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, MARCH 5, 2013 · VOL. CXXXV, NO. 102 · yaledailynews.com
INSIDE THE NEWS MORNING EVENING
SUNNY CLEAR
47 36
CROSS CAMPUS Celebrity sighting. Ever
since former Yale graduate student James Franco left the University, Yalies have been starved of Hollywood royalty sightings. But that changed on Monday, when director M. Night Shyamalan was spotted casually eating peanut butter noodles in Berkeley dining hall for lunch. Though the reasons for the Yale trip are still unknown, one SigEp fraternity brother speculated that “all the Signs point to [Shyamalan] coming to The Village of New Haven so he could witness The Happening of daily activities at Yale.” Just sayin’.
BIOLOGY YOU ARE WHEN YOU EAT
TOAD’S PLACE
AFGHANISTAN
WOMEN’S SQUASH
Three men arrested following Saturday night brawl outside dance club
FORMER DIPLOMAT DISCUSSES TALKS WITH TALIBAN
No. 2 Millie Tomlinson ’14 falls in semifinals in CSA Individual Championships
PAGE 8–9 SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
PAGE 3 CITY
PAGE 5 NEWS
PAGE 14 SPORTS
Yale braces for federal cuts GRAPH YALE’S $2.8 BILLION OPERATING REVENUE, FISCAL YEAR 2012 Publications income
Other income and investment income
1%
7% Student income, net 9%
BY SOPHIE GOULD STAFF REPORTER
Endowment income Department of Health and Human Services
are communicating with their peers at Stanford and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to ensure Yale is “on the same page” as other major research universities. Salovey said research grant reductions from agencies like the National Institutes of Health, or NIH, and the National Science Foundation, or NSF, will be the sequester’s most noticeable impact
P re s i d e n t - e l e c t Pe te r Sa l ovey announced the nine winners of a new prestigious global literary prize on Monday morning at a gathering at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. The Donald Windham-Sandy M. Campbell Literature Prizes, valued at $150,000 each for a total of $1.35 million, are some of the largest literary prizes in history and will be awarded annually to nine established or emerging Englishlanguage authors or playwrights from around the world. The prizes are funded by the estate of the late novelist Donald Windham, who left the bulk of his assets to Yale in his will in 2010 for the express purpose of establishing these prizes. The 2013 prize winners, chosen for excellence in fiction, nonfiction and drama, will receive their awards in a ceremony at Yale on Sept. 10 and will participate in a literary festival on campus that week. “It was Windham’s explicit wish that we recognize emerging writers as part of this prize and support them in practicing their art and developing their art,” said Michael Kelleher, the program director for the Windham-Campbell Literature Prizes. He added that Windham wanted the prizes to be large enough to support writers for a year, allowing them to hone their craft without worrying about securing “outside support.” The nine winners, ranging in age from 33 to 87, are either writers that nominators felt deserved more recognition for their existing work or that nominators
SEE SEQUESTER PAGE 6
SEE LITERARY PRIZE PAGE 6
35%
14% FEDERAL GRANT AND CONTRACT INCOME, 20%
It’s not Moon Yale, but still. Starting this Friday,
Undergraduate Career Services will open a “satellite” office in Dwight Hall to give students a more convenient location to seek career and internship advice. The office will feature a UCS adviser who will host open hours in the Dwight Hall library every Friday from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. for the rest of the year.
Other 6%
Non-federal grant and contract income
Contributions 4%
5% Medical services income 19% YALE 2011-’12 FINANCIAL REPORT
Ouch. Things got a little heated
when a man in a white Ford Explorer attempted to rob a Dunkin’ Donuts in West Haven this Saturday. After the man in the car attempted to enter the restaurant via the drive-thru window, the fast food chain’s fast-thinking clerk doused him with a cup of hot coffee.
What’s in a name? Not
sure, but Gawker may have discovered something. A Monday article from the website compared the most popular names among babies born in 1994 and Yale undergraduates, finding a handful of shared names across both groups. For males, common names included Alexander, David and Christopher, while for females, common names included Elizabeth, Hannah and Rachel.
Green living. President Barack
Obama named Gina McCarthy — the former commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection — as the nation’s next head of the Environmental Protection Agency. McCarthy currently heads the EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation, where she tightened limits on soot and mercury emissions. Marrying Yale to QPac.
Quinnipiac law professor Jennifer Gerarda Brown has been named the next dean of Quinnipiac Law School, effective July 1. Brown is married to Yale Law School professor Ian Ayres and has been a senior research scholar in law at Yale since 1998.
THIS DAY IN YALE HISTORY
1917 Yale Treasurer George Parmly Day announces plans for a “freshman quadrangle” dormitory by York, Elm and High streets. All tenants are asked to move out on July 1 and leave their property vacant for the University.
BY SOPHIE GOULD AND JULIA ZORTHIAN STAFF REPORTERS As the nation braces for acrossthe-board budget cuts to federal agencies caused by the sequester, University officers are devising a plan in response to expected reductions in federal research funding and government financial aid for students. The sequester, a series of deep government-mandated cuts signed
by President Barack Obama Saturday at midnight, will directly impact the majority of government agencies, but its implications for universities remain unclear until federal agencies determine how they will meet the mandated budget reductions. Yale administrators are meeting today to discuss the consequences of the sequester for the University, President-elect Peter Salovey told the News, and Provost Benjamin Polak said administrators
City to boost mental health services BY MONICA DISARE STAFF REPORTER In response to the December Newtown shooting, New Haven has started a Community Resilience Initiative dedicated to coordinating and strengthening mental health services in the Elm City. U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, Mayor John DeStefano Jr., Superintendent of New Haven Public Schools Reginald Mayo and State Sen. Toni Harp met on Monday at Metropolitan Business Academy to discuss the new program and announce that they plan to seek additional funding for the city’s mental health services. The plan includes additional funding for the New Haven Trauma Coalition, which promotes mental health and wellbeing for pregnant and parenting women in New Haven, and for Boost!, which partners New Haven Public Schools with nonprofits in the community to offer programs to students.
For our kids to thrive, we have to support healthy development — that’s what this initiative is all about. ROSA DELAURO U.S. representative, Connecticut
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$150,000 prizes awarded
In addition, all New Haven public school students will be screened for Adverse Childhood Experiences, or ACE, and the city will launch a campaign to educate the public about mental health awareness and the impact of childhood trauma. “As a city we propose doing the smart SEE RESILIENCE PAGE 6
Assisting Yale’s president BY JULIA ZORTHIAN STAFF REPORTER When University President Richard Levin makes major decisions, he often consults his special assistants — three people outside the President’s Office whose titles far belie their importance to University leadership. With titles shrouded in vague possibility, the special assistants to the president — Jonathan Edwards College Master Penelope Laurans, Chief Communications Officer Elizabeth Stauderman and Ted Wittenstein ’04 LAW ’12, executive director of the Johnson Center for the Study of American Diplomacy — were handpicked by Levin throughout his tenure to advise him on their varying areas of expertise. Their roles as special assistants are not clearly defined, so the three are in regular contact with Levin about a range of University affairs, quietly influencing Yale’s top administrator. But with the University in the midst of a presidential transition, it remains unclear whether the special assistants will stay “special” when President-elect Peter Salovey steps into the role. “The ‘special assistant’ title signifies a counselor of matters at the highest level,” Levin said. No precedent has been set for new presidents to preserve their predecessors’ special assistants in the long term. Yale historian Gaddis Smith ’54 GRD ’61 told the News in a Feb. 28 email that the “character and number” of the president’s special assistants change from presidency to presidency. Salovey, who was named Yale’s next president on Nov. 8, said the transition process has started so recently that he is only beginning to identify new staffing needs for when he assumes office on July 1.
JENNIFER CHEUNG/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
University President Richard Levin’s three handpicked special assistants advise him on matters ranging from public relations to international affairs. He added that he is looking forward to collaborating with Levin’s special assistants, having been very impressed with their work. While Levin chose his current special assistants, he said he “inherited” two special assistants from his predecessor who left their positions soon after he took office in 1993: Deputy Provost Lloyd Suttle, who moved back to the Provost’s Office after working for interim University President Howard Lamar, and another who wrote speeches for University President Benno Schmidt and left to work at another college. He said he then had the oppor-
tunity to bring in his own people, naming Laurans his first handpicked special assistant approximately 20 years ago. Laurans, who also teaches an English class on versification, has been involved with numerous campus offices and committees and previously served as Yale College associate dean — a range of credentials that make her well-known within the University. Laurans said she writes and edits drafts of speeches and letters for Levin, who said Laurans typically handles projects like planning the University’s Class Day celebration SEE LEVIN ASSISTANTS PAGE 4
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YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, MARCH 5, 2013 · yaledailynews.com
OPINION
.COMMENT "Yeah, let's just keep all outdated traditions even if they're sexist, racist, yaledailynews.com/opinion
Who belongs at Yale
W
ho should be admitted to Yale, and on what grounds? Any answer to this question closely reflects our beliefs about the purpose of the College, and perhaps even the purpose of an education overall. Establishing these beliefs is important, because education policy debates often lack a critical element: acknowledgement that the various parties have wildly different beliefs on what education means, undergirded by a range of assumptions. In my view, education is an instrumental good that fulfills at least four underlying goals: the development of productive workers, the cultivation of engaged citizens, the socialization of people from diverse backgrounds and most importantly, the mitigation of the impact of arbitrary circumstances on people’s lives. Yale College clearly supports at least the last two of those goals, given its recent announcement of a five-week summer bridge program aimed at preparing lowincome and first-generation college students for Yale life. The program covers tuition, transportation and housing fees, and includes a writing course and introduction to various campus resources like tutors and deans. But the initiative has not been accepted with universal acclaim. Sadly, some in our community believe students with educational backgrounds that did not fully prepare them for Yale have no place in our ivory walls. But this short-sighted attitude would undermine the College’s contribution to American capitalism, Western liberal democracy and social justice, the very things Yale education is directed towards. What does it mean to be unprepared, anyway? Far too often in contemporary America, being “unprepared” for the rigors of elite academic life is merely a function of a pernicious set of circumstances students cannot control. How educated are your parents? What color is your skin? What is the median household income of your town? These are the things that matter. Of course, this inequality should be instinctively repulsive. As New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof recently wrote, “Something is profoundly wrong when we can point to 2-yearolds in this country and make a plausible bet about their longterm outcomes — not based on their brains and capabilities, but on their ZIP codes.” Amen, Mr. Kristof. After all, we treat children differently from adults in a variety of ways, because we, as a society, recognize that young children cannot yet reason or meaningfully take responsibility for their own lives. Thus, they cannot sign contracts or vote, and we generally don’t throw them in prison. This point is obvious, but too many people miss its implica-
tions — after kids become adults, why are we then fine holding them accountable for years expoMICHAEL of sure to leadMAGDZIK d r e n c h e d public housMaking ing and street violence, Magic a dearth of meaningful enrichment opportunities like summer camps and the general failures of public schools in low-income districts? These facts of life were also beyond the children’s control. It’s rather silly, then, to make claims about who “deserves” to get in to Yale. Admissions likely has little to do with the inherent greatness of the people who are offered spots, a concession we are loathe to make because it deflates our own egos. But detractors have another argument. They claim that admitting underprepared students inherently diminishes the academic quality of the College. After all, if the administration needs to create a program to get these kids up to speed and impart analytical writing skills via an introductory English course, they must not have been as good as other applicants. Even if that were true (which I would dispute — these kids could easily end up outperforming others over the course of their Yale careers), other factors outweigh this concern. This is why it is important to refer to our beliefs about the purpose of Yale. I would go so far as to argue that the added value from having poor, first-generation kids both attend the College and succeed here is clearly so great as to warrant some decline in average student “quality” as determined solely by academics. If this place is really supposed to breed American leaders, it is in the country’s best interest for our graduates to be exposed to people who have intimately experienced our contemporary challenges. You can be interested in food stamps as an intellectual exercise, but sometimes it takes a good friend revealing their family’s reliance on them for you to internalize their importance and add clarity to your thinking. At the end of the day, Yale will still be elite. But it should not be an institution only open to those who were blessed by the capricious hand of fate masquerading as meritocracy. Ensuring low-income students apply and matriculate should be our goal, and a bridge program may just give some very valuable students the necessary confidence to come here and enrich us all.
offensive, etc. Makes sense, right?" 'YEP' ON 'LETS HEAR IT FOR THE GIRLS'
No technology Tuesday O
n Tuesday, I turn off my phone and computer. I leave both at home and start seeing what I’ve missed when my eyes have been stuck to glowing screens. I started “No Technology Tuesday” in the beginning of the school year, when the idea of using my phone all the time was jarring. I was just back from a few months living in and out of my tent in Patagonia and then Alaska, where, whether it was true or not, I started most emails with the sentence, “I’m sorry for the delay — I haven’t had Internet access in awhile.” But it became harder to use this line while living in a town where, as I write this column, I have 32 options for Wi-Fi networks to join. I realized that I couldn’t concentrate well or feel relaxed amid this obsessive connectivity, and I didn’t want to get used to it again. I didn’t want to plan my Friday night on Monday, or my summer in September. Unable to selfregulate with my phone nearby, I started leaving it at home, doing work without it in cafés down Orange Street or running free from it for hours around East Rock, no zinging vibration in my pocket pulling me away from the present. I, of course, love my friends who
send emojistrewn texts and post funny I n s ta g ra m s and send email reminders of the many shows I must attend this DIANA weekend, but SAVERIN when technology’s always For the Birds at hand, I forget what it is like to pay attention. I am talking about real attention, not the feigned kind supposedly marked by my physical presence. I was at an improv show this weekend, and looked at the other seats in my row. Four out of the five people were ignoring the impression of a dancing fish on stage, choosing to fixate on the texts, and for one of them, the Tetris, on the screens in their laps instead. We all know that we’re addicted to technology: We notice each other’s phones resting on our thighs beneath the seminar table. We see the email window open next to our notes in lecture. We’ve grown used to the shameful glare in our eyes at parties, slowing our dance moves and thwarting our conversations. We are good at faking attention,
even when hanging out with our friends. Imagine someone we’ve all been before: You slip messages to, say, your boyfriend, beneath the table at lunch, while making listening sounds to the roommate you haven’t seen for days. But the listening sounds don’t always mean you’re listening; if this boyfriend you’re planning to hang with later was at the table with you and the roommate, would you really be trying to maintain these two conversations at once? Would you be debating which library you’ll study at with the boyfriend while also discussing your roommate’s indecision about spring break plans? You and the roommate and the boyfriend would all immediately realize that you were not paying real attention to anyone. We might be used to our double act, but it doesn’t have to be this way. Since ritualizing No Technology Tuesday, it’s become my weekly holiday. I abstain from checking my email in bed. I walk out the door with only books and pens in my bag. Instead of searching for a screen, I stop and watch gulls circle overhead. Without breaks to check up on the latest music video featuring a goat, I scribble exclamation points in
the margins of my reading. Soon enough, the thought that someone has tried to get in touch with me loosens. I see the city — full of swaying branches and shaking leaves. Can you imagine looking up when you walk, and seeing it more of this city all Tuesday long? Today, you could start. It might go like this: We could run into each other in a coffee shop in the late afternoon and decide to hang out, because we would both be so charmed by the surprise of it, having not texted and emailed and been annoyed at the other for canceling or showing up a Yaliestandard 20 minutes late. We could pay attention to each other — listen well, finish sentences, make eye contact, be unembarrassed about how excited we are about the books we devoured all morning. Then we might wander around after the coffee, and marvel together at the ring of color around the gauzy moon, or that sculpture on Chapel Street with the cool shapes we’ve both passed hundreds of times and not seen. Only reluctantly would we return to our rooms, turn on our phones and see what we’ve “missed.” DIANA SAVERIN is a senior in Berkeley College. Contact her at diana.saverin@yale.edu .
