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 26, 2013 · VOL. CXXXV, NO. 107 · yaledailynews.com
INSIDE THE NEWS MORNING EVENING
CLOUDY CLEAR
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CROSS CAMPUS Another city race. The race to replace Mayor John DeStefano Jr. is not the only ongoing race in the Elm City. Ward 26 Alderman Sergio Rodriguez has launched an active campaign to be New Haven’s next city clerk, the city’s top administrative position. The city clerk handles all public documents, including claims and suits against the city, liquor permits, and absentee ballots for local elections. Rodriguez launched a walking tour campaign on Saturday and has already hired a campaign manager and social media point person. New kid on the block.
The former Hot Tomato’s restaurant next to Shubert Theater is getting a replacement: Roia Restaurant & Cafe, a 1920s-themed restaurant, according to food blog Bite of the Best. Fingers crossed that Jay Gatsby makes an appearance. Buy you a drank. Or maybe not. The Yale College Council is hosting an open forum today with the University Council Committee on Alcohol, a committee comprised of experts and Yale alumni and parents, to discuss alcohol use at Yale. The committee will submit its recommendations regarding Yale’s alcohol policy to University President Richard Levin, President-elect Peter Salovey and Yale College Dean Mary Miller over the summer. Rethinking health care. Yale
journalism instructor Steven Brill’s ’72 LAW ’75 36-page health care exposé, published March 4 in Time magazine, has continued to make waves weeks after its publication. The Time cover story, which at 24,105 words was the longest ever printed in the magazine, revealed inflated medical charges that account for the 11.7 percent average profit margin for nonprofit hospitals nationwide. The story has been shared by more than 4,000 people on Facebook, and at one point, peaked at 32,000 simultaneous page views.
Trouble in Tennessee. The University of Tennessee has pulled funding for its studentproduced “Sex Week” after conservative lawmakers complained about several planned events, including one on oral sex called “How Many Licks Does It Take” and a “Golden Condom Scavenger Hunt.” Keep your eyes peeled.
There’s something fishy in Berkeley. According to a Monday afternoon email to Berkeley students, a vacant storage room in Berkeley’s subbasement was “inappropriately accessed” over break. The identity of the culprits is still unknown.
THIS DAY IN YALE HISTORY
1924 The 24th annual exhibition of the New Haven Paint and Clay Club, held at the Yale School of Fine Arts, opens to the public today. Submit tips to Cross Campus
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ALCOHOL HEAVY DRINKERS RISK DEPENDENCE
FRAT CITY
FELLOWSHIPS
MEN’S TENNIS
Dissolved in 1963, Yale’s Chi Psi fraternity finds new beginning
CIPE WEBSITE AIMS TO STREAMLINE APP NAVIGATION
No. 51 Bulldogs sweep unranked weekend competition at home
PAGES 6–7 SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
PAGE 3 NEWS
PAGE 5 NEWS
PAGE 12 SPORTS
Green Expectations
Fernandez to enter mayoral race
GRAPH SUNTECH SHARE PRICE, IN DOLLARS 100
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untech, one of four clean energy companies profiled in Yale’s 2009 investment report as a promising green venture, made headlines last week after its Chinese subsidiary declared bankruptcy. SOPHIE GOULD reports.
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overcome their current setbacks. Chief Investment Officer David Swensen declined to comment for this article. “There are many fine investments in the energy sector, but there is an added level of risk, namely policy risk, that is not present in many markets,” said Christopher Knittel, a professor of energy economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in a Monday email, adding that this increased risk can sometimes result in better returns. “Investors in companies like these
Henry Fernandez LAW ’94, CEO of the consulting firm Fernandez Advisors — a group that provides support for nonprofits and progressive movements nationwide — will soon be joining the race to replace current Mayor John DeStefano Jr. Fernandez, a former economic development administrator for the city and the co-founder of LEAP, a youth agency in New Haven, told the News that he has a vision for New Haven as “one city,” and that the Elm City has potential in its diversity, the entrepreneurship of its immigrant communities and its various college campuses. Fernandez’s entry into the mayoral race comes as probate Judge Jack Keyes discussed his potential candidacy and Hillhouse High School principal Kermit Carolina is set to announce his plans with regards to the race, adding to a field that is growing increasingly crowded. “It’s no question that I’m proven as someone who knows how to effectively run city government, but I think that what I really believe is that we do function best as one city, where we all believe that other people’s success is our success,” Fernandez said. “I’d like to think that this campaign will be about weaving
SEE SUNTECH PAGE 8
SEE MAYORAL RACE PAGE 4
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At least two of the four energy companies profiled in Yale’s 2009 annual investment report are struggling. Suntech Power Holdings Co. — once the world’s largest supplier of solar panels — announced Thursday that its main subsidiary in Wuxi, China, was declaring bankruptcy. A day later, Mascoma Corporation, a cellulosic ethanol technologies company, withdrew its longplanned initial public offering, or IPO, citing “market conditions.” These two companies — along with Silver Spring Networks, which develops network applications
2009
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enabling utilities to manage their electricity grids, and HT Blade, a wind power company — were profiled in two three-page spreads on promising green ventures and investments in the 2009 annual Yale Investments Office report. Though it is unclear whether Yale still invests in these companies because the Investments Office does not disclose its holdings, experts interviewed said predicting which companies will come out on top is particularly difficult in the energy sector because of capricious changes in public policy, noting that these companies may eventually
Football juniors must live on campus
BY DIANA LI STAFF REPORTER
