a 1–2 record. Guzick admitted the Arkansas match was a tough fight for the Elis, particularly because Sullivan and Blair Seideman ’14 were battling stomach viruses. “We really overcame a lot of adversity on Sunday,” Guzick said. “With two regular starters out, people were put at new spots in the lineup and executed under pressure to win the match for us.” After a string of stellar performances this season, Hamilton was unable to make it through her match against Yang Pang in the No. 1 singles spot. Ranked No. 90 nationally, Hamilton battled to take the second set but eventually fell 6–2, 6–7, 6–4 to the Razorback. Epstein had an easier ride at No. 2, notching a 6–3, 6–4 win over Claudine Paulson. Following her 6–1, 6–0 singles victory against the Panthers Friday, Sullivan proved her mettle by taking another decisive victory by the same score at No. 3. Li had similar success at No. 4, while No. 5 Guzick fell 6–2, 6–2. Courtney Amos ’16 made her spring debut at No. 6 and came out on top 6-1, 5-7, 6-3 after a hard-fought match against Ana Lorena Belmar Hernandez. The freshman has seen limited
Yale 400m record BY ALEX EPPLER STAFF REPORTER
In a sport in which the difference between victory and defeat is often just a fraction of a second, men’s track and field captain Tim Hillas ’13 blew the competition out of the water during the 3000m run on Saturday at Coxe Cage. Hillas’ race had been over for 16 seconds when St. Joseph’s Aaron Leskew crossed the line in second place. Finishing in 8:11.35, the Eli captain dominated the race in front of a crowd boosted by the presence of team alumni.
TRACK AND FIELD
tively. “We were all really warmed up at that point and had a good mindset,” said Cohen. “We were all fencing really hard.” Team captain Cornelius Saunders ’14 added that one of the team’s greatest strengths at the tournament was its depth. The Elis were able to put in substitutes confidently and gave younger fencers the opportunity to compete and win. Individual performances that contributed to the team’s success included an undefeated streak by Cohen, who competed in five bouts, and a 3–0 record posted by sabreur Nathaniel Benzimra ’13 against Sacred Heart. As the fencing teams use their final week before the Ivy League Championship to tie loose ends and work on individual technique, they look ahead with full awareness of their capability. “Our team is very talented,” Saunders said. “I know that we can win, but on any given day it’s about who wants it more, how much energy you can put into it. We have most of our hard competitions on the first day, so going into it we need to be ready, high on energy. If we have that, we can win.” The fencing teams will pack their bags this weekend as they hit the road for the Ivy League Championship, which will take place at Harvard University Feb. 9 and 10.
Running in their last home meet of the winter season, the men’s and women’s track and field teams followed Hillas’s lead in the Giegengack Invivational on Friday and Saturday. Hillas and his teammates on the men’s squad controlled the distance events, while the women’s team rewrote the University record books on the weekend. “Everyone’s very focused and furious,” Hillas said. “The thing we have to do now is just continue to stay focused on the small things.” While Hillas led the 3000m from start to finish, the men’s team’s dominance in distance events did not stop with the captain. James Shirvell ’14 nabbed the win in the 1000m run with a time of 2:26.08, finishing just eight tenths of a second in front of second place Logan Mohn of St. Joseph’s. Most striking, however, was the Bulldogs’ performance in the 5000m run. Not only did the Elis sweep the top three places, a rare and impressive achievement in itself, but the squad took the first five spots in the race overall. Led by cross-country captain Kevin Lunn ’13, the other top five finishers included, in order of place, Demetri Goutos ’13, Kevin Dooney ’16, Michael Cunetta ’14 and Matt Thwaites ’13. “The guys who ran the 5000 had a fantastic day,” Hillas said. Yet the most historically relevant race of the Bulldogs’ weekend came from the women’s squad. In the 400m dash, Emily Cable ’15 was barely beat out for first place by Colgate’s Alicia Minella, who finished in 56.15. Cable’s time of 56.19, however, set the Yale University record in the 400m. “I think it’s really good that she got [the record] already, so she can even have time to go even lower before the season is over,” women’s team captain Allison Rue ’13 said. The women’s team’s distance runners refused to be outdone by the men’s with strong races in the 3000m and the 5000m. In the 3000m, cross-country captain Nihal Kayali ’13 placed first with a time of 9:36.47, more than 23 seconds faster than Colgate’s Olivia Brackett in second. Jennifer Donnelly ’13 even more thoroughly dominated the 5000m en route to a first-place finish—her 17:31.23 time was 46 seconds faster than that of St. Joseph’s Emily Chappell, who came in second. Cable, Kayali and Donnelly’s runs were backed by a number of other strong performances from the women’s side. Shannon McDonald ’16 captured the 800m victory in 2:13.75, besting second-place Cayleigh Solano of La Salle by more than a second. The 4x400m relay team also captured first place, finishing with a time of 3:54.38. In the pole vault, Emily Urciuoli ’14 continued her strong campaign with a vault of 3.60m, good for first place. “We had a strong showing at Giegengack with some impressive individual performances across a variety of event groups, which bodes well for the upcoming scoring meets,” Kayali said in an email to the News. “From here on out it’s important that we maintain consistency at a high level and continue on an upward trajectory as a squad in order to challenge our Ivy rivals.” The men’s and women’s track and field teams will continue their seasons next weekend against Princeton and Harvard at Princeton.