G U E S T C O L U M N I S T G R AC E Z I M M E R LY
The real costs of sex reassignment T
he online response to last week’s article regarding Yale Health Plan coverage for sex reassignment surgery (SRS), (“Yale Health considers sex change surgery,” Feb. 25), has been mostly disappointing and occasionally repugnant. Many of the most negative comments have roots in xenophobia or bigotry. I am ashamed of the hatred and discrimination expressed by these members of my cisgender cohort. What should I say to people who aren’t moved by considerations of justice or equality or fairness? However, a few individuals instead attempt to justify their opposition with objections based on costs and obligations. They argue that covering an “unnecessary” medical procedure would be a misallocation of Yale’s resources, and that including SRS in the health plan would negatively impact both tuition bills and the University’s reputation. But the numbers disagree. Adding SRS to the health plan is in Yale’s best interest. First, there seems to be a fear that including SRS in the health plan will result in an onslaught of Yalies rushing to transition to the opposite sex. This is unreasonable and entirely contrary to statistics. Transgender people make up an estimated 2–5 percent of the
MICHAEL MAGDZIK is a senior in Berkeley College. His column runs on Tuesdays. Contact him at michael.magdzik@yale.edu .
population. Of this tiny minority, an even smaller percentage seeks out SRS. Studies place the rate of male-to-female surgical transitions at 1 in 12,000, and that’s nearly three times the prevalence of female-to-male surgeries. So even if the number of surgery-seeking transsexuals in Yale’s undergraduate and graduate programs were twice that of the general population, we would still expect fewer than two surgeries each year. Spread over all of Yale’s students, the monetary increase to Yale tuition is negligible. The total cost of procedures for a single individual can vary from $7,000 to $50,000, although average male-to-female surgery costs only $23,000 over two years. Still, let’s consider the absolute worstcase scenario, two $50,000 surgeries each year. That comes out to a tuition hike of about $8.40 per student. As a comparison, the senior dues fee raises $75,000 per graduating class, and that’s if 20 percent of students opt out. Congratulations, class of 2013: You spent the equivalent of three male-to-female surgeries on open bars. Another argument is that Yale has no obligation to cover a procedure that isn’t medically necessary, especially given that it would
benefit such a small number of students. This line of reasoning falters twice. Both physicians and major insurance providers recognize the medical necessity of SRS. Gender identity disorder is listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, granting it the same legitimacy as depression, dementia or anorexia. Health care insurance provider Aetna considers genital reconstructive surgery to be medically necessary as long as the individual meets certain criteria, chiefly diagnosis of persistent gender identity disorder by a qualified mental health professional. Secondly, when has the size of the affected population ever prevented Yale from catering to the needs of a minority group? The decision to abstain from all animal products is far less medically necessary than addressing a serious health disorder, yet our tuition dollars pay for vegan options at every meal in every dining hall on campus. We should be much more concerned with the cost to Yale if SRS is not included in the health plan. Remember that we stand to lose not only potential students and faculty members who identify as trans, but also all of the cisgender and cissexual individuals who want to align themselves with institutions that reflect their val-
ues. It is true that we may lose support from some conservative donors, but the long-term effect on fundraising efforts can only be positive. We have a reputation as one of the most progressive institutions in the world. Our alumni take pride in that distinction. But Yale loses some veritas and dims its lux every time another university embraces equality first. Harvard, Stanford, Penn and Brown already cover SRS. While we’ve lost our competitive advantage on this front, we should at least attempt to remain on par with our peer institutions. Not for the first time in recent years, Yale stands frozen by discrimination while the rest of the country moves forward. We must include sex reassignment surgery in the health plan if we want to keep up. Doing so will promote acceptance, support equality and signal to the world that Yale accords the same importance to the rights and concerns of all its students and faculty members. It’s morally right and politically smart, and the price tag is less than two Wenzels per capita. GRACE ZIMMERLY is a senior in Pierson College and a first year MPH student. Contact her at grace.zimmerly@yale.edu .
G U E S T C O L U M N I S T V I C T O R I A H A L L - PA L E R M
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T
he Whiffenpoofs capture audiences worldwide in a way that Whim ‘n Rhythm, I admit, does not. As a female singer at Yale, I can’t deny that this disparity rankles. I’m tired of being asked if I’m in the Whiffenpoofs, and I wish that my all-female a cappella group could generate the buzz to fill a 1,000-person theater in any city around the globe. Some argue that the Whiffenpoofs’ justification for remaining all-male — gender-based differences in vocal quality — is essentially a thinly veiled mask for discrimination. That critique cuts both ways. Is The New Blue, my group, sexist for denying men entrance? Is Whim ‘n Rhythm? This kind of quest for gender equality would mandate every single a cappella group become co-ed. But I don’t think we want that. Having a cappella groups devoted solely to male or female voices is not inherently a mask for sexism. Plenty of singing groups around the world choose to highlight only male or only female voices, and for good reason: Men and women’s voices differ. It’s not an issue of talent. Male voices offer amazing things. So do female ones. But these strengths are not
the same. What is important to realize, however, is the sexism that pervades when members of Whim endure a system that prizes its male counterpart more highly. If feminists want to crusade against Whim’s second-tier status, rejecting the group altogether is a grave error. Auditioning for the Whiffenpoofs — but dismissing Whim — not only buys into sexism, but also perpetuates it by conceding that the standard set by male a cappella is the only standard worth attaining. The problem then lies in claiming that women, in order to attain excellence, must join the Whiffenpoofs instead of developing their own unique style. This insidious pressure for conformity is antithetical to the push for equality. Women’s voices are different, and if female singers insist on thinking that different means inferior — that the closer we can get to the boys, the closer to excellence — we are doing ourselves a disservice. The merits of all-female vocal music are underappreciated, but by slowly making itself known, Whim is showing audiences both on campus and off that there are reasons to treat all-female a cappella well. If women joined the
Whiffs, female a cappella still wouldn't be seen as a remarkable musical style in its own right. Only the women in the Whiffs would be seen as remarkable for being good enough to fit into a model of excellence defined by men. Thanks to 100 years of culture, the Whiffenpoofs enjoy a standing that Whim does not. I understand that strong female vocalists want to be a part of a group whose musical clout is on par with the Whiffs’. But these talented women must not slight Whim in a misguided effort to take female singing to new heights. Declining to audition for Whim not only implies that the female version of senior a cappella is not up to snuff, it also represents a lack of desire to improve its lot. It would undeniably take a lot of effort to make Whim an equal counterpart to the Whiffenpoofs, including a musical director with a bold vision, a committed business manager, an engaged alumni network and enough gigs to finance an ambitious international tour. But this effort is a far more sustainable remedy for gender disparity than diverting female talent from Whim 'n Rhythm and undercutting the group's efforts to advance. It comes down to this: Men got to a cappella first, and it gave
the Whiffenpoofs a pretty big leg up. But that doesn’t mean Whim can’t catch up, or that women should stand for a dismissive attitude towards it. Female singers can demand a number of concrete things from the old boys’ clubs of Yale and the Whiffenpoofs to try to move things along. Perhaps encourage more collaboration between the Whiffenpoofs’ business manager and Whim’s, sharing the contact information for international alumni with a penchant for a cappella. Perhaps Whim must press on Yale, as an institution, to embrace Whim as wholeheartedly as it has embraced the Whiffenpoofs. Then, at the next big Yale event, hopefully we can see black dresses rather than penguin suits. Trying to barge into the Whiffenpoofs, while a short-term solution, does not solve the longterm problem. It exacerbates it. If talented female artists abandon women’s a cappella and forever resign it to play second fiddle to the Whiffs, that’s all it ever will be. It’s on us to fight that institutionalized sexism from the inside out. VICTORIA HALL-PALERM is a sophomore in Berkeley College. Contact her at victoria.hall-palerm@yale.edu .
YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, MARCH 5, 2013 · yaledailynews.com
PAGE 3
NEWS
“To find a prince, you gotta kiss some toads.” FOXY BROWN FROM HER SONG “ILL NA NA”
CORRECTIONS MONDAY, MARCH 4
The article “Looking beyond the US-China rivalry” mistakenly stated that the Saturday panel on China organized by the China Economic Forum was sponsored by the steel company Alcoa. In fact, Alcoa produces aluminum. MONDAY, MARCH 4
The article “Law School faces falling apps” mistakenly stated that Shailin Thomas ’13 said he thinks decreasing application figures increase competition in admissions, because applicants with generally lower qualifications and levels of interest are the ones not applying. In fact, Thomas said he thinks the decrease in applications may not be proportional to a decrease in the competitiveness of admission, because applicants with generally lower levels of interest may be the ones not applying.
Aldermen discuss public finance
DIANA LI/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
The Democracy Fund, a New Haven public campaign finance program, is seeking increased funding for the upcoming mayoral elections. BY DIANA LI STAFF REPORTER Nearing a fall mayoral election in which at least two candidates plan to use public financing, the Democracy Fund requested additional money from the city in a Monday night Board of Aldermen meeting. Both leading candidates, Ward 10 Alderman Justin Elicker FES ’10 SOM ’10 and Rep. Gary Holder-Winfield, have promised to use the public financing program, managed by the Democracy Fund, to run their campaigns. On Monday, Ken Krayeske, the Democracy Fund administrator, explained the program to the Board of Alderman and requested city funding to boost its current $270,000 balance, as he believes this November’s mayoral race will see heavy use of the Democracy Fund’s resources. “I assume that with an open seat, we’re going to see more candidates,” Krayeske said. “My hope is that this year, the Democracy Fund really demonstrates not just to the city of New Haven but to the rest of the state of Connecticut how effective campaign municipal reform can be in highlighting the issues that are important to people.” According to the ordinance of the Democracy Fund, after a candidate collects 200 donations from registered New Haven voters of under $370 per person, the Fund will match the first $25 of each donation 2-to-1, which means a $10 donation becomes $30 and a $100 donation becomes $150 (since the Fund will match the first $25 twice, adding $50 in this case). Candidates can collect up to $125,000 from matching funds. On top of the matching funds, candidates facing an opponent who has raised at least $5,500 will also receive a $19,000 grant once they have reached the requisite number of donations to qualify for public financing. Krayeske explained that New Haven offers the only public campaign financing system that is a combination of matching funds and grants, as the 15 other cities in the United States that have public campaign financing for municipal elections use either grants or matching funds exclusively. The Democracy Fund’s founding rules call for seven board members, but currently only four
seats are occupied. After City Hall spokeswoman Anna Mariotti left the board to serve in her current position, the board was down to three members. Attorney John DiManno joined the group in February to bring its membership to four. The four members — board secretary Tiana Ocasio, DiManno, Tyrone McClain and Patricia Kane — were present at Monday’s meeting. To reach quorum, each member must be present at meetings. “It’s difficult for us to get a quorum with only four members, because all four of those board members are very busy: two are attorneys, someone who works for the mayor of Bridgeport and someone who’s really active in unions and state politics,” Krayeske said. Ward 9 Alderman Jessica Holmes asked why the Democracy Fund had never hired an investigator to make sure the funds were being used appropriately. Ocasio explained that the Fund’s board had never voted for or found enough evidence to merit hiring an investigator. Ward 22 Alderman Jeanette Morrison also expressed concern that candidates can simply opt out of the public finance system and spend their own money if they have more than what the Fund can offer. “Say [Alderman] Brenda [Foskey-Cyrus] ran and she participated in the Democracy Fund and she got that $19,000, but I have $1 million personally to just spend. She’s not going to have a chance in this race,” Morrison said. “It really does become survival of the fittest.” However, Krayeske responded by explaining that although participating in the Fund is completely voluntary, he felt that some people saw Mayor John DeStefano Jr.’s decision to opt out of the Fund in the 2011 election as a “political liability.” Two years ago, when Jeffrey Kerekes ran against DeStefano, Kerekes raised $43,000 through the public financing system. DeStefano, who opted out of the system but helped create the program originally, raised roughly $700,000. The Board of Aldermen unanimously passed the ordinance establishing the Democracy Fund in June 2006, which was later signed by DeStefano. Contact DIANA LI at diana.li@yale.edu .
Three arrested after Toad’s brawl BY ISAAC STANLEY-BECKER STAFF REPORTER Three men were arrested and charged for their participation in a brawl that erupted outside of Toad’s Place early Sunday morning, a New Haven Police Department official confirmed Monday. Ronald Pfeiffer, Ryan WatkinsWiseman and Ransom Maduka were all apprehended following violence that escalated outside the dance club shortly after midnight, NHPD Lt. Jeff Hoffman said. He added that the additional arrest of an unidentified woman involved in a fight within Toad’s is still possible. Four eyewitnesses said Sunday that the skirmish on the sidewalk between Toad’s and Yorkside Pizza led to a shirtless man they identified as a Quinnipiac University student punching in the window of the restaurant. NHPD Assistant Chief Denise Blanchard confirmed that the window shattered at approximately 12:35 a.m., at which time the fire marshal at Toad’s stopped letting people into the club, according Toad’s Place owner Bryan Phelps. Though Hoffman said none of the three men who were arrested and now await court appearances has been identified as the man responsible for shattering the window, George Koutroumanis, a Yorkside employee, said the restaurant is in possession of a case number for the assailant and might press charges. Pfeiffer, an 18-year-old student at Quinnipiac University, was charged with assault in the third degree, breach of peace in the second degree and interfering with police. According to the report of arresting officer Michael Fumiatti, Pfeiffer was involved in a skirmish inside Toad’s when he was asked to leave the establishment. He proceeded to assault a Toad’s bouncer — who is a complainant in the case — and resist arrest by Fumiatti. He is reported to have “clenched his fists” and “fought against apprehension,” said Hoffman. A 21-year-old from Milford, Conn., Watkins-Wiseman was charged with interfering with police and disorderly conduct. His status as a student is unconfirmed, Hoffman said. According to the report of arresting officer Leonard Soto, Watkins-Wiseman was in a large group yelling profanities and obstructing traffic on York Street when police officers approached to clear the scene. Watkins-Wisemen is reported to have “pushed Soto’s face with his hand,” Hoffman said. The third man charged is Ransom Maduka, a 21-year-old from Florence, Conn. He awaits charges of disorderly conduct and interfering with police after pushing and shouting expletives at NHPD officer Michael Pepe. Hoffman said the report notes
PATRICK CASEY/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
A Quinnipiac student shattered Yorkside Pizza’s window in a brawl outside Toad’s Place early Sunday morning. that Maduka — whose status as student is listed as “unmentioned” — was “very intoxicated.” Though none of the three men arrested were pepper sprayed, Hoffman said pepper spray was used by NHPD officers on the scene. Despite one eyewitness account to the contrary, Hoffman said he was not aware of any Taser use.
There’s no way of totally stopping [violence outside of Toad’s]. We’re not God. It just happens. BRYAN PHELPS Owner, Toad’s Place Pfeiffer, Watkins-Wiseman and Maduka were all released that same Sunday morning “either on bond or a promise to appear in court,” Hoffman said. They will be asked to appear within 10 days of the arrest, Hoffman added, and will face sentences that might include community service, a
fine, jail time or a combination of the three. The three police reports do not mention that anyone was arrested for breaking the Yorkside window, Hoffman said, though he guessed it was one of the three men arrested. “It was probably one of these guys,” he said. “But there may not have been witnesses because it’s not in the reports.” Koutroumanis, who was working at Yorkside when the window was punched in, said he had been told the police had caught the man responsible for shattering the window. He said the restaurant is waiting to hear from the Police Department about possible restitution. “There might be an agreement where he would just pay for the damages,” he added. “But we might still press charges.” In addition to the three men arrested Sunday morning, Hoffman said further arrests are pending. Because additional reports have yet to be filed, the parties involved remain unidentified. Hoffman said a woman came
to the Police Department Sunday to report an altercation within Toad’s earlier Saturday evening. “There was a fight inside the club earlier in the night that involved two females,” he said. “One came to the front desk of the Police Department. It’s likely that this will result in the arrest of the other party.” Phelps, who was at the club Saturday night, said he knew few details about the fight and subsequent arrests. He said he did not know the identity of those involved in the fight, though he said he thought they were “kids from one of the area schools.” Phelps said he hires 25 security guards and about three police officers to guard the club each night. Beyond that security, he said there is little he can do to prevent violence from breaking out. “There’s no way of totally stopping it,” he said. “We’re not God. It just happens.” Toad’s Place opened in 1976. Contact ISAAC STANLEY-BECKER at isaac.stanley-becker@yale.edu .