2011
2012
Little change for Yale-NUS
BY CHARLES CONDRO AND KIRSTEN SCHNACKENBERG STAFF REPORTERS Although Yale College only requires students to live in on-campus housing for their freshman and sophomore years, members of the football team will now have to remain on campus for their junior year. Head football coach Tony Reno informed members of the team of the new policy last semester. As the first Yale football coach to promote such a rule, Reno said he will make the policy known to all potential recruits for the team in coming years. He added that the policy aims to encourage football players to integrate more fully into their residential colleges and to afford them access to better nutrition and academic resources than they might find off campus. “One of the most important things in our recruiting is that we make a big deal about the residential colleges,” Reno said. “If you’re going to base your program on that and you’re not going to encourage students to live there, you’re really not practicing what you preach.” Reno added that the policy is not related to football players’ participation in Greek life, or the Delta Kappa Epsilon and Zeta Psi fraternities specifically, which have the reputation of drawing football players. Team captain Beau Palin ’14 said the team was first informed about the policy upon returning to school following the end of their season in the fall. He added that there was debate about the policy when Reno announced it to the team’s leadership council, but the council ultimately supported Reno’s decision. SEE FOOTBALL PAGE 4
MARIA ZEPEDA/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
An early proponent of the Yale-NUS venture, President-elect Peter Salovey plans to maintain the University’s commitment to the Singaporean college. BY ALEKSANDRA GJORGIEVSKA AND JULIA ZORTHIAN STAFF REPORTERS President-elect Peter Salovey will fly to Singapore next month for meetings with Yale-NUS administrators as he continues to prepare for the University presidency. But when the former provost arrives at the Singaporean campus, the buildings under construction will be a familiar sight. Salovey was one of the initial professors and administrators to first visit the campus site in 2009, when Yale and the National University of Singapore were still negotiating the terms of the new college. Yale-NUS administrators said Salovey has been active in planning the project since its inception, and Pericles Lewis,
president of the new college, said he regularly informs Salovey of its progress. Because Yale’s next president has been involved throughout its development, administrators interviewed said they do not expect any major changes to the direction of the Singaporean venture after Salovey takes office on June 30. Yale-NUS Dean of Faculty Charles Bailyn said he does not anticipate changes in Yale’s institutional commitment or approach to Yale-NUS under Salovey. “It is possible that President Salovey will take a less hands-on approach given [University President Richard] Levin’s continuing involvement, but I do not foresee any changes in institutional commitment or approach,” Bailyn added.
After he leaves his position at the helm of Yale’s administration, Levin will remain on Yale-NUS’s governing board — an administrative body equivalent to the Yale Corporation. Though Salovey said he has not yet taken on any new roles in YaleNUS, he will join the board in June when he assumes the presidency. Lewis said he consults the governing board on topics including the budget, faculty hiring and general administrative issues. The board holds eight meetings annually, two of which take place in Singapore. “The main difference is that as of June 30, [Salovey] will be the president of Yale,” Levin said. “Decisions about Yale’s involvement with the project and the degree of SEE YALE-NUS PAGE 8
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YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, MARCH 26, 2013 · yaledailynews.com
OPINION
.COMMENT “Unintended or not I welcomed the chance to make a small differyaledailynews.com/opinion
Booker and the American city “H
e’s not even that famous — and ugh, he’s just a mayor of a random city.” These are the two biggest complaints I’ve heard from my classmates in the past few weeks about 2013 Class Day speaker Cory Booker LAW ’97, mayor of Newark, N.J. While these sentiments don’t quite make my blood boil, they definitely turn on the stove. Harvard is getting Oprah, they point out, and Ohio State will have the sitting president of the United States himself, Barack Obama. These two personalities are households names in a way Booker is not, my friends argue — and isn’t the whole point of the affair to brag, anyway? I’ll concede that Obama and Oprah are more famous, though Booker is a rising star in the Democratic Party and Obama pretty much a hasbeen at this point (kidding, kidding). But the focus of Class Day is absolutely not the speaker, and therefore his or her fame is utterly irrelevant. In fact, it can be a negative; someone as famous as Oprah or Obama would be distracting, overshadowing the chance to celebrate the accomplishments of the class of 2013 and its admittance to the rights and responsibilities of Yale graduates. In this atmosphere, it is primarily the delivery and message of the speech that matters. Booker is by all accounts a fantastic speaker, and will doubtless present an inspirational oration. But his very selection sends an important message as well — about the nobility, importance, and above all, relative anonymity of good public service. According to my quick backof-the-envelope math, only about 34 million people live in the 25 biggest cities in the United States — about 11 percent of all Americans. So while an online comment on the News article announcing Booker as speaker (“Cory Booker named Class Day speaker,” Feb. 12) would have you believe there are “literally hundreds of people who would be more relevant than this mayor of a third-rate city,” the vast majority of Americans, whose experiences are that of life in a midsize or small city, might beg to differ. Few things could be more important or relevant to the future quality of life in our country than the competent management of cities, many of which are indeed, sadly, “third-rate” at the moment. Where transportation networks are aging, inefficient or nonexistent, economic growth is hobbled due to diminishing labor mobility. Moreover, people are trapped in their neighborhoods or in traffic, reducing the power of collaboration that physical proximity ideally gen-