Contact GIOVANNI BACARELLA at giovanni.bacarella@yale.edu .
Contact ALEX EPPLER at alexander.eppler@yale.edu.
BRIANNA LOO/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
Captain Elizabeth Epstein ’13 went undefeated this weekend, earning straight-set singles victories and doubles wins against both FIU and Arkansas. opportunities in the Elis’ lineup this year, but injuries and illnesses pressed her into action in both the singles and doubles competition. Despite the unforeseen change in the lineup, Amos said she enjoyed her debut match and added that team’s progress so far has been encouraging. “It was so much fun and very exciting to beat some very good teams,
especially at the beginning of the season,” she said. Next weekend the Bulldogs will continue their spring campaign in New York, where they will battle for a fifth consecutive ECAC Indoor Team Championship at Columbia. Contact JASMINE HORSEY at jasmine.horsey@yale.edu .
Elis post five wins at Vassar BY GIOVANNI BACARELLA STAFF REPORTER The Yale fencing teams suited up at the Vassar Invitational in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. on Saturday for their last series of bouts before the Ivy League Championship.
FENCING
JENNIFER CHEUNG/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
The men’s team posted a 2–1 record at the Vassar Invitational, where they bested Vassar and Drew and fell to Sacred Heart.
The women rebounded from a losing record at the NYU Invitational last week with a strong 3–1 performance that included wins against Drew, Queens and host Vassar. The men finished with a split of 2–1, also recording victories against Drew and Vassar. While each squad tallied only one loss, the Yale men and women both fell at the hands of Sacred Heart in a reprisal of the teams’ losses to the Pioneers earlier this season. A week after their struggles at NYU, the women’s team left no doubt in each of its wins. The Bulldogs finished 24–3 against Drew, 23–4 against Queens and 20-7 against Vassar. “The teams we fenced at Vassar were not as technically good as the teams at NYU,” captain Robyn Shaffer said. “We kept our fencing level high though, focusing on simple and strong actions, and not getting bogged down in messy footwork or bladework.” The only obstacle keeping the Elis from a sweep was their matchup against Sacred Heart, which resulted in a in a 15–12 loss for Yale. In midJanuary when two teams first faced-
off, the Bulldogs fell in a narrow 14–13 verdict. “There were many close bouts that could have gone either way, and I think that if we had warmed up a little smarter, we would have been better prepared to face them,” Miller said. “However, most of us fenced better than we did at the last Sacred Heart meet.” By the end of the day, each fencer contributed at least one win to the women’s overall bout score. The team utilized every athlete on its roster with substitutes throughout the tournament so that individual fencers could accumulate the number of bouts needed to qualify for NCAA regionals. “I think that now that we are in the peak of our season — our team’s fencing has also hit its peak,” foilist Lauren Miller ’15 added. “We finally put what we have been working on in practice in play at this competition, and it worked out well for everyone.” The men faced the same opponents as the women with the exception of Queens College, which doesn’t have a men’s team. Its only loss came early in the day against Sacred Heart, by the same heartbreaking 14–13 verdict that echoed in the halls of Payne Whitney just a few weeks ago. “It didn’t come down to the last bout this time,” epeeist Peter Cohen ’14 said. “They fought harder and came out on top.” The Bulldogs bounced back and defeated Drew and Vassar by final scores of 22–5 and 17–10, respec-
TOP ’DOG PETER COHEN ’14
THE JUNIOR EPEEIST WENT 5–0 IN BOUTS AGAINST VASSAR, DREW AND SACRED HEART AT THE VASSAR INVITATIONAL THIS WEEKEND. Overall, the Eli men posted a 2–1 record while the women’s team went 3–1.