CT looks to tighten Medicare eligibility BY MICHELLE HACKMAN STAFF REPORTER The federal government rejected Connecticut’s proposal to tighten its standards for Medicaid eligibility Friday. The proposal, which Gov. Dannel Malloy’s administration first put forward in August, was designed to save the state $50 million in Medicaid expenditures, according to Gian-Carl Casa, undersecretary for legislative affairs at the state Office of Policy and Management. Under current Medicaid laws, the federal government has the authority to determine recipient criteria, as it subsidizes roughly 50 percent of the state’s Medicaid costs. Had the federal government approved Malloy’s plan, over 13,000 lowincome adults in the state would no longer qualify for benefits. “The [proposal] would eliminate coverage for as many as 13,381 very low-income individuals for an approximate oneyear period, which is not consistent with the general statutory objective to extend coverage to low-income populations,” Marilyn Tavenner, the acting administrator of the federal government’s Medicaid system, said in a letter announcing the decision last week to Connecticut Department of Social Services Commissioner Roderick Bremby. Current Medicaid standards
in Connecticut require that lowincome adults make less than about $6,000 per year to qualify for benefits. The governor’s proposal would have imposed an additional cap, limiting an applicant’s total assets to under $10,000. The Malloy administration also wanted to disqualify adults between the ages of 19 and 26 from benefits if they were claimed on a parent’s tax return, maintaining that these young adults could either opt into a parent’s plan or receive health care from a university.
The [proposal] would eliminate coverage for as many as 13,381 very lowincome individuals for an approximate one-year period. MARILYN TAVENNER Acting administrator, Medicaid Critics of the governor’s plan were especially opposed to the latter part of the proposal, as the population it would eliminate from the Medicaid program is the exact demographic that the Medicaid expansion under the Afford-
able Care Act will cover fully starting in 2014. Jane McNichol, executive director of the Legal Assistance Resource Center, said that it is widely expected Connecticut will accept this Medicaid expansion with a Democratic governor at its helm. McNichol added that Malloy’s plan, if it passed, would have harmed Connecticut residents waiting to be approved for benefits, as the Department of Social Services would be required to check all of its approximately 75,000 existing recipients to ensure they did not fall outside of the new, tighter restrictions. “It seems like a pretty onerous burden to put on an already overburdened department,” McNichol said. “The department already has a lot of problems keeping up with what it has to do.” Spokesmen for the Department of Social Services could not be reached for comment. Still, without the $50 million in savings from Medicaid expenditures, the state is projected to face a $163.7 million deficit this year. Casa said that Malloy never factored Medicaid savings into the 2013–’14 biennial budget he released last month. Fred Carstensen, the head of the Connecticut Center for Economic Analysis at UConn, said that tightening Medicaid eligibility standards would have
been worth the savings given the state’s current fiscal situation. “This is a fairly small part of this much bigger issue of, how is the state going to address this huge problem it has?” Carstensen said. “The budget is in a very, very serious deficit.” Despite the federal government’s rejection of this proposal, Malloy’s administration is moving ahead with a second plan to limit Medicaid eligibility — one over which the federal government does not have oversight. Malloy is proposing to lower the Medicaid income threshold for low-income families from 185 percent of the poverty line to under 133 percent. That policy would eliminate 40,000 residents from Medicaid rolls, about three times as many people who would have been impacted by the original plan. Starting in January 2014, these families would be required to buy health insurance from the state’s health care exchange system, a change which would cost a threeperson family an additional $750 to $2,000 per year, McNichol said. If this second proposal goes through, the state will save approximately $66 million in the two-year budget period starting on July 1. Contact MICHELLE HACKMAN at michelle.hackman@yale.edu .
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YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, MARCH 5, 2013 · yaledailynews.com
FROM THE FRONT
“My first job was as an assistant in the local library. Self-fulfilling prophecy?” JODI PICOULT BEST-SELLING AMERICAN AUTHOR
Special assistants key to Levin’s leadership LEVIN ASSISTANTS FROM PAGE 1 and staffing the Committees on Yale College Education and Faculty of Arts and Sciences Tenure and Appointments Policy. Levin called Laurans a “fixture” on campus. “Everybody knows Penny,” he added. “She is herself a Yale tradition.” Yale’s chief communications officer, a position that Stauderman currently holds, has served as a special assistant to Levin since he appointed director of the Office of Public Affairs Gary Fryer in the first year of his presidency. Stauderman said her role includes vetting the venues at which Levin speaks and advising him on especially public issues for the University. She worked intensively with Levin in the days leading up to the announcements of his resignation and of Salovey as his successor, adding that she has reviewed his speeches and drafts of emails as well. Wittenstein is the newest special assistant, having taken on the role after receiving a J.D. from Yale Law last spring. Levin said Wittenstein, who worked in the State Department after graduating from Yale College and before enrolling in Yale Law School, helps Levin prepare for speeches or panels requiring research, as he is very knowledgeable about international affairs. Wittenstein was also the principal assistant to Levin in editing a book of Levin’s speeches over the last 10 years, which the Yale Press is publishing in April. Wittenstein said he helps recruit high-profile speakers and people to teach in the area of international affairs, as well as works on other public affairs issues — always something
“new and fun,” he added. Wittenstein said he does not want to speculate about his future as a special assistant to the president. He said he met Levin when he staffed President Barack Obama’s Iraq Intelligence Commission, on which Levin served, adding that he contacted Levin again in 2009 when he enrolled in the Law School. Wittenstein served as an assistant to Levin and Vice President Linda Lorimer almost full time during his last year of law school.
Everybody knows Penny [Laurans]. She is herself a Yale tradition. RICHARD LEVIN President, Yale University Laurans said in a Feb. 28 email that she is still busy with her work as special assistant this year during the presidential transition, and that it is “too early to know exactly how things will sort out for the future.” Stauderman said she expects her role as special assistant to continue, though she added that Salovey will ultimately pick his own staff. She has worked closely with Salovey since he served as provost, and Levin said Stauderman is the only special assistant who has helped Salovey with planning and preparation for his leadership. In addition to his special assistants, Levin has a staff of administrative assistants who work within Woodbridge Hall. Contact JULIA ZORTHIAN at julia.zorthian@yale.edu .
GRAPHIC LEVIN’S SPECIAL ASSISTANTS, IN HIS OWN WORDS [Wittenstein] helped prepare me on topics when I need research, when I have to give talks or participate on panels or discussion sessions either inside or outside the University. TED WITTENSTEIN EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE JOHNSON CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF AMERICAN DIPLOMACY AND SPECIAL ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT
[Laurans will] do some drafting for me for speeches, sometimes for other kinds of communications, letters. PENELOPE LAURANS MASTER OF JONATHAN EDWARDS COLLEGE AND SPECIAL ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT
YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, MARCH 5, 2013 · yaledailynews.com
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NEWS
“If we can’t understand the Afghan family, we can’t understand Afghanistan.” ASNE SEIERSTAD NORWEGIAN FREELANCE JOURNALIST AND WRITER, BEST KNOWN FOR HER ACCOUNTS OF EVERYDAY LIFE IN WAR ZONES
Diplomat talks Afghan politics BY JOSH MANDELL CONTRIBUTING REPORTER Marc Grossman, the U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan from 2011 to 2012, visited campus Monday to give a lecture that centered on the diplomatic progress that was made in his time as a representative. Grossman, who coordinated the American diplomatic response to 9/11 while serving as the undersecretary of state for political affairs from 2001 to 2005 and will teach a course at Yale in fall 2013, spoke before a crowd of roughly 60 at the Yale Law School. During the talk, Grossman said the United States’ main role in Afghanistan was to improve human rights and political freedom while empowering the members of the country’s government to chart their own course. “It’s not for us to decide what the future of Afghanistan will be,” he said. “Our job was to open the door for Afghans to talk about what their future will be.” When he began his tenure as a special representative, Grossman said, he immediately reached out to Afghanistan’s neighboring countries because he did not think Afghanistan could be “secure, stable and prosperous” without a surrounding region with those qualities. He said he took part in a November 2011 conference with leaders from Middle Eastern and Asian countries at which an agreement was signed affirming the nations’ support for eliminating terrorism in Afghanistan. The United States showed it had no plans to abandon Afghanistan through a NATO meeting in Chicago and an international conference in Tokyo, leading to pledges from the United States and other world powers that allotted over $20 billion to aid Afghan security forces, he added. Grossman also discussed efforts to improve Afghanistan from within the country. He said he envisions the development of a “new Silk Road” of commerce in Asia, with Afghanistan and Pakistan at the center. “A better economy means more opportunities for women, more opportunities for entrepreneurs and a better relationship with Pakistan,” he said. During his tenure, he said, he and other diplomats tried to begin a dialogue with the Taliban, the Islamic
Center for LGBTQ youth to open BY CYNTHIA HUA STAFF REPORTER
JENNIFER CHEUNG/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
Former U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan Marc Grossman, left, considered American diplomatic strategy in the region in a Monday talk. fundamentalist movement that was overthrown in the United States invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. Grossman said the prospects of communicating with the Taliban were uncertain, but he was able to initiate some conversation. If the Taliban did return to power, Grossman added, the group would face a population that would not want to give up the freedoms it had gained since 2001. Now that Afghanistan has millions more children in schools and much greater access to technology since the Taliban controlled the government, the group cannot lead in the same manner that it did previously. While Grossman said he is pleased with the progress made in Afghanistan during his two years as a representative, he emphasized that the future of the nation remains uncertain. In his January State of the Union address, President Barack Obama announced the withdrawal of 34,000 troops from the country by the beginning of 2014 — the same year that Afghani president Hamid Karzai will step down.
Grossman said Obama was wise not to make any further troop withdrawal promises, as he believes a strong U.S. presence there is still important. Grossman said he thinks the work of diplomats is never over. “It is like a relay race,” he said. “You are given the baton and you do your part as fast as you can and as well as you can, and then you hand it off to the next person.” Erik Heinonen GRD ’13 said he found Grossman’s talk to be informative because it provided audience members with a “quick and thorough recap of what’s gone on from a diplomacy standpoint in a critical period.” Reema Shah LAW ’15, who helped organize the lecture, said she appreciated that Grossman made confusing aspects of diplomacy in Afghanistan clear while also explaining the next steps for diplomatic efforts. Grossman worked in the State Department for over 35 years. Contact JOSH MANDELL at joshua.mandell@yale.edu .
The People’s Arts Collective of New Haven — a gallery and studio space located on College Street — will soon double as a weekly social space for the city’s LGBTQ youth. Starting March 25, the PAC will be open to local high school and college students for a new program called “LGBTQ Kickback Space,” which includes social activities, a mentorship program and workshops on queer-related issues from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. every Monday. The program is staffed by a group of volunteer organizers that currently includes around 10 Yale undergraduates, graduate students and New Haven residents, and organizers said they expect 20 to 40 students to attend the first meeting. The space will fill a gap in New Haven’s resources for LGBTQ youth because existing programs are not regular or widely used, said organizer Kenneth Reveiz ’12, who works at PAC and teaches at the New Haven Cooperative Arts and Humanities High School. “A lot of the programming and reasons for the space [come from my] conversations with youth,” Reveiz said. “In my work at the [Co-op High School], there are pretty amazing instances where students are choked by their families and … there’s a real opportunity for building community and supporting individuals.” Gay-Straight Alliance chapters at high schools around the city are not highly active, Reveiz said, and the New Haven Pride Center is located in West Haven, so there is no visible queer space in the city. But PAC is located across the street from Co-op High School and along bus routes from other city high schools, making it convenient for students, he added. Organizers plan to host speakers or lead workshops in the first hour and offer social activities in the second, said organizer Baldwin Giang ’14. Volunteers have the freedom to lead their own workshops, he said, and workshop topics that have been proposed include a mental health resources panel, a queer reading group and presentations on applying to college as an LGBTQ student. “Even though we’re going to have workshops led by Yale and community
volunteers, however the goal really is to empower new high school students,” Giang said. “We want the effort to be student-driven.” High school students will be involved in designing the space’s website, producing LGBTQ and sexual health resource material and creating pride paraphernalia such as stickers, buttons and posters to decorate their schools and communities, Reveiz said. Learning Web design and creating publicity materials will teach high school students the necessary skills to lead LGBTQ communities outside of the Kickback Space, he said. Meanwhile, he added, posting pride paraphernalia around New Haven high schools will make a “powerful difference” in ensuring schools are accepting atmospheres for the city’s LGBTQ youth, he added.
The goal really is to empower new high school students. We want the effort to be student-driven. BALDWIN GIANG ’14 Organizer, LGBTQ Kickback Space One junior at Co-op High School, who requested anonymity because she has not yet come out to her family, said no similar spaces are as accessible and well-known to high school students. “Personally, there was a time in my life that I thought I was never going to be able to accomplish much because I felt like something was wrong with me,” she said. “So it means a lot to have a place where we can create our own space and feel like we’re accomplishing something.” The project will cost upwards of $1,500 this year, mainly due to costs of offering printing and art resources, as well as plans to build up a resource library of LBGTQ-related books, music and films, Reveiz said. He added that PAC is looking into several sources of funding, including Yale’s Office of LGBTQ Resources. The People’s Arts Collective was founded in August 2012. Contact CYNTHIA HUA at cynthia.hua@yale.edu .
Business leader optimistic about South Africa’s future BY JIWON LEE CONTRIBUTING REPORTER South Africa is a nation with a history of which to be proud and the potential for more progress, said former anti-apartheid activist Colin Coleman in a Monday afternoon talk. Coleman, who is now head of the sub-Saharan Africa division of Goldman Sachs, addressed South Africa’s political and economic transformations in the post-apartheid era since 1994 to an audience of roughly 50 students and community members. Having served as the executive director of the Consultative Business Movement — an organization that incorporated businesses in helping to end apartheid — Coleman said the successful democratization of South Africa resulted from the collaborative effort of members
of civil society and strong political leaders. “Today we have an unfinished story — a story that on the one hand, we can be proud [of], and yet today we still face difficulties just of a different type,” Coleman said. Coleman said the end of apartheid, which he described as a brutal period with thousands of lives in detention and torture, was possible through churches, businesses, communities and other organizations working together at the right time. Strong leaders like Nelson Mandela also took critical roles in giving the nation victory, he said. Since the historical change in its politics in 1994, South Africa has achieved significant progress in its economy, Coleman said, citing a nearly doubled GDP growth rate between 1993 and 2007 and the one
million South Africans added each year to the higher income group in the Living Standards Measure. He added that he expects South Africa to be one of the leading economies in the African continent in the coming years. “South African companies are becoming the champions of growth of the African continent,” he said. “[They are] building infrastructure for Africa’s and South Africa’s consumer revolution.” Coleman also noted the new challenges South Africa faces that include problems with unemployment, political corruption, the education system and the health sector. Recently, China has shown significant interest in Africa as a new opportunity for investment, Coleman said, adding that his visit to China in 2006 helped facili-
tate future business transactions between Africa and China. Audience members interviewed said they appreciated that Coleman’s analysis of the political and economic situation in South Africa came from his personal experience. Luyi Xu ’13 said she enjoyed the talk and was surprised by the speaker’s optimistic viewpoint on China’s influence on South Africa. Ayenat Mersie, who currently works for a start-up in Nairobi, said she thinks Coleman’s experience as a business leader adds a new perspective to “the question of who is representing Africa.” Coleman was nominated as one of the World Economic Forum’s Global Leaders for Tomorrow in 1996. Contact JIWON LEE at jiwon.lee@yale.edu .
JACOB GEIGER/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
Colin Coleman, a former anti-apartheid activist, discussed China’s increasing interest in investing in Africa.
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YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, MARCH 5, 2013 · yaledailynews.com
FROM THE FRONT
“Literature and butterflies are the two sweetest passions known to man.” VLADIMIR NABOKOV RUSSIAN-AMERICAN AUTHOR OF “LOLITA” AND “PALE FIRE”
Nine writers awarded $1.35 million LITERARY PRIZE FROM PAGE 1 felt exhibited career potential, Kelleher said. This year’s prizes went to Tom McCarthy, James Salter and Zoë Wicomb for fiction; Adina Hoffman, Jonny Steinberg and Jeremy Scahill for nonfiction; and Naomi Wallace, Stephen Adly Guirgis and Tarell Alvin McCraney for drama. The prize winners represent many different career stages and hail from a variety of places, including South Africa, Jerusalem and Kentucky. The only requirements were that each nominee show “outstanding literary achievement” and have at least one published book or play, Kelleher said. There were no applications, and nominees were not noti-
fied that they were under consideration for the prize, Kelleher said, so the winners were “utterly shocked” when they heard the news last week. Hoffman, a 2009 Franke Fellow at the Whitney Humanities Center, told the News she found out she had won last Thursday when Kelleher contacted her. “I got a phone call from [Kelleher], who asked if I was sitting down, and I was,” she said. “I had absolutely no idea this was coming.” Hoffman, a nonfiction writer who splits her time between Jerusalem and New Haven, is the author of several books and the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship. She said she still feels dumbfounded that she was chosen for a Windham-Camp-
bell prize, and that she is especially honored that the prizes are given in connection with the Beinecke Library, which she said is the “holy of holies of archival research” — an activity strongly connected to her work.