erates. City services like police and fire protection are under pressure because of growing pension and MICHAEL health care and MAGDZIK outlays, some municipalities — priMaking marily in California — have Magic been forced to declare bankruptcy. In what is touted as the richest country in the world, people live in dirty, overcrowded and dangerous housing — or worse, on the very streets themselves. These are not just issues in the most attractive or exciting cities, like Boston, San Francisco, Chicago or New York (Yalies really love New York). These issues are present in almost every city in America, from New Haven to Newark. And they need dedicated, intelligent, creative and passionate leaders to resolve them. This sounds like a job for graduating Yalies. Whether through municipal administration, journalism, entrepreneurship, medicine, law, public policy or any other means, the problems of the 21st century will require innovative responses in these cities, too. Most importantly, the relative contribution one Yalie can make in a place like Mobile, Ala., or Worcester, Mass., might be far greater than what they would make in a place like New York City. If you don’t take the job as a junior adviser to the wellknown nonprofit headquartered there, chances are the next person to come along will have similar competencies. But what about cities with a dearth of robust civic leadership? Cultivating them and unlocking their potential may be just as important to our nation’s survival and revitalization as any work in the Big Apple. That’s what Booker stands for, in my mind. Newark has been through some rough times, no doubt. So has New Haven, for that matter. But Booker has persisted in his belief that it isn’t just established cultural centers, financial capitals and technological hubs that can succeed as cities. He’s leveraged his superior academic training — Stanford, Oxford on the Rhodes scholarship, Yale Law — to make serious strides toward making Newark first-rate. So you might not know who he is right now. But that’s fine. You just have to share in his vision — and find a silly hat. MICHAEL MAGDZIK is a senior in Berkeley College. His column runs on Tuesdays. Contact him at michael. magdzik@yale.edu .
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COPYRIGHT 2013 — VOL. CXXXV, NO. 107
ence.”
'STEVE RIBSI' ON 'COMING OUT'
GUEST COLUMNIST TYLER BLACKMON
When home isn’t single-sex I
t only took me a few months to find my home at Yale. As much as I appreciated the convenience of living literally next door to the laundry room in the basement of Farnam Hall (you can blame me for a few missing red crates), I found myself gravitating to a suite two floors up with six girls and six guys. I say “suite” — singular — because though the University wouldn’t consider us a suite, our informal housing arrangement has become a home. By leaving the door open between our pair of sextets, we have created a single family for a number of Farnamites, regardless of gender. We study here. We relax here. We gossip here. This is home. But when a mixed-gender group of us wanted to share a suite as sophomores, we hit a wall. Though Yale offers genderneutral housing for both juniors and seniors, the University has so far refused to allow men and women to room together during their sophomore year. It is time that this misguided, outdated policy ended. Continuing to divide Yalies with artificial barriers like gender is counterproductive to the
sense of community we seek to foster on campus and is an affront to students who feel just as, if not more, comfortable living with members of another sex. After all, during freshman year, Yale goes to great lengths to ensure we can open ourselves up to find a solid and diverse group of friends, and for that, I’m grateful. Why, then, does Yale reverse its spirit of openness by mandating single-gender housing sophomore year? Council of Masters Chair Jonathan Holloway has a clunky answer for that one. “There are a whole host of cognitive and social abilities sophomores are still forming, and I think many are not quite ready for the interesting complications that may arise from gender-neutral housing,” he told the News (“YCC works to bring sophomores mixed-gender housing,” Feb. 14). But does Holloway seriously believe Yalies undergo a revolution in maturity between their sophomore and junior years? And if Holloway’s prevailing logic is that sophomores cannot handle living in close proximity to potential sexual partners, then he flatly ignores the scores of LGBTQ stu-
dents on campus (I hear there are one or two) who already struggle with the “interesting complications” of single-sex housing. LGBTQ students have lived with people of a gender to which they are attracted since Yale’s founding, and most have not been deeply traumatized by it. Surely straight students are mature enough to make decisions about housing in the same way LGBTQ students have for as long as Yale has existed.
WE NEED GENDERNEUTRAL HOUSING FOR SOPHOMORES Gender-neutral housing allows students to make adult decisions based on factors that make sense to them. For some, that choice might include living with members of a gender to which they’re not attracted. For others, it might mean living with people who like the same video games or have the same sleep schedule.
For the vast majority of students, a switch to gender-neutral housing would change nothing. Most men will continue to room with men, and women with women, as is the case with most juniors and seniors. But, for a select few, this new freedom will allow them to plan more natural rooming assignments and foster a more robust community at home. When approached with the possibility of extending a genderneutral option to sophomores, Yale administrators repeatedly ask for “time.” But how many more years of this antiquated policy must we live through before we bow to reality and join Harvard, Columbia, Dartmouth, Brown and the University of Pennsylvania? A stubborn administration has already denied my class the opportunity to create the more natural communities that gender-neutral housing allows. We should refuse to let it happen again. TYLER BLACKMON is a freshman in Jonathan Edwards College. Contact him at tyler.blackmon@yale.edu .
