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 · WEDNESDAY, MARCH 6, 2013 · VOL. CXXXV, NO. 103 · yaledailynews.com
INSIDE THE NEWS MORNING EVENING
RAINY RAINY
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CROSS CAMPUS
ROBOTICS ARCHITECTS LOOK TO TECHNOLOGY
GUN CONTROL
VITA
SOFTBALL
Blumenthal part of bipartisan efforts to tighten trafficking laws
OVER $500,000 IN TAX REFUNDS AND CREDITS SAVED
Elis swept in seasonopening doubleheader against CCSU
PAGES 6-7 CULTURE
PAGE 3 CITY
PAGE 3 CITY
PAGE 12 SPORTS
HGS woes persist, for now
Public service announcement.
For those of you who will be on campus during spring break, today is the last day to register for a spring break dining plan. Fingers crossed every day will be chicken tenders day.
Thriftshopping spree. It looks like Macklemore & Ryan Lewis are making their rounds at college campuses this year. In addition to performing at Yale’s Spring Fling this April, the hip-hop duo will also make an appearance on April 7 at George Washington University alongside indie rock band Walk the Moon. And before canceling its shows, the pair was scheduled to sing at Columbia University and Williams College. One in six female Princeton
undergraduates have reported experiencing nonconsensual vaginal penetration during their time at the university, according to 2008 survey results published Monday in The Daily Princetonian. In addition, according to the survey, more than 28 percent of female undergraduates said they were touched in a sexual manner or had their clothes removed without their consent. The survey was completed by 1,595 Princeton students from the classes of 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011.
Preparing for Class Day?
Yale alum and Newark mayor Cory Booker LAW ’97 — who will deliver this year’s Class Day address — got some solid speech-giving practice on Tuesday night when he delivered his annual State of the City address, touting more affordable housing and reduced crime.
Compromise sought in state gun proposals BY MICHELLE HACKMAN STAFF REPORTER
ture problems, which may finally end after the completion of the University’s $100 million renovation of HGS, set to begin this summer, according to Deputy Provost Lloyd Suttle.
Over two months after a gunman killed 26 students and teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School, the state Legislature took a major step forward on Tuesday in passing gun violence and mental health services legislation intended to respond to the mass shooting. The gun violence and mental health services working groups, two of the three groups that make up the Legislature’s bipartisan task force, delivered their recommendations to be included in the task force’s final bill. The third working group, a panel that examined school security, delivered its recommendations almost two weeks ago. One of the task force’s leaders, Senate President Don Williams, said that it hopes to deliver an omnibus bill incorporating all three groups’ proposals by next Wednesday. “I understand that the incident that
SEE HGS RENOVATIONS PAGE 4
SEE GUN VIOLENCE PAGE 5
CLINTON WANG/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
A $100 million renovation of the dilapidated Hall of Graduate Studies is scheduled to begin this summer. BY CLINTON WANG STAFF REPORTER The Hall of Graduate Studies, plagued with heat, gloom, smells and floods, can now add toxins to its list of problems. The cancer-inducing building
material asbestos was detected over two weeks ago in the basement of HGS, forcing faculty members and classes to relocate while the hazard was removed. Though the asbestos was removed after a week, the incident represents the latest example of the building’s ongoing infrastruc-
Under Gibbons, library makes strides BY SOPHIE GOULD STAFF REPORTER Yale’s libraries amassed new physical and digital holdings and expanded their influence on academia during the 2011–’12 academic year, University Librarian Susan Gibbons said in an annual report posted on the library’s
website last week. After working at the University for nine years, former University Librarian Alice Prochaska announced in June 2009 that she would be leaving Yale for a position at Oxford. Over the next two years, Yale’s libraries faced a rapidly changing digital world and significant cuts to library bud-
gets under two interim University librarians, Gibbons told the News. But the library gained a measure of stability in July 2011 when Gibbons took over Prochaska’s position, and Gibbons said in her annual report that Yale’s librarians took great strides last year toward meeting modern needs for digital content while balancing
their simultaneous roles as librarians, educators and teachers. “This first year felt as if we were trying to reset ourselves, adjust to the new economic realities and chart a new course forward,” Gibbons said. Gibbons said in the report that academic libraries can no longer assume that their importance is
Speaking of graduation speakers, Harvard announced
on Monday that popular talk show host Oprah Winfrey will speak at the school’s 362nd Commencement on May 30. Winfrey has previously spoken at Stanford, Duke and Spelman College. As one astute online observer noted, “The Lance Armstrong interviews have proven that Oprah is always the perfect choice for an institution in the aftermath of a cheating scandal.”