It’s the kind of prize that can change lives, and that’s a source of great pride [for Yale]. PETER SALOVEY President-elect, Yale University Salovey told the News that the public recognition generated by
these prizes will help further the winners’ careers and added that the financial support from the awards may make it possible for writers to pursue their next projects. “It’s the kind of prize that can change lives, and that’s a source of great pride [for Yale],” he said. Windham and his longtime partner and fellow writer Sandy Campbell had talked about establishing a prize to help writers before Campbell’s death in 1988, Kelleher said, and Windham chose to entrust Yale with the task of administering the prizes. Windham began donating his writings to the Beinecke Library in 1989, and his papers include extensive correspondences with literary icons such as Truman Capote and Tennes-
see Williams. Kelleher said the estate managers knew the bequest would “make a splash” and wanted to make sure that the money was going to a renowned institution with the resources to administer a prize of its size. Kelleher added that Yale was interested in administering the prize because its prestige will reflect back on the University, and because the presence of the prize winners at the literary festival next fall will make the prize “part of campus life and student life.” The Windham-Campbell prizes, along with other large literary prizes such as the Bollingen Prize and the Yale Series of Younger Poets, are administered by the University but are different from most Yale prizes
because they are not restricted to undergraduate or graduate students or even to members of the Yale community. Kelleher said the selection process began last summer, when a steering committee composed of Yale faculty and administrators selected a group of 29 nominators. A prize jury appointed by University President Richard Levin then selected five finalists for each category in December, and a selection committee met last week to choose the winners, Kelleher said. The literary festival in September will run from Sept. 10–13. Contact SOPHIE GOULD at sophie.gould@yale.edu .
L I T E RA RY P R I Z E R E C I P I E N T S FICTION
NONFICTION
ZOË WICOMB is a South African author living in Scotland whose fiction works include “You Can’t Get Lost in Cape Town,” “David’s Story,” “Playing in the Light” and “The One That Got
TOM MCCARTHY is the author of books including “Remainder,” “Men in Space” and “C,” which was a finalist for the 2010 Booker Prize. His works have been translated into more than 20 languages.
JAMES SALTER attended West Point during World War II, served in the Korean War in 1952 and has written about human longings and ambitions since the 1950s. His best-known novels include “The Hunters,” “Light Years,” “A Sport and a Pastime” and “Solo Faces,” and his stories have appeared in publications such as The New Yorker and The Paris Review.
JONNY STEINBERG is a South African writer who has penned several nonfiction books about contemporary life in southern Africa, including “Midlands” and “The Number,” both of which won South Africa’s premier nonfiction award, the Sunday Times’ Alon Paton Award. He is currently a lecturer in African studies at Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes scholar and earned a doctorate in political theory.
ADINA HOFFMAN was a 2009 Franke Fellow at Yale’s Whitney Humanities Center and a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship. She divides her time between Jerusalem and New Haven and has written several nonfiction books, including “House of Windows: Portraits from a Jerusalem Neighborhood.”
Politicians unite behind mental health RESILIENCE FROM PAGE 1 thing — both financially and in terms of preventing suffering — by moving our investment to the front end, intervening and preventing the lifelong effects of ACEs on our young people,” DeStefano said. Some children in New Haven are exposed to various traumatic events including physical abuse, parental incarceration and witnessing violence at home, DeLauro said. In a recent pilot program for ACE screenings at Sound Schools, 90 percent of kindergartners reported experiencing ACE events, but only 23 percent were currently displaying symptoms. City officials speculate that if untreated, the residual trauma from these ACE events will likely become problematic later in life. Harp added that 33 percent of all the state’s attorney’s cases involve instances of domestic violence, which is another source of childhood trauma. The New Haven public school system has already started working to tackle mental distress issues. Boost! has partnered with the Foundation for The Arts and Trauma to provide preventative mental health services in certain New Haven schools. The program runs short play sessions for elementary school students, and for high school students, the program offers both counseling services and a class teaching students to relate social and historical issues to their personal experiences. Boost!, a program at NHPS, is expected to expand to five more schools next year, and the Community Resilience Initiative will offer more Boost!-like services for New Haven students.
DRAMA
Many of the politicians present at Metropolitan Business Academy mentioned that this initiative will aid the city in its School Change Initiative goals.
As a city, we propose doing the smart thing. JOHN DESTEFANO JR. Mayor, New Haven “This is another example of the kind of passionate commitment to [education] and to our schoolchildren,” DeLauro said. “For our kids to thrive, we have to support healthy development — that’s what this initiative is all about.” In addition to strengthening support services for children, the Community Resilience Initiative will incorporate local feedback into its effort to improve mental health resources in the Elm City. Along with a media campaign to increase public awareness of deficiencies in local mental health services, the initiative will expand the Child Development-Community Policing Program, an alliance between the city of New Haven, the New Haven Police Department and the Yale Child Study Center, to improve community policing efforts. At Metropolitan Business Academy, 42 percent of students participating in a Boost! activity improved their school attendance rate. Contact MONICA DISARE at monica.disare@yale.edu .
JEREMY SCAHILL is national security correspondent for The Nation magazine and author of “Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army.” He has reported from many countries including Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Yemen and the former Yugoslavia. He wrote and produced the film “Dirty Wars,” which premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.
TA R E L L A LV I N MCCRANEY is a gradu-
ate of the Yale Drama School and author of the trilogy, The Brother/Sister Plays: “The Brothers Size,” “In The Red and Brown Water,” and “Marcus; Or The Secret Sweet.” His play “Head of Passes” will premiere in April 2013 at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company, where he is an ensemble member.
STEPHEN ADLY GUIRGIS
is the author of plays including “The Motherfucker with the Hat,” “Jesus Hopped the ‘A’ Train” and “Den of Thieves.” His plays have been performed on five continents.
NAOMI WALLACE is a playwright from Kentucky who has authored plays such as “One Flea Spare,” “In the Heart of America” and “Slaughter City.” She is the only American playwright other than Tennessee Williams whose work has been incorporated into the permanent repertoire of the French National Theater, the Comedie-Francaise.
Grant reductions loom large SEQUESTER FROM PAGE 1 on Yale. Though the cuts will also affect federal scholarships and grants to students, Salovey said Yale will meet students’ full financial needs. “I think the most worrisome aspect of the sequester for Yale is NIH and NSF and other federal agency research funding,” Salovey said, adding that these agencies are still deciding how the sequester will affect the distribution of research funding. “While I don’t expect that students will feel the effects of sequestration, the University will.” The sequester took effect after Congress failed to reduce the federal deficit through alternative legislation before the deadline they set as part of the debt ceiling compromise in 2011. Sequestration had been intended as a mechanism for incentivizing lawmakers to reduce the deficit, but the prospect of looming cuts did not succeed in breaking the partisan gridlock. The across-the-board reductions mandated by the sequester include a 7.9 percent reduction to the defense budget, which will cut $42.7 billion, and a 5.3 percent reduction to domestic programs, which will cut $28.7 billion. Salovey said Yale has made commitments to “fund the full need” of tuition for admitted applicants. Any cuts to federal student aid programs will shift the burden onto Yale — which must already grapple with a $40 million projected budget deficit for the 2013–’14 academic year — to provide the missing funds, he said. Federal grants and scholarships awarded to Yale students amounted to $4,690,856 this year, and the government also provided $1,558,448 to
Yale students in the form of workstudy support. Pell Grants, which supported 14 percent of the incoming Yale class in fall 2011, are exempt from the first year of sequestration. The White House has estimated that the sequester will force the NIH to fund hundreds fewer research grants and the NSF to issue almost 1,000 fewer grants nationally.
While I don’t expect that students will feel the effects of sequestration, the University will. PETER SALOVEY President-elect, Yale University Almost 25 percent of Yale’s operating revenue during the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2012, came from grants and contracts, and 81 percent of that funding came from the federal government, according to an October 2012 University financial report. The Department of Health and Human Services, which includes the NIH, provided $419 million in revenue to Yale in fiscal year 2012. Salovey said government agencies will have to decide whether to cut the number of grants or the budgets of all the grant recipients, both of which could affect future grant proposals as well as grants in the process of being fulfilled over a number of years. “Either of those is going to have a negative impact on research universities, including Yale,” Salovey said. “We’re now developing estimates of
what that impact is.” The Yale School of Medicine, which accounted for 80 percent of the University’s grant and contract income in fiscal year 2012, coauthored a Feb. 11 letter to Capitol Hill along with more than 270 other organizations, protesting the impending budget cuts. School of Medicine Dean Robert Alpern said the NIH currently provides about $350 million in grants and funding to the School of Medicine, and the letter described the proposed cuts to NIH funding as “immediate and devastating.” Alpern added he is “very worried” about the effects of the cuts, especially since NIH budgeting has not kept up with inflation in recent years, effectively decreasing the funding to Yale research about 20 percent since about 2003. “The people I feel most concerned about are the young faculty and the faculty in general who rely upon these grants to develop their careers and do their research,” Alpern said. Salovey said Yale will not be alone as it grapples with these cuts, but the reductions will pose challenges for future Yale STEM research. “We’re looking at a situation in which research grant money is very hard to obtain in the first place, and squeezing it further only makes a career in the sciences that much more difficult,” Salovey said. The University’s endowment is valued at $19.3 billion as of June 30, 2012. Contact SOPHIE GOULD at sophie.gould@yale.edu. Contact JULIA ZORTHIAN at julia.zorthian@yale.edu .
YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, MARCH 5, 2013 · yaledailynews.com
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BULLETIN BOARD
TODAY’S FORECAST
TOMORROW
Mostly sunny, with a high near 44. North wind 6 to 8 mph Low of 31.
High of 42, low of 33.
THAT MONKEY TUNE BY MICHAEL KANDALAFT
ON CAMPUS TUESDAY, MARCH 5 5:00 PM “Christian Doctrine and the Nazi Death Camps: The Ambiguities of Influence” The talk will be given by Marc Saperstein, a visiting professor at the Yale Judaic Studies Program and professor of Jewish history at George Washington University. Sponsored by the Yale Program for the Study of Antisemitism. Free and open to the general public. Whitney Humanities Center (53 Wall St.), Room 208. 5:00 PM “How the Mind Models the World: New Ideas from fMRI Findings” Andrew Gerber of Columbia University explains it all. This lecture about the nature of human nature uses findings from fMRI studies to interrogate and explicate the relationship between Freud and the sciences in the 21st century. Whitney Humanities Center (53 Wall St.), Auditorium.
ZERO LIKE ME BY REUXBEN BARRIENTES
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 6 7:30 PM Belly Dancing Lecture and Workshop This is a free, relaxed, beginner-level workshop that will introduce you to the veritable cultural mosaic that is the history of belly dance in the Middle East and United States. The workshop will teach some basic belly dance moves and a short choreography. International Center (421 Temple St.).
THURSDAY, MARCH 7 2:00 PM “Of Human Bondage: The History of Slavery in California” Jean Pfaelzer, current Beinecke visiting fellow, will give a talk focusing on three eras of slavery in California: the capture of Aleutian otter hunters by Russian fur traders, AfricanAmericans transported to the gold fields, and girls kidnapped from the southern coast of China and sold in dens in San Francisco. Open to the general public. Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library (121 Wall St.), Room 39.
SCIENCE HILL BY SPENCER KATZ
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CLASSIFIEDS
CROSSWORD ACROSS 1 Politicos Reagan and Paul 5 Do some healing 9 Mallorcan seaport 14 Lit sign in a dark theater 15 Operatic song 16 Regions 17 Playground frolicker 18 Singer called the “Godmother of Punk” 20 Not getting any younger 22 Mozart’s “Così fan __” 23 Misdemeanor 26 Reheat leftovers, in a way 30 “Bambi” doe 31 Pep rally yell 32 Grabbed at will 34 Triangular Indian pastry 37 Bufferin targets 38 Set in opposition to 41 Land, in Le Havre 42 Puts into office 43 Enthusiastic reply to “Who wants ice cream?” 45 Classical lead-in 46 Involuntary sign of nerves 49 Color for a panther? 50 One given to bad language 54 Movie reviewer Roger 56 China’s Zhou __ 57 Finishing the 18th, say 62 Caplet or gelcap 63 Dentist’s insertion 64 Where the clergy sit, in many churches 65 Mayberry boy 66 It’s found in veins 67 Tiny time div. 68 MADD ads, e.g. DOWN 1 Put on a new cassette 2 Roughly 21% of the atmosphere
CLASSICAL MUSIC 24 Hours a Day. 98.3 FM, and on the web at WMNR.org “Pledges accepted: 1-800345-1812” Tuesday is Opera night!
COMPETE AGAINST HARVARD and other universities in a March Madness-style game for $50,000. Call Klaus Marre at 703-599-3035 or e-mail klaus@sportsbam-inc. com.
By Mel Rosen
3 “La Femme __” 4 Angioplasty implant 5 “You are here” document 6 Timeline time 7 Capone cohort Frank 8 Factual tidbit 9 Yesterday’s tense 10 Azerbaijani’s neighbors 11 Welcoming wreath 12 Welcoming floor covering 13 Bit of fire evidence 19 Adherents: Suff. 21 Danced wildly 24 Amounted (to) 25 __ Island 27 Weapons from Israel 28 Mild-mannered fictional reporter 29 L.A. Times staffers 33 Exemplification 34 Ump’s call 35 Erie Canal mule 36 Athlete’s promoter 38 Mani partner, salonwise
Monday’s Puzzle Solved
39 Laundry room tool 40 __-deucy 41 Advice at the track 44 Pop one’s cork? 46 Blooms from bulbs 47 Home to Firenze 48 __ rellenos: stuffed Mexican dish 51 Church keyboard
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52 Sporty car roofs 53 Seuss’s “Hop __” 55 Difficult situation 57 Pollutant banned by Cong. in 1979 58 www address 59 On top of everything else 60 Employ 61 Investigator, slangily
7 4 3 9 8 6 8 2 7 4 1 5 3 2 1 6 8 5 4
5 2 2 5 7 7 9 4 3 2 9 7 3 4 8 3 1
THURSDAY High of 42, low of 31.
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YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, MARCH 5, 2013 · yaledailynews.com
YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, MARCH 5, 2013 · yaledailynews.com
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SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY Urry elected president of Astronomical Society
YALE
Physics professor Megan Urry will serve as the president of the American Astronomical Society beginning in June 2014. BY EMMA GOLDBERG STAFF REPORTER Physics professor Megan Urry — an advocate for female leadership in the science community — has been elected the next president of the American Astronomical Society. Members of the AAS elected Urry to the position in early February. Though she will begin her two-year term in June 2014, she will spend the next year as president-elect preparing for her role. The first Yale professor elected to the position, Urry will succeed Columbia University astronomy professor David Helfand. Urry’s colleagues at Yale said she has been a strong advocate for increased gender diversity in the field of astronomy, a goal Urry said she intends to continue pursuing once she assumes her presidency. Urry, who learned about her nomination for the presidency last summer, said she decided to run because she knew her term as Yale Physics Department chair was ending and she felt she could handle new responsibilities. She was required to submit a candidacy statement and was then elected by the 7,500 members of the AAS through an online voting system. During her tenure as AAS president, Urry will remain at Yale and continue to teach classes. Though Urry is not the first female to serve as AAS president, she said she is excited that her peers elected a female leader. An advocate for gender equity, Urry has previously served as chair of the AAS Committee on the Status of Women, which performs outreach to encourage women to enter the field of astronomy. “She has done more for the position of women in astronomy than anyone ever has,” said Joan Schmelz, current chair of the AAS Committee on the Status of Women. “Here at the committee, we say that in terms of creating progress, we’re standing on the shoulders of giants — we’re standing on Meg’s shoulders.” Urry’s colleagues at Yale said she has also advocated for diversity within the University’s Physics Department. Physics professor Volker Werner said Urry has always emphasized the importance of female leadership at faculty meetings. “Diversity is so important for the field of science because we want to generate the best and most creative ideas,” Urry said. “It’s exciting to see how much progress there’s been, because when I first entered the field there were very few women astronomers.” During the next year while Urry serves as an incoming president, she plans to meet with professionals in the field of astronomy to formulate the agenda for her presidency. She said she will build on relationships she has forged during her active involvement with AAS as a member of its governing council and nominating committee. Her plans also include monitoring the federal budget to learn about limitations on funding for scientific research and expanding on her previous work to promote different types of diversity within her field, she added. Urry said presidential responsibilities include overseeing the AAS’s leadership council, directing educational programs and advocating for federal funds for astronomy. “Astronomy can be a more difficult field to advocate for because other sciences are more connected to people’s everyday lives,” Urry said. “But I hope to show that astronomers are exploring crucial issues, like the role humans play in the cosmos.” Urry’s election is not her first recognition from AAS this year — in January, she was honored with the George Van Biesbroeck Prize, AAS’s major annual award for service in the field of astronomy. The award recognized Urry’s scholarly research as well as her devotion to advancing female participation in scientific disciplines. The American Astronomical Society was founded in 1899. Contact EMMA GOLDBERG at emma.goldberg@yale.edu .