YALE TALKS PASSOVER Our Passover Asking better story GUEST COLUMNIST CA R O L I N E SY D N EY
E
very year, the Golden family reunites to celebrate Passover, as some subset of our family has for more than 70 years. For two nights, we eat, drink and sing songs extraordinarily offkey, and I begin the long, drawnout process of living on unleavened bread that tastes like cardboard for over a week. When I was little, Passover was my favorite holiday: I loved seeing my cousins, with whom I wrote and performed a series of Passover plays, and I enjoyed my grandmother’s matzo ball soup. Because I was young, I overlooked the tension that inevitably comes when three generations of Jews with complicated relationships with their faith and to each other spend time under the same roof. Now, I live those complications, and it is both harder and more important to celebrate Passover because of them. The source of some of this tension is the fact that my father and his two brothers married nonJewish women, though all three brothers raised their children as Jews. While there’s a wide spectrum of belief amongst us (my brother is an atheist, though don’t tell my grandfather), we all toe the line in public. Passover is our concession to our Jewish identity. We celebrate it for our grandparents, who are much-beloved and aging, and for our fathers, who left home and don’t go back often. The story of my family’s Passover reunion is not unlike the story of many other Jews in the United States and around the world: the ritual of holding Seders, epic meals at which we tell the story of the Exodus from Egypt, is a collective action that reminds Jews of how ancient the religion is. Jews hold Seders on the same two nights; for the same eight days, we all eat unleavened bread; at the end of every Seder, we all wish each other “Next year in Jerusalem,” a return to the Holy Land. Together, Jews become ritualmakers and storytellers remembering past suffering and praying for a better future. We are connected to each other and to Jews throughout all of history. At the same time as the Seder enacts tradition, it also represents the possibility for innovation. In the center of every Seder table is the Seder plate, on which the most sacred symbols of the holiday are placed. In the last few decades, additional symbols have been added to the plate in the wake of feminist, LGBT and peace advocacy: a cup to represent the importance of Moses’
sister, Miriam, in the Passover story; an orange to celebrate the fact that women and the LGBT community ZOE can now parMERCER- ticipate fully many forms GOLDEN in of Judaism; and, in some Meditations cases, an olive branch, which acknowledges the suffering of Palestinians in the Middle East and the hope for peace in the region. Over the last many years, our family added first Miriam’s cup, then the orange, though we have yet to add the olive branch, partially because my grandparents are self-proclaimed Zionists who avoid discussing the realities of life in Palestine. This final symbol — the olive branch — is a potent symbol of the ways in which my relationship to the holiday has changed since childhood. After years of working at a conflict resolution camp for Israelis and Palestinians, I have made the symbolic olive branches central to my life. At the same time, I know from more than 20 years of attending Seders how challenging the inclusion of the branch would be for my grandparents. Even as the Seder represents the possibility for maintaining traditions and holding families and communities together over time, the very symbols that define the tradition can become problematic, contentious and subject to different interpretations. We can love the holiday — and our families — while also struggling to reconcile what we believe with what they believe and what they want from us. This year, I am hosting my first Seder for friends at Yale. If I can find an olive branch in time, we’ll put it on our Seder plate. In the future, I’ll try to balance the person I am expected to be at our family’s Seder with the person I am becoming at my own. Next year, almost certainly not in Jerusalem, I hope I’ll be brave enough to have a real conversation with my grandparents about symbols and traditions. The beauty of Passover is that it’s been around a long time — and we all get to be part of its perpetual reinvention. ZOE MERCER-GOLDEN is a senior in Davenport College. Her column runs on alternate Tuesdays. Contact her at zoe.mercer-golden@yale.edu .
questions
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ecessity, they say, is the mother of invention, but in my experience, boredom has proved far more prolific. At least, boredom better explains the bizarre traditions that have emerged from my family’s never-ending Seders, dinners held on the first two nights of Passover to recount the story of the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt. We decorate the table with succulents to evoke years of wandering in the desert, cover one another in giant, red, circular stickers to re-enact the plague of boils and belt “If I Had a Hammer” — in eight different keys — to celebrate freedom. My favorite tradition by far is a reading that accompanies the Four Questions — “Why is tonight different from all other nights?” — about the physicist Isidor Rabi. Each day when he returned from school, rather than asking him how his day was, or what he had learned, his mother instead would greet him with the following inquiry: “Izzy, did you ask a good question today?” This daily exchange, Rabi believes, led him to ask and seek the answer to the good questions that drive his career.
SELF-DOUBT IS SEASONALLY APPROPRIATE I knew this anecdote word for word by heart at the age of 8, I’d read it so many times. Seriously, if you would like a private and very abridged Seder, come find me and I’ll be happy to recite it for you. This year, I’ve gone above and beyond merely memorizing my part. One could call it Method Acting: Seder Edition. For the past month and a half, I have engaged in an almost constant self-interrogation: “What am I going to do with my life?” Pause. “Seriously though, what am I going to do with my life?” Sigh. “What-am-I-going-todo-with-my-liiiiiife!” Then, I squeeze my eyes tightly shut, willing some image of my future to appear on the backs of my eyelids. It does not.