Debating mental health. The Connecticut subcommittee on mental health access has recommended that teachers, counselors, nurses and community members receive instruction on “mental health first aid” to identify mental health illness early on and respond quickly to psychiatric emergencies. The items will be included in a bill that will come for a vote on March 13, according to the New Haven Register. THIS DAY IN YALE HISTORY
1943 The newly elected Whiffenpoofs, representing members from the class of 1944, announce that they will discontinue all activities until the end of the war. Submit tips to Cross Campus
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Grad students question online ed BY JANE DARBY MENTON STAFF REPORTER As Yale contemplates new initiatives in online education, graduate students are seeking ways to participate in the University discussion. At December’s faculty meeting, the Ad Hoc Yale College Committee on Online Education presented a report suggesting possible routes the University could take to expand online, including offering for-credit courses to Yale undergraduates and the public during the academic year and expanding online offerings during the summer. Members of the Graduate Student Assembly have criticized the report for failing to include graduate student input and have raised questions about the potential ramifications of new policies on the teaching fellows program. “A lot of graduate students are in charge of discussion sections. … They’re managing the environment where the students create knowledge by talking to each other and engaging in conversation with each other,” said Ksenia Sidorenko GRD ’15, who is leading the effort to discuss online education through the GSA. “It’s not yet clear how these proposSEE ONLINE EDUCATION PAGE 5
universally understood in an age of computer brands and websites like Google, Amazon and Apple. Yale’s libraries not only preserve knowledge, Gibbons said, but also play an active role as a partner to Yale in research and academic excellence through teachSEE LIBRARY REPORT PAGE 4
Connecticut powers startups BY RAYMOND NOONAN CONTRIBUTING REPORTER Sitting at a table with no more than her laptop, Judi Otton had all she needed to grow her new company. Otton was working at New Haven’s The Grove, a coworking space of one of four entrepreneurship incubators, or “hubs,” across Connecticut receiving funding from Gov. Dannel Malloy’s new Innovation Ecosystem project. The Innovation Ecosystem, which the governor’s office revealed last October, is a $5 million public-private initiative intended to spur economic growth in Connecticut by supporting small businesses and entrepreneurs through a number of programs. Besides funding the “hubs,” which are located in New Haven, Hartford, Stamford and Storrs, the Innovation Ecosystem will provide mentoring and assessment services meant to support entrepreneurs statewide. Last week, Mayor John Destefano Jr. attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony for an extension of The Grove called The Grid, the New Haven hub located beside The Grove on Orange St. The Grid largely consists of new office space and will help roll out many of the Innovation Ecosystem’s new programs. “We haven’t found a single state that’s attempting to create the type of network we’re trying to create,” said Tim Coates, managing director of the Innovation Ecosystem.
MAP INNOVATION ECOSYSTEM HUB LOCATIONS Storrs Hartford
New Haven
Stamford Five-sixths of the Innovation Ecosystem’s budget will go to the hubs, which will provide financial, technical, strategic and mentorship assistance to budding small businesses. Besides attending talks and networking events, small business owners may sign up for a diagnostic at a hub where experienced entrepreneurs evaluate a company’s growth potential. If a company’s growth potential is great enough, the hub will open up all of its resources to the company. Hubs across the state have accepted 205 ventures thus far,
according to Coates. Otton’s company, which creates financial applications for small businesses, doesn’t have a name yet. But since starting two months ago, Otton has found the Grove’s resources valuable. “It’s wonderful [here]. There’s so many people to collaborate with,” Otton said. The Grove provides small offices, meeting rooms, storage space and a resource library, as well as free tea and coffee for its memSEE THE GRID PAGE 4