“I think the Earth and everything around it is connected — the sky and the planets and the stars and everything else we see as a mystery.” MARION COTILLARD ACTRESS
Eating times affect biological clocks BY HANNAH SCHWARZ STAFF REPORTER Researchers at the Yale School of Medicine have found that when and what you eat affects the synchronization of the body’s biological clocks. Biological clocks, which are found in every cell of the body, operate on a 24-hour cycle, according to a preview of the study written by Gerald Hart, biological chemistry professor at Johns Hopkins University. Synchronizing all the clocks in the body is essential for the body to function at its best. The three-year study, which was conducted on lab mice, found that eating at certain times of the day, which vary depending on one’s sleep habits, may lead to optimal body functionality via clock synchronization. The findings were published Feb. 5 in the journal Cell Metabolism. When food is consumed at the optimal times of the day, the body’s peripheral clocks, which are found in every cell outside the brain, synchronize with the body’s central clock, which is located in the brain and responds to external signals like light and temperature, said researcher Xiaoyong Yang, assistant professor of comparative medicine and of cellular and molecular physiology. Although the central clock, or “master clock,” controls the peripheral clocks, only the latter respond to the “feeding and fasting cycle,” Yang said. This cycle characterizes “fasting” as any time the stomach is empty. In the morning, your central clock responds to the light, Yang said. “But if you don’t eat, and you fast, the peripheral clocks respond
to that,” creating a dyssynchrony between the clocks, he added. Ueli Schibler, professor of molecular biology at the University of Geneva, said mice with this dissynchrony appear ill, and are not as “active or energetic” as those with synchronous cycles.
It seems pretty clear that the long-term disruption of circadian rhythms is pretty harmful. UELI SCHIBLER Professor of molecular biology, University of Geneva The study also showed that eating at the right times can help protect from disease. Past research has shown that women involved in shift work — especially rotating shift work, in which people work during the day one week and during the night the next — have an increased risk of cancer, the study’s lead researcher Min-Dian Li GRD ’15 said. Rotating shift workers are more likely to have dissynchronous body rhythms, increasing their likelihood of becoming diabetic, obese or depressed, Yang said. “It seems pretty clear that the long-term disruption of circadian rhythms is pretty harmful,” Schibler added. The researchers also found that foods one might otherwise avoid for health reasons may actually have little impact on health if eaten during very specific time intervals. “If you give an animal a ham-
Mainstream media stereotypes obesity BY DHRUV AGGARWAL STAFF REPORTER Obese people are negatively portrayed in mainstream media, a Yale researcher has found. Rebecca Puhl, director of research at Yale’s Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity, conducted a study documenting the bias against obese people featured in videos aired by mainstream media networks. Puhl determined that the media’s portrayal of obesity negatively impacts the public perception of those suffering from the disease. She also recorded 80 video clips portraying obese people in a more positive light, which media organizations could use free of charge. The paper containing Puhl’s findings was published in the February edition of the Journal of Health Communication. “The videos and pictures accompanying the news about obesity are often negative and stereotypical,” Puhl said. “I wanted to quantify this and see how common it is.” Puhl, who has previously conducted research on negative portrayals of obese people in photographs in the media, analyzed 370 news videos on the websites of major news networks. She found that obese people were portrayed negatively 65 percent of the time, and obese children were depicted in an unflatter-
burger, which is high in fat, at the right time, it might not lead to obesity,” Li said, adding that our bodies are most adept at metabolizing certain nutrients at different times of the day. Both Li and Yang said eating two meals per day may be most beneficial for the synchronization of biological clocks — this advice stands in contrast to findings from nutritional studies showing that eating in small amounts frequently can help with weight control. For those who wake up early in the morning, eating breakfast and lunch and skipping dinner is best for circadian rhythm synchronization, Yang said. Night owls should eat lunch and dinner as their two meals, he added. Paolo Sassone-Corsi, biological chemistry professor and director of the Center for Epigenetics and Metabolism at University of California, Irvine School of Medicine, said the study does not definitively state the day’s optimal eating times, as it solely focuses on glucose. He said understanding how various types of nutritional intakes affect the clock system will be an “important step forward.” Yang said the next step for the team will be to look at the effect eating proteins has on synchronization. He also said that, with more funding, the team would like to conduct the same research in humans. The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health, the American Diabetes Association and the Ellison Medical Foundation.
ing manner 77 percent of the time. These negative images affect public perceptions of obese people, causing a weight stigma, she added. “[The news videos] have a very unflattering emphasis on body parts like stomach or buttocks, or else they show them eating unhealthy food, exhibiting sedentary behavior and wearing ill-fitting clothes,” Puhl said. Rudd Center Deputy Director Marline Schwartz said in a Monday email to the News that Puhl’s research disproved the myth that stigma motivates people to lose weight. “Her work lends scientific support to the position that is important for people to feel valued and not judged when they are making healthy choices,” she said. Puhl said her future research efforts will identify ways the media could use less stigmatizing images of obesity in its coverage. The Rudd Center has established an online image gallery of such images for this purpose, she said, adding that she is optimistic the videos will be well-received since her previous research has been met enthusiastically by media outlets. The Rudd Center was founded in 2005. Contact DHRUV AGGARWAL at dhruv.aggarwal@yale.edu .
LEAKS
F R O M T H E
LAB
Mechanism controlling epigenetic factors discovered
Yale School of Medicine researchers have identified the molecules that guide epigenetic factors along the genome. Haifan Lin, director of the Yale Stem Cell Center, was the lead author in a paper detailing the precise process by which factors at varying sites on the genome are turned on and off. The paper was published Feb. 21 in the journal Developmental Cell, and was co-authored by Xiao Huang GRD ’12. Scientists have previously studied the proteins — called epigenetic factors — that regulate gene activity, but the Yale research team is the first to pinpoint the molecules that guide the factors along the genome. The guiding molecules are a specialized form of RNA called piRNA. “This is the first major mechanism discovered that controls where epigenetic factors — the gene switches — are to be placed in the genome,” said Lin in a Feb. 21 Yale News press release. The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health Pioneer Award and a grant from the Connecticut Stem Cell Research Fund.
Biology behind depression questioned Scientists may have been misunderstanding the biochemical basis of depression for all these years, a Yale study has found.
Contact HANNAH SCHWARZ at hannah.schwarz@yale.edu .
KAREN TIAN/ILLUSTRATIONS EDITOR
Astronomers find smallest known planet BY JOSH MANDELL CONTRIBUTING REPORTER A large team of astronomers — including two members of Yale’s Astronomy Department — has discovered the Milky Way’s smallest known planet after analyzing two years of data from NASA’s Kepler probe. Smaller than Mercury and barely larger than Earth’s moon, the planet closely orbits the star Kepler-37, located over 200 light-years away from Earth. The planet, currently referred to as Kepler-37b, is part of a solar system that also includes a planet 70 percent the size of Earth and another that is twice as large as Earth — both of which were also discovered by the research team. These findings were announced in a paper published in the journal Nature on Feb. 20. Thomas Barclay, a scientist at the NASA Ames Research Center, found the first evidence of the planet’s existence in data from Kepler, an orbiting spacecraft that surveys stars in a small region of space to find planets. Kepler determines the existence of planets by observing host stars and looking for transits, which occur when a planet moves in front of its host star as it orbits. The Kepler spacecraft is equipped with a photometer that can measure the tiny, regular decreases in the star’s brightness that occur during a transit. Once the NASA scientists were confident that there were planets orbiting Kepler-37, professors at universities around the world worked to characterize the size, density and composition of the star and its planets. “The only way you can measure the size of the orbiting planet is relative to the star it is going around,” said Yale astronomy professor Sarbani Basu, an author of the paper.
We now know that planets can come in any size. SARBANI BASU Professor, Astronomy Department
MOHAN YIN/CONTRIBUTING ILLUSTRATOR
An expert on star seismology, Basu used Kepler data to measure the vibrations of the star’s gases. Using this information, Basu and the seismic analysis team were able to determine the radius of Kepler-37. They found that the star is smaller and lighter than the sun — and knowing this, they could infer that the planet Kepler-37b was even smaller than Mercury. Debra Fischer, another astron-
omy professor at Yale, helped determine the chemical makeup of the star, Basu said. The discovery of Kepler-37b contributes to the rapidly changing perception of the size and number of planets in the Milky Way, she added. “We now know that planets can come in any size,” Basu said, adding that the sizes span from small rocky planets to gas giants bigger than Jupiter. Cornell astronomy professor Jonathan Lunine, who was not involved in the study, said the discovery will help scientists estimate the prevalence of Earthlike planets in the Milky Way, an important goal of the Kepler mission. “The way that you determine the statistical frequency of Earth-like planets requires looking at planets of many different sizes,” he said. “This is a really important discovery because it allows us to extend the frequency of planets below the size of the Earth. It helps us get a better handle on the numbers.” Lunine added that the seismology work done by Basu and her collaborators was a “novel” way to measure the size of the star. However, he said he remains slightly skeptical of the discovery, as some “noise” in the photometry data may have obscured results. He added that the strength of the claim is “still a little shaky, but that’s the nature of the fact that they are working at the bottom end [of the size spectrum].” Though Kepler-37b is almost certainly too hot and too small to host life on its surface, its discovery is an encouraging step in the search for an Earth-like planet in the habitable zone of its star — the “holy grail” of exoplanet research, Basu said. Steve Howell, the NASA project scientist for the Kepler mission and an author of the paper, said the Kepler probe has shown that small planets are quite common in the galaxy. “If Kepler had never found a small planet, we would think that Earth is pretty special,” he said. “That would be sad, but interesting. But we have found hundreds and hundreds of small planets in one space in the sky. What Kepler has found is that it’s pretty unlikely that the Earth is alone.” Since its 2009 launch, the Kepler spacecraft has detected 114 confirmed extrasolar planets, with over 2,000 exoplanet candidates awaiting confirmation, according to the NASA Kepler website. Contact JOSH MANDELL at joshua.mandell@yale.edu .
RUDD CENTER FOR FOOD POLICY AND OBESITY
The Rudd Center’s collection of photos and videos aims to combat negative portrayal of obesity in the media.
Nanoparticles may treat lupus BY CLINTON WANG STAFF REPORTER Lupus and other autoimmune diseases such as Type 1 diabetes may be cured with a novel method of drug delivery. In a study published March 1 in The Journal of Clinical Investigation, Yale researchers found that delivering lupus drugs directly to specific immune cells using nanoparticles can extend the lifespan of mice infected with lupus. Without nanoparticle delivery, current drugs for lupus are short-lasting and require large doses to be effective, but this mode of delivery would require lower dosages of medication, said senior author Tarek Fahmy, associate professor of biomedical engineering at the Yale School of Engineering & Applied Science “When you take the drug by itself, the drug molecules are diluted throughout the whole body, so that’s why you have to inject a lot more to get to the target cells,” Fahmy said. “You need a very high dose of the drug, but then there are a lot of side effects that complicate the disease and can make matters worse.” Though medication deactivates cells causing lupus symptoms by suppressing their response, the drugs may also be toxic to other types of cells that do not cause lupus, he added. Lead author Michael Look, a Yale postdoctoral associate in biomedical engineering, found that the nanogels — the nanoparticles used to deliver the drugs — could specifically target the cells responsible, thereby achieving the same efficacy as conventional drugs but with much lower doses. The nanogels also remain in the body longer than conventional drugs to provide long-lasting treatment, Look said. Fahmy said nanoparticles have been used to enhance drug delivery for decades, but recent improvements in nanoparticle technology and a greater understanding of autoimmune diseases have helped him pioneer its application to lupus.
“This technique is more dominant in cancer applications, where it’s used primarily to target tumor cells,” Fahmy said. “But the application to autoimmunity has been limited because of a dearth of understanding of the [molecules] that activate immunity.” The next step in the research is to compare different lupus drugs delivered by the nanogel and eventually use it in clinical trials, Fahmy said, adding that he hopes the technology will become available in the next four to five years.
The application [of nanoparticles] to autoimmunity has been limited because of a dearth of understanding. TAREK FAHMY Associate professor, Biomedical Engineering Department Look said that beyond serving as an improvement on conventional drug treatments, nanogels may also offer a permanent cure for lupus by “re-educating the immune system” to avoid attacking its own cells. For the nanogels to treat other autoimmune diseases, researchers simply need to change the nanogel’s target to the specific cells implicated in that disease — a technique Fahmy said should be “straightforward.” Fahmy said he hopes to test nanogels in Type 1 diabetes treatment with collaborators in the medical school. “The clinical partnership and basic science is critical for success of this approach,” Fahmy added. Approximately 1.5 million Americans have lupus, according to the Lupus Foundation of America. Contact CLINTON WANG at clinton.wang@yale.edu .
The research has shown that varying the levels of the chemical acetylcholine leads to changes in depression among mice — a finding in marked contrast to the current treatment administered for depression, which instead focuses on the neurotransmitter serotonin. Yann S. Mineur, associate research scientist in psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine is the first author of the paper. A Feb. 11 Yale News press release quoted psychiatry, neurobiology and pharmacology professor Marina Picciotto, the paper’s senior author, as saying that humans with depression also exhibited elevated levels of acetylcholine in their brains. The authors said they hope to extrapolate their findings with mice to formulate a model for human mental illness. “Serotonin may be treating the problem, but acetylcholine disruption may be a primary cause,” Picciotto said in the press release. “If we can treat the root cause, perhaps we can get a better response from the patient.” The study was made possible by a grant from the National Institute for Mental Health.
Study finds new method of drug delivery By making slight structural adjustments to drugs, Yale researchers have found a revolutionary way to design and deliver medicine. Led by Yale chemistry professor Jonathan Ellman, the project aims to improve the means by which drugs bind to disease-causing molecules by tweaking the molecular compounds — called piperidines — employed by several prominent drugs such as morphine and oxycodone. Ellman’s research has led to a possible way to alter the piperidine structure so these drugs can attach to their target molecules more cleanly and efficiently. “The approach has biomedical relevance because the scaffold upon which the fragments are displayed is present in many of the most important drugs,” Ellman said in a February YaleNews press release. Ellman’s paper, “Proton Donor Acidity Controls Selectivity in Nonaromatic Nitrogen Heterocycle Synthesis,” appeared in the journal Science on Feb. 8.