I do not recommend trying this at home, though I suspect many of you already have. I can’t say, though, that this self-interrogation has been purely Passover-fueled. It’s fueled in part by an internship search that’s left me waiting for replies from companies and institutions that may or may not want to hire me, in part by a reshuffling of academic interests that has obscured any clear vision of a path ahead, and in part by the realization that in just a few weeks I will no longer be a freshman, but someone who’s supposed to have a notion of what she’s doing here. Honestly, I can’t decide on the scariest part of my spring break — the angry red spine of my copy of “War and Peace” staring me down from my nightstand, or these unknowns blaring just as angrily in my head. In Hebrew, the word “Seder” means “order,” which is funny, because for a while, I felt as though my questioning had sent my life spiraling into disorder. So it’s nice to have these two nights of Seder, and of course Izzy, to reassure me that this questioning is part of my heritage, good for me and seasonally appropriate. I don’t need to be able to draw a straight line from an internship this summer to the career I’ll be happiest with when I’m 32. It’s okay that I’m reconsidering the names I’ve chosen for my children. I am not an Israelite wandering in the desert. For now, I’ll simply pursue the things I enjoy for their own sake — inclinations may be the only things guiding me. And I, who ordinarily cannot live without my planner and checklist, am going to try and be okay with that. Most importantly, I will continue to ask questions. Not the open-ended, scary kind (can you even know what you’re doing with your life until it’s over?), but the productive and thought-provoking kind, the kind the first Seders in the fourth and fifth centuries hoped to generate. Matzo really is the ultimate food for thought. CAROLINE SYDNEY is a freshman in Silliman College. Contact her at caroline.sydney@yale.edu .
YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, MARCH 26, 2013 · yaledailynews.com
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NEWS
“Great perils have this beauty, that they bring to light the fraternity of strangers.” VICTOR HUGO FRENCH WRITER KNOWN FOR HIS NOVELS “LES MISÉRABLES” AND “THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE-DAME”
Chi Psi fraternity returns to campus BY CYNTHIA HUA STAFF REPORTER T we n t y - t wo f re s h m e n and four juniors have reactivated Yale’s chapter of Chi Psi, a national fraternity that had roughly active 300 members before dissolving in 1963. Fraternity President Michael Herbert ’16, who was familiar with Chi Psi’s chapter at the University of Colorado at Boulder, initiated the effort to recruit members last October following a visit from Chi Psi national representatives last year to gauge interest in forming a new chapter. After hosting its first mixer
TIMELINE CHI PSI AT YALE 1924 Chi Psi at Yale forms. 1960 Chi Psi sells its original house, located where the Af-Am House currently stands. 1963 Chi Psi at Yale dissolves. FEBRUARY 2012 Justin Froeber, leadership consultant for Chi Psi fraternity, arrives on campus for a two-day visit to determine the feasibility of creating a Yale chapter. FEBRUARY 2013 A Yale chapter is officially approved by the Chi Psi Executive Council. MARCH 7, 2013 Chi Psi hosts "Founder's Night."
in Durfee Hall in March, the fraternity plans to hold a party open to all undergraduates to “debut into the social scene at Yale” in Vanderbilt Hall on April 5, Harrison Miller ’16 said. Fraternity members interviewed said Chi Psi will be different from existing fraternities because it emphasizes brotherhood above social aspects. “Chi Psi [brings] a new facet to the Yale Greek-life experience, not so much party-oriented but to develop a brotherhood in which members improve themselves,” Miller said. “We’re going to have parties and we’re going to have fun, but we really want to foster cohesion.” Representatives from Chi Psi national have been considering reopening a Yale chapter since January 2012, when Leadership Consultant for the Chi Psi Fraternity Justin Froeber visited campus and concluded a new chapter had the potential to form within the next few years. On Tuesday, Assistant Executive Director of Chi Psi national Bradley Breskin will arrive in New Haven to check in with current Chi Psi members and meet Yale administrators. So far, Chi Psi leaders have not worked closely with other fraternities, Herbert said, adding that he is not very familiar with the campus Greek scene because he is a freshman. At a meeting with administrators and Greek life leaders in February, he said other fraternity leaders advised him to “find the kind of person you’re looking for.” But Herbert said he thinks Chi Psi is unique because its brothers come from a wide variety of backgrounds. “One of the things that’s big for us — we want to avoid being a fraternity that only picks from one pool,” Herbert said. “If you took the guys rushing our frater-
CHI PSI FRATERNITY
The Yale chapter of the Chi Psi fraternity, which dissolved in 1963, has been reactived by 22 freshmen and four juniors. nity and made them rush another fraternity on campus, I think you’d get a lot of diversity.” The fraternity is not affiliated with any particular athletic team, and the majority of its members are not varsity athletes, Herbert added. Their current membership includes a few Reserve Officers’ Training Corps members, several members of the Yale Political Union’s Tory Party, a member of the Freshman Class Council, and two members of Yale’s club skeet and trap team, he said. Members are planning other events that teach life skills in addition to incorporating social aspects, such as a course on din-
ing etiquette and a cocktail party with faculty members, said Gary Sharp ’16, the standards and risk-management chair. The group plans to take few risks with throwing parties this year and hopes to build up a trusting relationship with the administrators. The group has already become the only fraternity registered with the Dean’s Office, said Miller, the group’s social chair. “I would be very surprised if the University imposed anything that is different from what we already expect our men to do in terms of risk-management and safety,” Froeber said. Herbert said he senses that in