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YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, MARCH 5, 2013 · yaledailynews.com
YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, MARCH 5, 2013 · yaledailynews.com
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SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY Urry elected president of Astronomical Society
YALE
Physics professor Megan Urry will serve as the president of the American Astronomical Society beginning in June 2014. BY EMMA GOLDBERG STAFF REPORTER Physics professor Megan Urry — an advocate for female leadership in the science community — has been elected the next president of the American Astronomical Society. Members of the AAS elected Urry to the position in early February. Though she will begin her two-year term in June 2014, she will spend the next year as president-elect preparing for her role. The first Yale professor elected to the position, Urry will succeed Columbia University astronomy professor David Helfand. Urry’s colleagues at Yale said she has been a strong advocate for increased gender diversity in the field of astronomy, a goal Urry said she intends to continue pursuing once she assumes her presidency. Urry, who learned about her nomination for the presidency last summer, said she decided to run because she knew her term as Yale Physics Department chair was ending and she felt she could handle new responsibilities. She was required to submit a candidacy statement and was then elected by the 7,500 members of the AAS through an online voting system. During her tenure as AAS president, Urry will remain at Yale and continue to teach classes. Though Urry is not the first female to serve as AAS president, she said she is excited that her peers elected a female leader. An advocate for gender equity, Urry has previously served as chair of the AAS Committee on the Status of Women, which performs outreach to encourage women to enter the field of astronomy. “She has done more for the position of women in astronomy than anyone ever has,” said Joan Schmelz, current chair of the AAS Committee on the Status of Women. “Here at the committee, we say that in terms of creating progress, we’re standing on the shoulders of giants — we’re standing on Meg’s shoulders.” Urry’s colleagues at Yale said she has also advocated for diversity within the University’s Physics Department. Physics professor Volker Werner said Urry has always emphasized the importance of female leadership at faculty meetings. “Diversity is so important for the field of science because we want to generate the best and most creative ideas,” Urry said. “It’s exciting to see how much progress there’s been, because when I first entered the field there were very few women astronomers.” During the next year while Urry serves as an incoming president, she plans to meet with professionals in the field of astronomy to formulate the agenda for her presidency. She said she will build on relationships she has forged during her active involvement with AAS as a member of its governing council and nominating committee. Her plans also include monitoring the federal budget to learn about limitations on funding for scientific research and expanding on her previous work to promote different types of diversity within her field, she added. Urry said presidential responsibilities include overseeing the AAS’s leadership council, directing educational programs and advocating for federal funds for astronomy. “Astronomy can be a more difficult field to advocate for because other sciences are more connected to people’s everyday lives,” Urry said. “But I hope to show that astronomers are exploring crucial issues, like the role humans play in the cosmos.” Urry’s election is not her first recognition from AAS this year — in January, she was honored with the George Van Biesbroeck Prize, AAS’s major annual award for service in the field of astronomy. The award recognized Urry’s scholarly research as well as her devotion to advancing female participation in scientific disciplines. The American Astronomical Society was founded in 1899. Contact EMMA GOLDBERG at emma.goldberg@yale.edu .
“I think the Earth and everything around it is connected — the sky and the planets and the stars and everything else we see as a mystery.” MARION COTILLARD ACTRESS
Eating times affect biological clocks BY HANNAH SCHWARZ STAFF REPORTER Researchers at the Yale School of Medicine have found that when and what you eat affects the synchronization of the body’s biological clocks. Biological clocks, which are found in every cell of the body, operate on a 24-hour cycle, according to a preview of the study written by Gerald Hart, biological chemistry professor at Johns Hopkins University. Synchronizing all the clocks in the body is essential for the body to function at its best. The three-year study, which was conducted on lab mice, found that eating at certain times of the day, which vary depending on one’s sleep habits, may lead to optimal body functionality via clock synchronization. The findings were published Feb. 5 in the journal Cell Metabolism. When food is consumed at the optimal times of the day, the body’s peripheral clocks, which are found in every cell outside the brain, synchronize with the body’s central clock, which is located in the brain and responds to external signals like light and temperature, said researcher Xiaoyong Yang, assistant professor of comparative medicine and of cellular and molecular physiology. Although the central clock, or “master clock,” controls the peripheral clocks, only the latter respond to the “feeding and fasting cycle,” Yang said. This cycle characterizes “fasting” as any time the stomach is empty. In the morning, your central clock responds to the light, Yang said. “But if you don’t eat, and you fast, the peripheral clocks respond
to that,” creating a dyssynchrony between the clocks, he added. Ueli Schibler, professor of molecular biology at the University of Geneva, said mice with this dissynchrony appear ill, and are not as “active or energetic” as those with synchronous cycles.
It seems pretty clear that the long-term disruption of circadian rhythms is pretty harmful. UELI SCHIBLER Professor of molecular biology, University of Geneva The study also showed that eating at the right times can help protect from disease. Past research has shown that women involved in shift work — especially rotating shift work, in which people work during the day one week and during the night the next — have an increased risk of cancer, the study’s lead researcher Min-Dian Li GRD ’15 said. Rotating shift workers are more likely to have dissynchronous body rhythms, increasing their likelihood of becoming diabetic, obese or depressed, Yang said. “It seems pretty clear that the long-term disruption of circadian rhythms is pretty harmful,” Schibler added. The researchers also found that foods one might otherwise avoid for health reasons may actually have little impact on health if eaten during very specific time intervals. “If you give an animal a ham-
Mainstream media stereotypes obesity BY DHRUV AGGARWAL STAFF REPORTER Obese people are negatively portrayed in mainstream media, a Yale researcher has found. Rebecca Puhl, director of research at Yale’s Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity, conducted a study documenting the bias against obese people featured in videos aired by mainstream media networks. Puhl determined that the media’s portrayal of obesity negatively impacts the public perception of those suffering from the disease. She also recorded 80 video clips portraying obese people in a more positive light, which media organizations could use free of charge. The paper containing Puhl’s findings was published in the February edition of the Journal of Health Communication. “The videos and pictures accompanying the news about obesity are often negative and stereotypical,” Puhl said. “I wanted to quantify this and see how common it is.” Puhl, who has previously conducted research on negative portrayals of obese people in photographs in the media, analyzed 370 news videos on the websites of major news networks. She found that obese people were portrayed negatively 65 percent of the time, and obese children were depicted in an unflatter-
burger, which is high in fat, at the right time, it might not lead to obesity,” Li said, adding that our bodies are most adept at metabolizing certain nutrients at different times of the day. Both Li and Yang said eating two meals per day may be most beneficial for the synchronization of biological clocks — this advice stands in contrast to findings from nutritional studies showing that eating in small amounts frequently can help with weight control. For those who wake up early in the morning, eating breakfast and lunch and skipping dinner is best for circadian rhythm synchronization, Yang said. Night owls should eat lunch and dinner as their two meals, he added. Paolo Sassone-Corsi, biological chemistry professor and director of the Center for Epigenetics and Metabolism at University of California, Irvine School of Medicine, said the study does not definitively state the day’s optimal eating times, as it solely focuses on glucose. He said understanding how various types of nutritional intakes affect the clock system will be an “important step forward.” Yang said the next step for the team will be to look at the effect eating proteins has on synchronization. He also said that, with more funding, the team would like to conduct the same research in humans. The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health, the American Diabetes Association and the Ellison Medical Foundation.
ing manner 77 percent of the time. These negative images affect public perceptions of obese people, causing a weight stigma, she added. “[The news videos] have a very unflattering emphasis on body parts like stomach or buttocks, or else they show them eating unhealthy food, exhibiting sedentary behavior and wearing ill-fitting clothes,” Puhl said. Rudd Center Deputy Director Marline Schwartz said in a Monday email to the News that Puhl’s research disproved the myth that stigma motivates people to lose weight. “Her work lends scientific support to the position that is important for people to feel valued and not judged when they are making healthy choices,” she said. Puhl said her future research efforts will identify ways the media could use less stigmatizing images of obesity in its coverage. The Rudd Center has established an online image gallery of such images for this purpose, she said, adding that she is optimistic the videos will be well-received since her previous research has been met enthusiastically by media outlets. The Rudd Center was founded in 2005. Contact DHRUV AGGARWAL at dhruv.aggarwal@yale.edu .
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Mechanism controlling epigenetic factors discovered
Yale School of Medicine researchers have identified the molecules that guide epigenetic factors along the genome. Haifan Lin, director of the Yale Stem Cell Center, was the lead author in a paper detailing the precise process by which factors at varying sites on the genome are turned on and off. The paper was published Feb. 21 in the journal Developmental Cell, and was co-authored by Xiao Huang GRD ’12. Scientists have previously studied the proteins — called epigenetic factors — that regulate gene activity, but the Yale research team is the first to pinpoint the molecules that guide the factors along the genome. The guiding molecules are a specialized form of RNA called piRNA. “This is the first major mechanism discovered that controls where epigenetic factors — the gene switches — are to be placed in the genome,” said Lin in a Feb. 21 Yale News press release. The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health Pioneer Award and a grant from the Connecticut Stem Cell Research Fund.
Biology behind depression questioned Scientists may have been misunderstanding the biochemical basis of depression for all these years, a Yale study has found.
Contact HANNAH SCHWARZ at hannah.schwarz@yale.edu .
KAREN TIAN/ILLUSTRATIONS EDITOR
Astronomers find smallest known planet BY JOSH MANDELL CONTRIBUTING REPORTER A large team of astronomers — including two members of Yale’s Astronomy Department — has discovered the Milky Way’s smallest known planet after analyzing two years of data from NASA’s Kepler probe. Smaller than Mercury and barely larger than Earth’s moon, the planet closely orbits the star Kepler-37, located over 200 light-years away from Earth. The planet, currently referred to as Kepler-37b, is part of a solar system that also includes a planet 70 percent the size of Earth and another that is twice as large as Earth — both of which were also discovered by the research team. These findings were announced in a paper published in the journal Nature on Feb. 20. Thomas Barclay, a scientist at the NASA Ames Research Center, found the first evidence of the planet’s existence in data from Kepler, an orbiting spacecraft that surveys stars in a small region of space to find planets. Kepler determines the existence of planets by observing host stars and looking for transits, which occur when a planet moves in front of its host star as it orbits. The Kepler spacecraft is equipped with a photometer that can measure the tiny, regular decreases in the star’s brightness that occur during a transit. Once the NASA scientists were confident that there were planets orbiting Kepler-37, professors at universities around the world worked to characterize the size, density and composition of the star and its planets. “The only way you can measure the size of the orbiting planet is relative to the star it is going around,” said Yale astronomy professor Sarbani Basu, an author of the paper.
We now know that planets can come in any size. SARBANI BASU Professor, Astronomy Department
MOHAN YIN/CONTRIBUTING ILLUSTRATOR
An expert on star seismology, Basu used Kepler data to measure the vibrations of the star’s gases. Using this information, Basu and the seismic analysis team were able to determine the radius of Kepler-37. They found that the star is smaller and lighter than the sun — and knowing this, they could infer that the planet Kepler-37b was even smaller than Mercury. Debra Fischer, another astron-
omy professor at Yale, helped determine the chemical makeup of the star, Basu said. The discovery of Kepler-37b contributes to the rapidly changing perception of the size and number of planets in the Milky Way, she added. “We now know that planets can come in any size,” Basu said, adding that the sizes span from small rocky planets to gas giants bigger than Jupiter. Cornell astronomy professor Jonathan Lunine, who was not involved in the study, said the discovery will help scientists estimate the prevalence of Earthlike planets in the Milky Way, an important goal of the Kepler mission. “The way that you determine the statistical frequency of Earth-like planets requires looking at planets of many different sizes,” he said. “This is a really important discovery because it allows us to extend the frequency of planets below the size of the Earth. It helps us get a better handle on the numbers.” Lunine added that the seismology work done by Basu and her collaborators was a “novel” way to measure the size of the star. However, he said he remains slightly skeptical of the discovery, as some “noise” in the photometry data may have obscured results. He added that the strength of the claim is “still a little shaky, but that’s the nature of the fact that they are working at the bottom end [of the size spectrum].” Though Kepler-37b is almost certainly too hot and too small to host life on its surface, its discovery is an encouraging step in the search for an Earth-like planet in the habitable zone of its star — the “holy grail” of exoplanet research, Basu said. Steve Howell, the NASA project scientist for the Kepler mission and an author of the paper, said the Kepler probe has shown that small planets are quite common in the galaxy. “If Kepler had never found a small planet, we would think that Earth is pretty special,” he said. “That would be sad, but interesting. But we have found hundreds and hundreds of small planets in one space in the sky. What Kepler has found is that it’s pretty unlikely that the Earth is alone.” Since its 2009 launch, the Kepler spacecraft has detected 114 confirmed extrasolar planets, with over 2,000 exoplanet candidates awaiting confirmation, according to the NASA Kepler website. Contact JOSH MANDELL at joshua.mandell@yale.edu .
RUDD CENTER FOR FOOD POLICY AND OBESITY
The Rudd Center’s collection of photos and videos aims to combat negative portrayal of obesity in the media.
Nanoparticles may treat lupus BY CLINTON WANG STAFF REPORTER Lupus and other autoimmune diseases such as Type 1 diabetes may be cured with a novel method of drug delivery. In a study published March 1 in The Journal of Clinical Investigation, Yale researchers found that delivering lupus drugs directly to specific immune cells using nanoparticles can extend the lifespan of mice infected with lupus. Without nanoparticle delivery, current drugs for lupus are short-lasting and require large doses to be effective, but this mode of delivery would require lower dosages of medication, said senior author Tarek Fahmy, associate professor of biomedical engineering at the Yale School of Engineering & Applied Science “When you take the drug by itself, the drug molecules are diluted throughout the whole body, so that’s why you have to inject a lot more to get to the target cells,” Fahmy said. “You need a very high dose of the drug, but then there are a lot of side effects that complicate the disease and can make matters worse.” Though medication deactivates cells causing lupus symptoms by suppressing their response, the drugs may also be toxic to other types of cells that do not cause lupus, he added. Lead author Michael Look, a Yale postdoctoral associate in biomedical engineering, found that the nanogels — the nanoparticles used to deliver the drugs — could specifically target the cells responsible, thereby achieving the same efficacy as conventional drugs but with much lower doses. The nanogels also remain in the body longer than conventional drugs to provide long-lasting treatment, Look said. Fahmy said nanoparticles have been used to enhance drug delivery for decades, but recent improvements in nanoparticle technology and a greater understanding of autoimmune diseases have helped him pioneer its application to lupus.
“This technique is more dominant in cancer applications, where it’s used primarily to target tumor cells,” Fahmy said. “But the application to autoimmunity has been limited because of a dearth of understanding of the [molecules] that activate immunity.” The next step in the research is to compare different lupus drugs delivered by the nanogel and eventually use it in clinical trials, Fahmy said, adding that he hopes the technology will become available in the next four to five years.
The application [of nanoparticles] to autoimmunity has been limited because of a dearth of understanding. TAREK FAHMY Associate professor, Biomedical Engineering Department Look said that beyond serving as an improvement on conventional drug treatments, nanogels may also offer a permanent cure for lupus by “re-educating the immune system” to avoid attacking its own cells. For the nanogels to treat other autoimmune diseases, researchers simply need to change the nanogel’s target to the specific cells implicated in that disease — a technique Fahmy said should be “straightforward.” Fahmy said he hopes to test nanogels in Type 1 diabetes treatment with collaborators in the medical school. “The clinical partnership and basic science is critical for success of this approach,” Fahmy added. Approximately 1.5 million Americans have lupus, according to the Lupus Foundation of America. Contact CLINTON WANG at clinton.wang@yale.edu .
The research has shown that varying the levels of the chemical acetylcholine leads to changes in depression among mice — a finding in marked contrast to the current treatment administered for depression, which instead focuses on the neurotransmitter serotonin. Yann S. Mineur, associate research scientist in psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine is the first author of the paper. A Feb. 11 Yale News press release quoted psychiatry, neurobiology and pharmacology professor Marina Picciotto, the paper’s senior author, as saying that humans with depression also exhibited elevated levels of acetylcholine in their brains. The authors said they hope to extrapolate their findings with mice to formulate a model for human mental illness. “Serotonin may be treating the problem, but acetylcholine disruption may be a primary cause,” Picciotto said in the press release. “If we can treat the root cause, perhaps we can get a better response from the patient.” The study was made possible by a grant from the National Institute for Mental Health.
Study finds new method of drug delivery By making slight structural adjustments to drugs, Yale researchers have found a revolutionary way to design and deliver medicine. Led by Yale chemistry professor Jonathan Ellman, the project aims to improve the means by which drugs bind to disease-causing molecules by tweaking the molecular compounds — called piperidines — employed by several prominent drugs such as morphine and oxycodone. Ellman’s research has led to a possible way to alter the piperidine structure so these drugs can attach to their target molecules more cleanly and efficiently. “The approach has biomedical relevance because the scaffold upon which the fragments are displayed is present in many of the most important drugs,” Ellman said in a February YaleNews press release. Ellman’s paper, “Proton Donor Acidity Controls Selectivity in Nonaromatic Nitrogen Heterocycle Synthesis,” appeared in the journal Science on Feb. 8.