Lawmakers seek Newtown report
the past, other fraternities and administrators have had issues of trust and that he hopes Chi Psi will be able to build up goodwill with the University. Students will be taking a risk in joining a “startup frat,” Miller said, but he believes that the appeal of their mission and their legacy at Yale will help the fraternity’s success. Yale’s Chi Psi chapter has roughly 300 to 400 living alumni — the largest alumni network of any chapter, Herbert said — which could significantly help the fraternity’s finances. Herbert started a “Million Dollar Mission” for the fraternity that aims to raise a million dollars
Neil Heslin, whose son was killed in the Newtown shooting, testified at a legislative gun-control hearing in January. BY MICHELLE HACKMAN STAFF REPORTER After details began to leak from the ongoing police investigation into the Sandy Hook shooting, lawmakers — including Gov. Dannel Malloy and House Minority Leader Lawrence Cafero — have called on the Chief State Attorney’s Office to release an official interim report of the investigation’s findings thus far. The lawmakers’ demands came after several incidents over the last few months in which state police leaked details of the investigation to news sources outside the state before providing the same information to state officials. Mark Dupuis, a spokesman for the Chief State Attorney’s Office, said that while a complete report will likely not be released until June, the office has agreed to share some details of its investigation with the Legislature this week. He added that it has not yet been determined on which day and in what form the information would come. “Like many others, I was disappointed and angered to learn that certain information about the Newtown shooting had been leaked, specifically with concern for the victims’ families who may have been hearing this news for the first time,” Malloy said in a press conference last week. The governor’s demand for an interim report came on the heels of
a presentation that state police officer Col. Danny R. Stebbins delivered this month to police in New Orleans, which included new details about the shooting. In the presentation, Stebbins discussed at great length Newtown shooter Adam Lanza’s preoccupation with other incidents of mass murder and methodical approach of preparing his weapons. In order to ensure that he would not run out of bullets, for example, Lanza purportedly taped together multiple 30-round magazines. An interim report, Cafero and other Republican lawmakers have said, would help shape the bill they are currently negotiating, which contains proposed legislation to tighten gun laws, strengthen the state’s mental health care system and bolster school security. The bill is widely expected to contain legislation restricting the sale of assaultstyle semi-automatic weapons, limiting the legal size of ammunition magazines and instituting a universal background check system for gun purchasers. But Malloy added that he was “bewildered” by Cafero’s suggestion that additional information would impact the legislation under negotiation. “We know for a fact that on Dec. 14, a very disturbed young man took a military-style rifle with high-capacity magazines into a school and mur-
dered 20 innocent children and six innocent adults,” Malloy said. “We know he had access to that weapon and others, although they were registered to someone else.” Cafero and Senate Minority Leader John McKinney could not be reached for comment. However, Rich Burgess, president of gun rights organization Connecticut Carry, said he doubts that the legislators will take into account any information that an investigation into the shooting might reveal. He said that the specifics of the case suggest that Lanza would have found a way to circumvent any gun-control legislation put in place to prevent a massacre such as the one he committed. Instead, he said, lawmakers are simply taking the opportunity to push an agenda they always supported. “The kid shot his mother in the face,” Burgess said. “To think that somebody as methodical and intelligent as he reportedly was would be deterred is ridiculous. But that won’t change the Legislature’s mind. They’ve already made their decision.” Senate President Pro Tempore Don Williams told reporters late last week that, in light of the information expected to be released this week, the Legislature has delayed a vote on its omnibus bill until after Easter. Contact MICHELLE HACKMAN at michelle.hackman@yale.edu .
Contact CYNTHIA HUA at cynthia.hua@yale.edu .
Bank construction resumes after stop orders BY MATTHEW LLOYD-THOMAS STAFF REPORTER
SARA MILLER/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
from alumni donations to fund events and eventually a fraternity house. The fraternity began receiving emails showing interest in financial support from alumni before its current members had even started to reach out for the fundraising campaign, Sharp said. The fraternity also hopes to receive funding from the University, he added. Founded in 1924, the Yale chapter of Chi Psi counts former Secretary of the Treasury Nicholas Brady ’52 and founder of Time Inc. Henry Luce ’20 among its alumni.
Nearly two weeks after an order from the state’s Labor Department halted construction, work has resumed on an Amity branch of Chase Bank, the retail arm of banking giant JPMorgan Chase. The branch — which is located no more than 20 feet from the New Haven–Woodbridge town line on Amity Road — paused construction on March 14 when a stop-work order was issued to five companies involved in the project. The order came after a tip from the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration led to a state investigation of the site on March 13, which revealed that the five companies could not provide records showing proof of workers’ compensation and suggested that they were misclassifying their employees as independent contractors.