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YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, MARCH 5, 2013 · yaledailynews.com
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US cardinals seek answers BY NICOLE WINFIELD ASSOCIATED PRESS VATICAN CITY — Cardinals said Monday they want to talk to Vatican managers about allegations of corruption and cronyism within the top levels of the Catholic Church before they elect the next pope, evidence that a scandal over leaked papal documents is casting a shadow over the conclave and setting up one of the most unpredictable papal elections in recent times. The Vatican said 107 of the 115 voting-age cardinals attended the first day of pre-conclave meetings, at which cardinals organize the election, discuss the problems of the church and get to know one another before voting. The red-capped “princes” of the church took an oath of secrecy and decided to pen a letter of “greeting and gratitude” to Benedict XVI, whose resignation has thrown the church into turmoil amid a torrent of scandals inside and out of the Vatican. “I would imagine that as we move along there will be questioning of cardinals involved in the governing of the Curia to see what they think has to be changed, and in that context anything can come up,” said U.S. Cardinal Francis George. The Holy See’s administrative shortcomings were thrust into stark relief last year with the publication of documents stolen from Benedict’s desk that exposed the petty infighting, turf battles and allegations of corruption, nepotism and cronyism in the highest echelons of the Catholic Church. The pope’s butler was convicted of stealing the papers and leaking them to a journalist; he eventually received a papal pardon. The emeritus pope, meanwhile, remained holed up at the papal residence at Castel Gandolfo, his temporary retirement home while
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Archbishop Jose Gomez speaks during a celebration of Palm Sunday Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown Los Angeles. the discussions on picking his successor kick into gear in Rome. No date has been set yet for the conclave and one may not be decided on officially for a few more days; the dean of the College of Cardinals has said a date won’t be finalized until all the cardinals have arrived. Eight voting-age cardinals are still en route to Rome; some had previously scheduled speaking engagements, others were due in over the coming days, the Vatican said. Their absence, however, didn’t otherwise delay the conclave’s preparations. Speculation has mounted that the conclave might begin around March 11, with the aim of having a new pope installed by March 17,
the Sunday before Palm Sunday and the start of Holy Week. With 115 electors, 77 votes are needed to reach the two-thirds majority to be elected pope. Those who were in Rome prayed together Monday, chatted over coffee and took an oath to maintain “rigorous secrecy with regard to all matters in any way related to the election of the Roman Pontiff.” The core agenda item is to set the date for the conclave and put in place the procedures to prepare for it, including closing the Sistine Chapel to visitors and getting the Vatican hotel cleared out and swept for bugs or other electronic monitoring devices, lest anyone try to listen in on the cardinals’ secret conversations.
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Republicans unveil govt funding measure BY ANDREW TAYLOR ASSOCIATED PRESS
REED SAXON/ASSOCIATED PRESS
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WASHINGTON — Republicans controlling the House moved Monday to ease a crunch in Pentagon readiness while limiting the pain felt by such agencies as the FBI and the Border Patrol from the across-the-board spending cuts that are just starting to take effect. The effort is part of a huge spending measure that would fund day-to-day federal operations through September — and head off a potential government shutdown later this month. The measure would leave in place automatic cuts of 5 percent to domestic agencies and 7.8 percent to the Pentagon ordered by President Barack Obama Friday night after months of battling with Republicans over the budget. But the House Republicans’ legislation would award the Defense Department its detailed 2013 budget while other agencies would be frozen in place at 2012 levels. The unprecedented across-the-board cuts would then be applied to every federal agency except Veterans Affairs, which is exempt from them. The impact of the new cuts was proving slow to reach the broader public as Obama convened the first Cabinet meeting of his second term to discuss next steps. The Pentagon did say it would furlough thousands of military school teachers around the world and close commissaries an extra day each week. And Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the spending cuts were causing delays in customs lines at airports including Los Angeles International and O’Hare International in Chicago. Obama said he was continuing to seek out Republican partners to reach a deal to ease or head off the cuts, but there was no sign that a breakthrough was in the works to reverse them. The new GOP funding measure is set to advance through the House on Thursday. It’s aimed at preventing a government shutdown when a six-month spending bill passed last September runs out March 27. The latest measure would provide a $10 billion increase for military operations and maintenance efforts and a boost for veterans’
health programs, but would put the rest of the government on budget autopilot. Military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq would be cut to $87 billion — down from $115 billion last year — reflecting ongoing troop withdrawals from Afghanistan. “It is clear that this nation is facing some very hard choices, and it’s up to Congress to pave the way for our financial future,” said bill sponsor Harold Rogers, R-Ky., chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. “But right now, we must act quickly and try to make the most of a difficult situation. This bill will fund essential federal programs and services, help maintain our national security, and take a potential shutdown off the table.
This bill will fund essential federal programs and services, help maintain our national security and take a potential shutdown off the table. HAROLD ROGERS Chairman, House Appropriations Committee Senate Democrats want to add more detailed budgets for domestic Cabinet agencies, but it’ll take GOP help to do so. The House measure denies money sought by Obama and his Democratic allies to implement the signature 2010 laws overhauling the health care system and financial regulation. After accounting for the across-the-board cuts, domestic agencies would face reductions exceeding 5 percent when compared with last year. But Republicans would carve out a host of exemptions seeking to protect certain functions, including federal prisons and fire-fighting efforts in the West, and to provide new funding for embassy security and modernizing the U.S. nuclear arsenal. The FBI and the Border Patrol would be able to maintain current staffing levels and would not have to furlough employees.
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“Segregation never brought anyone anything except trouble.” PAUL HARRIS FOUNDER OF ROTARY INTERNATIONAL
Palestinian-only buses criticized BY JOSEF FEDERMAN ASSOCIATED PRESS JERUSALEM — Israel’s decision to launch a pair of “Palestinian-only” bus lines in the West Bank on Monday — presented by the government as a goodwill gesture, assailed by critics as racism and welcomed by Palestinian riders — is shining a light on the messy situation created by 45 years of military occupation and Jewish settlements in the area. While full and formal peace remains distant, the Jewish and Palestinian populations of the West Bank are so intertwined that daily routines are often shaped in mind-boggling ways. Military checkpoints, special permits and different sets of laws are all part of everyday life, and even steps that are well-intentioned, such as the new bus lines, can backfire and spark controversy. Israeli peace activists condemned the bus lines as racist, while Palestinian riders seemed to like the arrangement. Israeli officials insisted that Palestinians could still ride regular buses if they choose — despite Palestinian claims they are hardly welcomed there by Jewish settlers. Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war and has built a network of settlements throughout the territory that are now home to more than 300,000 Israelis. Yet another 200,000 live in adjacent east Jerusalem — occupied, annexed and expanded to include land that was once in the West Bank. The Palestinians claim the West Bank and east Jerusalem as part of a future independent state and say the settlements are illegal obstacles to their dreams of statehood — a view that is widely shared by the international community. Despite chilly relations, Jewish and Palestinian residents of the West Bank come into frequent contact. Israeli roads serving the settlements pass by Palestinian villages, tens of thousands of Palestinian laborers work in Jewish settlements and Israel proper, and the Israeli military finds itself serving
48 Syrian soldiers killed in Iraq BY ADAM SCHRECK AND QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA ASSOCIATED PRESS
ARIEL SCHALIT/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Palestinian laborers ride a Palestinian-only bus en route to the West Bank. as a de facto police force by maintaining checkpoints and other crossings to keep tabs on Palestinians.
This is a goodwill gesture. These lines are intended to serve the Palestinian workers. UZI ITZHAKI Director, Israeli Transport Ministry Israel said it decided to launch the new bus lines to help make life easier for Palestinians permitted to work in Israel, where jobs are more abundant and better paying than in the West Bank. After several years of relative quiet, nearly 40,000 Palestinians are allowed to enter Israel to work each day, the highest level since the Palestinian uprising a decade ago. Officials said the buses would ease the burden on Palestinian laborers,
who must often take grueling, circuitous routes on Israeli public transportation or rely on pricey taxis to enter Israel. Israeli officials stressed that no one was forced to use the new lines and Palestinians were still permitted to ride on Israeli buses if they desired. “This is a goodwill gesture,” Uzi Itzhaki, director of the Transport Ministry, told Israel Radio. “These lines are intended to serve the Palestinian workers.” He said Monday’s launch was a test pilot and that there are plans to expand the service. The buses departed from the Eyal military checkpoint, near the Palestinian town of Qalqiliya, to various destinations inside Israel. Palestinians use private Palestinian minibuses to get to the checkpoint. Hundreds of laborers gathered at the Eyal checkpoint before dawn to take advantage of the new service. Outside of some overcrowding from heavier than expected demand, few problems were reported, and riders seemed pleased with the new arrangement.
BAGHDAD — Dozens of Syrian soldiers who had crossed into Iraq for refuge were ambushed Monday with bombs, gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades in an attack that killed 48 of them and heightened concerns that the country could be drawn into Syria’s civil war. The fact that the soldiers were on Iraqi soil at all raises questions about Baghdad’s apparent willingness to quietly aid the embattled regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad. The well-coordinated attack, which Iraqi officials blamed on al-Qaida’s Iraq arm, also suggests possible coordination between the militant group and its ideological allies in Syria who rank among the rebels’ most potent fighters. Iraqi officials said the Syrians had sought refuge through the Rabiya border crossing in northern Iraq during recent clashes with rebels and were being escorted back home through a different crossing farther south when the ambush occurred. Their convoy was struck near Akashat, not far from the Syrian border. Ali al-Moussawi, a spokesman for Iraq’s prime minister, provided the death toll and said nine Iraqi soldiers were also killed. The Syrians had been disarmed and included some who were wounded, he told The Associated Press. He said the soldiers had been allowed into Iraq only on humanitarian grounds and insisted that Baghdad was not picking sides in the Syrian conflict. “We do not want more soldiers to cross our borders, and we do not want to be part of the problem,” al-Moussawi said. “We do not support any group against the other in Syria.” The Iraqi Defense Ministry said 10 additional Syrians were wounded in the assault. In a statement, it warned all parties in the Syrian war against
bringing the fight into Iraq, saying its response will be “firm and tough.” Iraqi officials who provided details of the attack described a carefully orchestrated assault on the Syrians’ convoy, with a senior military intelligence official saying the attackers appeared to have been tipped off ahead of time.
We do not want more soldiers to cross our borders, and we do not want to be part of the problem. ALI AL-MOUSSAWI Spokesman, Iraqi prime minister He and another Iraqi official, speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to release the information, said it was unlikely that Syrian rebels had managed to cross into Iraq to carry out the attack. “This attack bears the hallmarks of the al-Qaida terrorist organization,” said Jassim al-Halbousi, provincial council member in Anbar, the restive western region where the attack happened. “The borders should be secured at the highest level of alert.” Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told the AP last week that he feared a victory for rebels in the Syrian civil war would create a new extremist haven and destabilize the wider Middle East, sparking sectarian wars in his own country and in Lebanon. His comments reflect fears by many Shiite Muslims that Sunni Muslims would come to dominate Syria should Assad be toppled. Assad’s regime is backed by Shiite powerhouse Iran, which has been building ties with the Shiite-led government in Baghdad in recent years.
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YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, MARCH 5, 2013 · yaledailynews.com
AROUND THE IVIES
“I don’t believe in failure. It is not failure if you enjoyed the process.” OPRAH WINFREY AMERICAN MEDIA PROPRIETOR, TALK SHOW HOST AND PHILANTHROPIST
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Inaugural Hackathon ends
Oprah to deliver Commencement address
BY NEHA SUNDARAM STAFF WRITER “Hack: Verb, building programs that solve everyday problems” was the tagline for last weekend’s HackColumbia event. But despite this modest billing, the first-ever Columbia-specific hackathon was far from everyday. The hackathon, which was organized by the Application Development Initiative, the Columbia College Student Council and the Engineering Student Council, began at 7 p.m. on Friday in John Jay Lounge and continued into the night. Around 50 students came together, each tasked with building a novel program that remedies a minor problem in the Columbia community. Although the concept of a hackathon has existed for around a decade, demand for a Columbia-wide event has been building up. “A lot of people wanted a Columbia hackathon for a really long time,” organizer Justin Hines said. Gil Chen-Zion worked to meet the goal of the event through his product “WTF is Open.” Chen-Zion, who came to the event individually, was paired with two other students — Brian Bourn and Melissa O’Sullivan — a mere hour before programming was scheduled to start. The team set to work at 9 p.m.
and programmed through the night. Their final product is a website that displays the facilities COLUMBIA that are open at Columbia, even showing which dishes in the dining halls are the most popular based on the number of likes received. Hines noted that registrationrelated Web pages have been popular products. HackColumbia winner Sam Aarons created a website to help students understand their housing options, given their personal preferences. Others, like Adam Obeng, Kacper Ksieski and Alexsander Akers developed a website that presents all schedule options given the time constraints inputted. Despite the ubiquity of programmers at HackColumbia, the hackathon was also open to students who lacked coding experience. “I wanted to meet people,” Akers said. He was introduced to Obeng and Ksieski during a meet-and-greet prior to the start of the hackathon, where Ksieski pitched his idea for a schedule builder. “I wanted to come here and check
out who was here for the longer term. I wanted people who were interested in creating apps for … the Apple Store … and want to do bigger and better things than Hackathon,” Ksieski said.
I wanted people who were interested in creating apps for … the Apple Store … and want to do bigger and better things than Hackathon. KACPER KSIESKI Participant, HackColumbia Because of the amount of data access needed for the event, organizers paired up with the administration to ensure that students had enough data to work with for their projects. With the help of some departments — including Columbia Athletics, Housing, Dining and Events Management — ADI wrote application-programming interface and presented this information to students, who could then access the data to turn students’ ideas into full-fledged applications.
BY NIKITA KANSRA AND SAMUEL Y. WEINSTOCK STAFF WRITERS Media mogul and billionaire philanthropist Oprah Winfrey will speak at Harvard’s 362nd Commencement in May, the University announced Monday. “Oprah’s journey from her grandmother’s Mississippi farm to becoming one of the world’s most admired women is one of the great American success stories,” University President Drew G. Faust said in a press release. “She has used her extraordinary influence and reach as a force for good in the world, with a constant focus on the importance of educational opportunity and the virtues of serving others.” Winfrey is best known for her nationally syndicated talk show, “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” which ended its 25-season run in 2011. The Emmy Award-winning show was broadcasted in 145 countries and reached more than 40 million viewers per week in the United States alone. The popularity of the series, which featured a total of about 28,000 guests ranging from Hollywood celebrities to American presidents, brought her into the international spotlight.
Along with her highly successful show, Winfrey — the first Afric a n -A m e r i c a n woman billionaire — has done extensive philanHARVARD thropic work, with a focus on women’s education in developing countries. Oprah’s Angel Network, a charity that Winfrey founded in 1998, has raised more than $70 million and built more than 50 schools in 13 countries around the world, according to Winfrey’s website. Winfrey has also worked to increase the safety of children, pushing for the creation of a national database of convicted child abusers through the 1993 National Child Protection Act, also known as the “Oprah Bill.” Winfrey will speak during the Afternoon Exercises of Commencement, which will take place on May 30 at Tercentenary Theater in Harvard Yard. In the past, the University has hosted Commencement Day speakers from a wide range of backgrounds, including prominent world leaders like Kofi A. Annan and business innovators like Bill Gates.
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YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, MARCH 5, 2013 · yaledailynews.com
PAGE 13
SPORTS
Rodman saga continues On Monday, the White House weighed in on NBA Hall of Famer Dennis Rodman’s bizarre visit to North Korea last week, as press secretary Jay Carney chided North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un for “spending money on celebrity sporting events to entertain the elites of that country,” instead of focusing on the welfare of its people, “who have been starved, imprisoned and denied their human rights.”
Elis struggle at championship
Zags ranked No. 1 COLUMN FROM PAGE 14 Alas, success on college basketball’s biggest stage has eluded the Zags since their 1998 Elite Eight. In 2003 they lost one of the greatest games of the 2000s, 96-95 to Arizona in the second round of the NCAA tournament, in 2004 seeded 2nd, boasting a 28-2 record and ranked 3rd by the AP, Gonzaga lost in the second round again, this time to a seventh-seeded Nevada team. The low point for Gonzaga’s lack of tournament success occurred in 2006 when as a three seed Gonzaga led UCLA by seventeen points in the second half only to collapse and lose an opportunity to return to the Elite Eight for the first time since 1999. That game left Adam Morrison, a player of the year candidate crying on the court, knowing that the Zags had missed their best chance at a Final Four in the Few era. All this takes us to this year’s version of Gonzaga, Few’s best and most complete team since 2006. Ranked number one by the AP and Coaches poll the Bulldogs feature the nation’s best frontcourt of senior Elias Harris, and Canadian Kelly Olynyk. The Bulldogs are the second best shooting team in the nation and are currently on a twelve game winning streak. In fact, if Butler’s buzzer beater in January had missed the Zags would have been winners of twenty-one straight.
JENNIFER CHEUNG/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
The Yale men’s fencing team salvaged a fifth-place finish with a 16–11 victory over Brown in its final contest of the championship. FENCING FROM PAGE 14 up against Cornell and Brown, the two schools the Elis defeated at the championship last year. “We thought Brown and Cornell would be our closest rounds, judging by last years’ performance,” women’s captain Robyn Shaffer ’13 said. “Still, we were a bit shocked by Cornell — they definitely improved over last year, and we weren’t fencing at the level of intensity we needed straight off the bat.” The Elis fell to the Big Red by a margin of 19–8, and the Bears by a score of 16–11. With Brown already two wins ahead of Yale by the time they were set to fence, the Bulldogs felt that they had nothing to lose. “The situation freed us to give 100 percent in the last round with absolutely no pressure or expectations,” Shaffer said. “We wanted to end on a high note, and although we couldn’t end on a victory, we ended with high energy and effort.”
Tennis crushes weekend MEN’S TENNIS FROM PAGE 14 out on the court for however long is necessary to get the win. These long, tough weekends are a real test of our fitness level and we’ve been able to navigate them successfully.” Soon after wrapping up their first round of matches, the Elis had to take the courts again on Saturday afternoon against Marist College (4-1, 0-0 MAAC) in singles. Yale was able to sweep all six singles positions to clinch the win, making sure that the doubles point the next morning would have no impact on the outcome of the match. After Yale took the doubles point on Sunday morning against the Red Foxes, the team went on to sweep its third opponent of the weekend, Stony Brook University (0-3, 0-0 America East). This was Yale’s fifth sweep of the season. Martin Svenning ’16 and Dean were able to clinch the doubles point with an 8–3 win at No. 3 “It was a tough weekend because we were playing three matches in two days,” Hoffman said. “We wanted to continue to play well and take care of these teams that were relatively weaker.” Over spring break, the Bulldogs will travel to Wilmington, N.C. to play three teams: Illinois St., UNC and Old Dominion. Contact ADLON ADAMS at adlon.adams@yale.edu .
While the final result was not what the team had hoped for, several individual fencers performed particularly well. Katherine Miller ’16 placed 10th in epee competition, while Shaffer and Alison Barton ’14 were not far behind in a tie for 15th. Lauren Miller and Madeline Oliver ’13 also placed 15th in the saber and foil competitions, respectively. “We’ve got amazing and talented girls, but at Ivies we’re facing competitors from the national team and World Cup circuit,” Shaffer added. “Individuals can fight hard, winning points and bouts, but our team as a whole is mostly walk-ons. It becomes incredibly apparent at Ivies what a difference the level of recruiting makes.” Katherine Miller added that the sheer size of the other Ivy teams allowed them more flexibility in managing substitutions and matchups. Moreover, some teams have as many as five coaches so that each bout can be covered. Yale’s only full-time coach, Henry Harutinian,
manages both the men’s and women’s teams. The men faced a similar opening day, suffering defeats at the hands of the same four teams. The Bulldogs lost to both Harvard and Penn by a score of 21–6 and struggled to reverse the momentum in their remaining competitions. The Bulldogs fell to Columbia 20–7 and Princeton 19–8 in the final two rounds of the day. “I think one of the issues we had was that the schedule was extremely difficult in that we were matched up against all of the strongest teams on the first day,” captain Cornelius Saunders ’14 said. “It was very difficult to maintain our stamina.” After a night to regroup, the Elis returned to Gordon Track revitalized and refocused, epeeist Peter Cohen ’14 said. The men went on to defeat the Bears, posting a final score of 16–11. Notable individual performances include 12th place finishes by Hugh O’Cinneide ’15 and Nate Benzimra
NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS IN MARCH, COACH FEW’S DECISION TO STAY AT GONZAGA WAS THE RIGHT ONE
’13 in saber competition. Foilist Sam Broughton ’15 and epeeists Saunders and Cohen also finished in 12th in their respective categories. Looking ahead, the team has begun thinking about the NCAA National Championship. The men will send 10 fencers to the NCAA Northeast Regionals this weekend, while the women have nine fencers already attending and expect confirmation for a tenth. “I think this was kind of a wakeup call for some in that the level of competition is a lot harder than we’ve seen for the majority of the year,” Cohen said. “At regionals, there’s really no room for error. Going forward, we really need to be on our game to qualify.” Regionals will be held this weekend at St. John’s in New York, N.Y. The NCAA National Championship will take place in San Antonio, Texas, from March 21-24.
This year, the standard for the Zags will be the Final Four. They will attempt to become the first non-BCS school ranked in the top 5 to advance that far in the tournament since Memphis in 2008 and despite Few’s coaching and his team’s national ranking the task will be a tough one to accomplish. As happens every year for Gonzaga, their lack of competitive conference opponents in the end will probably be their downfall. Gonzaga has not faced a ranked opponent since January 19th and has not defeated a ranked opponent since December 31st. No matter what happens in March though, Coach Few’s decision to stay at Gonzaga despite numerous other offers over the years to leave has proven to be the right one. The number one ranking validates Gonzaga as a college basketball power, and should Coach Few stay on for 10 or more so years a Final Four and even a possible championship are sure to come eventually.
Contact GIOVANNI BACARELLA at giovanni.bacarella@yale.edu .
Contact DAVID CARTY at david.carty@yale.edu .
Tomlinson ’13 falls after reaching semifinals WOMEN’S SQUASH FROM PAGE 14 who would lose her next match in the second round of consolations. “However, it was fairly easy to do so with Millie because we both just wanted to get a good game from each other and practice our shots in preparation for the next match, as we would have matches regardless if we won or lost.” In the quarterfinals, Tomlinson faced Princeton’s No. 7 Elizabeth Eyre in what proved to be the closest match of the weekend for Tomlinson. Tomlinson took the first game 11-9, but Eyre responded to take the second 11-9. Keeping Tomlinson under control, Eyre won the third game, but Tomlinson fought back in the fourth to win 11-7. In the fifth and final game, Tomlinson notched an 11–6 win.
Playing a teammate is hard in any context, as it’s difficult to remain competitive. SHIHUI MAO ’15 Facing Trinity’s Kanzy El Defrawy, with whom Tomlinson split regular season and Howe Cup matches with, Tomlinson advanced to the semifinals. After losing a tight third game, the Bulldogs fell in four. “This was a tough loss for Millie, who was hoping for a rematch with the Crimson’s Sohby in the finals,” head coach Dave Talbott said. “She had a great season with her only losses being to Sohby, who is undefeated in college squash, and El Defrawy, who Millie split with during the season.” Ranked No. 28, captain Ballaine faced Cornell’s No. 9 Daniel Letourneau in the first round. After dropping the first two games 11-6 and 11-4, Ballaine fought back to win the third 13-11 to stay in the match. Despite her determination, Bal-
laine fell in the fourth, 11-8. In the second round of consolations, Ballaine overcame Dartmouth’s No. 30 Corey Schafer in five games, but she fell — again in five — in the third consolation round to No. 20 Jaime Laird of Cornell. In the Holleran Division, all three Elis made it to the round of 16, and No. 41 Norman-Ross, the most successful, made it to the quarterfinals. The third round was as favorable for the Bulldogs, as only Norman-Ross emerged victorious. Playing Princeton’s Hallie Dewey, Norman-Ross came out of the starting blocks slower than usual, losing the first two games 11-8 and 11-9. With her title hopes on the line, she changed her game plan and stayed focused on her strengths. She won three consecutive games to take the match. In the quarterfinals, Norman-Ross faced Princeton’s No. 34 Alexis Saunders. Norman-Ross battled back from a two-game deficit to bring the match to a fifth and deciding game, but ultimately, Saunders got the best of Norman-Ross with an 11-9 win. While the end result is not what the Bulldogs and coach Talbott had in mind — winning the Ivy title — there are already hopes of a promising 2013-’14 season. “Close all year, the team is determined to come back strong and win the championship next year. [Tomlinson’s] close loss in the semi-finals this weekend was indicative of the women’s season: so close, but unable to win the critical points this year,” Talbott said. “[Both] this weekend and this season show that the team has the talent to regain a championship. They just need to continue to work hard, stay focused and keep all the key players healthy.” This was the third consecutive season that Tomlinson has finished in the top five in the country. Contact FRANCESCA COXE at francesca.coxe@yale.edu
BLAIR SEIDERMAN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
After defeating Princeton’s Elizabeth Eyre, Millie Tomlinson ’15 fell to Trinity’s Kanzy El Defrawy in the semifinals.
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SPORTS QUICK HITS
MATT TOWNSEND ’15 ELI NAMED TO IVY HONOR ROLL The sophomore forward earned a spot on the Ancient Eight Honor Roll with a career-high 19-point effort in the Bulldogs’ 79–70 win over Cornell on Saturday. Townsend also recorded 10 points and six rebounds the night before as Yale fell to Columbia.
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BRIAN TOMPKINS SOCCER COACH TO JOIN WEBCHAT Head men’s soccer Brian Tompkins will appear alongside coach Todd Yeagley of the national champion Indiana Hoosiers for a live video chat hosted by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America. The talk will begin on Wednesday at 1 p.m. on the NSCAA website.
“We wanted to continue to play well and take care of these teams that were relatively weaker.” DANIEL HOFFMAN ’13 CAPTAIN, MEN’S TENNIS YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, MARCH 5, 2013 · yaledailynews.com
Elis nab three victories at home
DAVID CARTY
MEN’S TENNIS
successful at No. 3, with a 6–3, 6–4 win. Yale ended the morning round with a 6–1 win over Fairleigh Dickinson. The only loss for the Elis was at No. 6, when Peter Skvarka defeated Kyle Dawson ’14 in two sets. “I think so far our fitness is a great strength,” Huang said. “We have been really working hard to get into good shape and we’re not afraid to stick it
The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are Few. In June of 1999 Dan Monson, the head coach of Gonzaga University, a small Jesuit university in Spokane, Wash., left the program to become the head coach of the University of Minnesota. The move was unremarkable, as it has long been the norm for college coaches to move through their careers climbing the ladder to the next, better, more prestigious job. At the time no one believed Gonzaga’s improbable run to the Elite Eight in March of that year was sustainable and thus Monson’s move was understandable. To compensate for the loss of Monson, Gonzaga decided to promote little known 37-yearold assistant Mark Few to the role of head coach, hoping, but not expecting, that the success Monson had brought the program would continue. Fourteen years later, Gonzaga has ascended to the number one ranking in the two major polls for the first time in its history, and over that time period Coach Few has the highest winning percentage of any coach in America. Now, it is important to note that despite their stellar record that has lasted for more than a decade, Gonzaga is not a mid-major like UNLV of the late 80s and early 90s. In fact, they have not even had as much tournament success as a similarly small school like Butler. The Final Four has eluded the Zags, and the school has not produced a first round draft pick since 2009. However, what Gonzaga offers is consistency. In the Few era the team has reached the NCAA Tournament every year of his tenure, accumulated four Sweet Sixteen appearances and received a number two seed in the 2004 tournament.
SEE MEN’S TENNIS PAGE 13
SEE COLUMN PAGE 13
MARIA ZEPEDA/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
The Yale men’s tennis team overcame three teams at the Cullman-Heymen tennis center last weekend. BY ADLON ADAMS STAFF REPORTER This weekend, the Yale men’s tennis team (9-2, 0-0 Ivy) extended its winning streak at home to five.
MEN’S TENNIS The Bulldogs hosted three teams at home at the Cullman-Heymen tennis center over the weekend: Fair-
leigh Dickinson, Marist and Stony Brook. Yale was able to clinch all three matches, sweeping two of the three. “I think the key is that we have a really close-knit group of guys that are all willing to do whatever it takes to get better,” Zachary Dean ’13 said. “We are able to push each other while staying close.” After earning a No. 49 ranking in the nation due to their performance at the ECAC championship, the Elis
Yale misses individual title BY FRANCESCA COXE CONTRIBUTING REPORTER Over the weekend, seven players from the women’s squash team (13-5, 4-3 Ivy) participated in the College Squash Association Individual Championships, held at Trinity College.
WOMEN’S SQUASH Four Bulldogs — Millie Tomlinson ’14, team captain Katie Ballaine ’13, Shihui Mao ’15 and Gwen Tilghman ’14 — competed in Ramsay Division, the top draw, and the other three — Lilly Fast ’14, Issey Norman-Ross ’15 and Annie Ballaine ’16 — competed in the Holleran Division. With all three players in the second draw making the third round and Tomlinson making the semifinals, team members said the Elis finished the championships on a strong note. Leading the way for Yale was No. 2 Tomlinson, a player who is no stranger to the CSA Individual Championships. In her freshman year, Tomlinson won the title, and last year she finished second to Harvard’s Amanda Sohby. Tomlinson won her first match
of the weekend in a three-game contest against Trinity’s Sachika Balvani (11-5, 11-2, 11-6), but due to an unfortunate main draw, Tomlinson was pitted against her teammate, Mao, in the second round. Mao had scored a solid three-game win over Princeton’s Nicole Bunyan in the first round (11-6, 11-8, 11-7), improving from her narrow victory in five games in the regular season. In the end, Tomlinson came out on top, winning in three games (11-9, 11-4, 11-7) to advance to the third round.
[Both] this weekend and this season show that the team has the talent to regain a championship. DAVE TALBOTT Head coach, women’s squash “Playing a teammate is hard in any context, as it’s difficult to remain competitive,” said Mao, SEE WOMEN’S SQUASH PAGE 13
STAT OF THE DAY 7
came up against Fairleigh Dickinson (2-4, 0-1 Northeast). The doubles teams led the charge for Yale with wins at the second and third spots, 8–2 and 8–3, respectively. The No. 59 duo of Daniel Hoffman ’13 and Marc Powers ’13 did not finish their match. Yale’s top three players took the top three spots in two sets each. John Huang ’13 came out on top 6-4, 6–1 at No. 1, while Powers finished off at No.2 6-3, 6–3. Hoffman was also
The workers are Few
Ivies come to disappointing close BY GIOVANNI BACARELLA STAFF REPORTER Three weeks after the Ivy League Championship was postponed by last month’s blizzard, Yale’s fencers traveled to Cambridge, Mass., to compete against their Ivy-clad rivals at Harvard’s Albert H. Gordon Track on Saturday and Sunday.
FENCING By the end of the meet, the women’s team finished in sixth place with a 0–6 record while the men finished in fifth with a record of 1–4. The first day of fencing proved to be the most difficult for the Bulldogs, as both teams were pitched against their toughest Ancient Eight competitors. The men’s team’s single victory came on Sunday against Brown, which was also searching for its first win of the tournament. Foilist Lauren Miller ’15 said she thinks that the championship’s postponement negatively impacted the team’s focus. “It was hard to maintain the intensity we had in practice a month ago leading up to the blizzard through all of our midterms, illnesses and injuries,” Miller said. “I think most of my teammates would agree that the most unfortunate aspect of the delay was the way it threw us off mentally. It was difficult to maintain focus when we had those tough extra three weeks.” In its opening round against Penn, the
JENNIFER CHEUNG/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
The Yale women struggled at the Ivy Round Robins at Harvard after the championship was delayed for three weeks by the blizzard that hit the Northeast last month. women’s team fell 18–9, which was one of its closest differentials of the weekend. The Bulldogs continued to struggle in the matchups that followed, falling to both Harvard and Columbia by wide margins. The day ended with a 27–1 loss against
a Princeton team that went on to finish with an undefeated record and take the women’s round-robin crown. On Sunday, the Bulldog women went SEE FENCING PAGE 13
THE NUMBER OF POINTS THE NO. 49 YALE MEN’S TENNIS TEAM EARNED AGAINST MARIST AND STONY BROOK OVER THE WEEKEND. The Elis went undefeated in both singles and doubles, recording two perfect sweeps and extending their winning streak to five.