We take it very seriously when an employer fails to recognize their workers as employees of their company. SHARON PALMER Commissioner, Connecticut Department of Labor In misclassifying its employees as independent subcontractors, a firm can circumvent laws requiring it to pay workers’ compensation and unemployment taxes and to report accurate information on their payrolls to the government. Workers’ compensation is a form of insurance that substitutes for wages if a worker is injured on the job and cannot work. “We take it very seriously when an employer fails to recognize their workers as employees of their company,” State Labor Commissioner Sharon Palmer said in a statement on March 14, noting that the practice allows employers to “avoid providing certain protections, such as workers’ compensation. When an employer fails to pay for the proper coverage for injuries suffered on the job, and a worker gets hurt, the state’s taxpayers ultimately foot the bill.” Stop-work orders mandate that companies cease all work at a construction site until the order is lifted. They also require the company to pay a $300 penalty for each day it failed
to pay workers’ compensation. Once issued an order, a firm has 10 days to appeal. If it can show “proof of appropriate coverage,” according to the Department of Labor, construction on a site can resume. But in an apparent disconnect between JPMorgan Chase and the Department of Labor, construction at the site has since restarted, and several companies could be seen working on the project at 149 Amity Road Monday afternoon. According to Gary Pechie, the director of the Wage and Workplace Standards Division of the Department of Labor, the orders are yet to be lifted. JPMorgan Chase spokeswoman Melissa Shuffield, however, said that only a day after the orders were issued, the labor violations were found only to apply to four subcontractors hired by general contractor Franchise Contractors, which have since been replaced. Shuffield said that the stop-work order for Franchise Contractors has been lifted, and Franchise Contractors remains the general contractor for the project. Tyler Lazier, a project administrator for Franchise Contractors, confirmed Shuffield’s statement that the order had been lifted. The state’s orders took JPMorgan Chase by surprise, Shuffield said. She noted that the bank had worked with Franchise Contractors several times before without incident. According to the contractor’s website, it has also built JPMorgan Chase branches in Staten Island, N.Y., Syracuse, N.Y., and East Brunswick, N.J., among other locations. Shuffield said that JPMorgan Chase is in the process of making changes to how it oversees the construction of branches as a result of the stop-work orders. “Based on this experience we are now making changes at JPMorgan Chase requiring all of our contractors to provide to us … the proper paperwork and documentation of their subcontractors,” Shuffield said. Pechie said none of the five firms to which the state issued orders had received stop-work orders in the past. The Connecticut Department of Labor began enforcing misclassification laws in October 2007. Since then, it has issued 872 stop-work orders across the state, according to the Department of Labor. The state has collected $513,000 in fines as a result. Contact MATTHEW LLOYD-THOMAS at matthew.lloyd-thomas@yale.edu .
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YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, MARCH 26, 2013 · yaledailynews.com
FROM THE FRONT
“I am not better than anyone else just because I play football.” TIM TEBOW AMERICAN FOOTBALL QUARTERBACK FOR THE NEW YORK JETS AND FORMERLY THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
Fourth candidate joins mayoral race MAYORAL RACE FROM PAGE 1 the city together and making sure everyone’s voice is heard.” Bruce Ditman, Fernandez’s campaign treasurer, said that Fernandez has an “excellent track record” that not everybody has, and that Fernandez’s “one city” campaign demonstrates his ability to formulate a vision for the city. Fernandez said that he has worked on a variety of projects in New Haven, such as bringing Gateway Community College to downtown and Ikea to Long Wharf, turning around the Shubert Theatre after it became insolvent, growing business districts and increasing owneroccupied houses in various neighborhoods throughout the city. Esther Massie, the current
executive director of LEAP, said that she “knew Fernandez was going to run for mayor someday” when she first met him. Fernandez was the executive director for seven years and Massie’s superior when she first joined the organization. Massie, who called Fernandez an “incredibly smart, savvy and intelligent man,” said that he is unique as a candidate because of his ability to manage people while forming and executing a vision. “Henry clearly had a vision for LEAP and created the organization in such a way that we have been able to be around for 21 years,” Massie said. “He has a great ability to manage individuals, departments, strategic plans and outcomes. He’s charismatic and in his various roles over the last 20 years, he has been able to interact with and connect with a
GARY HOLDER-WINFIELD
variety of types of people.” Unlike current candidates Ward 10 Alderman Justin Elicker FES ’10 SOM ’10 and state Rep. Gary Holder-Winfield, Fernandez said that while he supports the Democracy Fund — New Haven’s public campaign finance program for mayoral candidates — he will not use it for the election because the five months until the election is not enough time for him to use the system effectively. In order to have sufficient time to fundraise through the Democracy Fund, Fernandez said he would have needed to make the decision to run about a year before the election. But the Democracy Fund’s administrator, Ken Krayeske, said that the public has expressed a desire to see candidates use the Democracy Fund and that the Fund expects all candidates to
participate in public campaign finance. Krayeske said he does not fully agree with Fernandez’s reasoning, given the Democracy Fund’s funding timeline.
What I really believe is that we do function best as one city, where we all believe that other people’s success is our success. HENRY FERNANDEZ LAW ’94 Mayoral candidate, New Haven “My thought on that is we haven’t even given Justin Elicker his money yet: The date for disbursing of funds is April 1,”
Krayeske said. “Maybe his perception of time could be different. I don’t know.” Fernandez also said that he thinks the new New Haven Public Schools superintendent, who will serve after current superintendent Reginald Mayo, should not be named until after the mayoral election is decided. He said he believes that it is crucial for the new mayor and the superintendent to have a good relationship, and naming a superintendent now without knowing who the next mayor is could not guarantee that relationship. Additionally, he argued that some high-quality candidates would not be willing to take the position if they did not know which mayor they would be working with, and he expressed concern that concluding the process before the new mayor is elected could deter
JUSTIN ELICKER
HENRY FERNANDEZ
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some potential candidates from considering the job. However, Abbe Smith, communications director for NHPS, said that the Board of Education has previously said that they want to name a new superintendent by the time Mayo retires on June 30. “The Board of Ed said they want to have a new superintendent named [by June 30] … because we really don’t want to lose the momentum we have right now with School Change and improvements that are happening in our schools,” Smith said. “We want to have continued leadership.” DeStefano, who announced earlier this year he will not run for an 11th term, has sat in the mayor’s seat for nearly two decades. Contact DIANA LI at diana.li@yale.edu .
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tate Rep. Gary Holder-Winfield, who has committed to using the Democracy Fund, helped abolish the death penalty in Connecticut and advocated for state-level education reform.
SUNDIATA KEITAZULU
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lumber Sundiata Keitazulu promises to create vocational-technical schools, alleviate poverty and increase police presence in Newhallville.
Reno praises oncampus living FOOTBALL FROM PAGE 1 “I’m a senior so I can move off campus, and I will be moving off campus,” Palin said. “We trust that his suggestions are in the best interests of the team.” The rule will only apply through a player’s junior year, as seniors are only on the team during the fall semester, Palin said. Director of Athletics Tom Beckett said students will be able to petition the coaching staff and their college deans to live off campus during their junior year on a case-by-case basis. Beckett said the policy was only enforced by “a suggestion that carries a lot of weight” from Reno. Council of Masters Chair Jonathan Holloway, Dean of Student Affairs Marichal Gentry and John Meeske, dean of undergraduate organizations and physical resources, all said masters and deans have “no authority” to enforce this policy, as Yale Undergraduate Regulations allow juniors and seniors to move off campus.
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Gentry said he agrees with Reno that living on campus is better for students’ nutrition. “When you’re living off campus, buying food and cooking are additional necessities that take time, and can be costly,” Gentry said. “I think it is much more convenient for students to eat healthfully when the food is accessible, and already prepared for them.” Meeske said the University would not have enough dorm space if a large number of other coaches instituted similar policies. He added that on-campus housing is currently approaching capacity, but will be able to house the extra football players who will live on campus next year. Reno was introduced as the 34th head coach of Yale Football on Jan. 12, 2012. Contact CHARLES CONDRO at charles.condro@yale.edu. Contact KIRSTEN SCHNACKENBERG at kirsten.schnackenberg@yale.edu .
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wo-term Ward 10 Alderman Justin Elicker FES ’10 SOM ’10 was the first to qualify for public financing through the Democracy Fund and has pushed for issues such as long-term fiscal reform and a hybrid Board of Education composed of both elected and appointed officials.
urrently the CEO of Fernandez Advisors, a consulting firm that helps nonprofits and progressive causes, Henry Fernandez LAW ’94 co-founded LEAP and served as its executive director for seven years, held the position of economic development administrator for five years and turned around the anti-blight Livable City Initiative after it faced a corruption scandal.
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YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, MARCH 26, 2013 · yaledailynews.com
PAGE 5
NEWS
“People don’t notice whether it’s winter or summer when they’re happy.” ANTON CHEKHOV RUSSIAN DRAMATIST AND AUTHOR
Despite unemployment, job training under fire BY NICOLE NAREA STAFF REPORTER After Job Corps, a youth job training and placement program administered by the U.S. Department of Labor, temporarily suspended new student enrollment nationwide in January, state lawmakers are scrambling to fill the gap in Connecticut vocational training while New Haven’s unemployment rate continues to climb. More than 400 Connecticut students enroll in Job Corps each year to earn a high school diploma or Graduate Equivalency Diploma, learn a trade, obtain third party certifications and engage in a job search. The Department of Labor froze new enrollment for Job Corps centers until June 30 in response to budget shortfalls, which U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro told the News is “unconscionable” in light of the current economic climate. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, unemployment in New Haven jumped from 8.1 percent to 9 percent between December and January alone — well above February’s national average of 7.7 percent. The unemployment rates among New Haven youth ages 16 to 24 and minorities are higher still. “This enrollment freeze is yet another unwise, harmful budget decision impacting Connecticut students,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal told the News. “My hope is that legislation passed this week will enable the Department of Labor to end this enrollment freeze and allow Job Corps centers in New Haven and Hartford to begin serving new students once again.” Bill Villano, executive director of Workforce Alliance — a New Haven-based organization contracted by the Connecticut Department of Labor to pro-
YDN
U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro denounced the enrollment freeze on Job Corps, a youth training program that aids in job placement, at a time of high unemployment. vide job training services — said that while Connecticut legislators expressed concern with the Job Corps enrollment suspension during his recent meetings in the Capitol, the program represents only a sliver of the debate surrounding the national budget and March sequestration. He said that the state is not equipped with the necessary funds to support job training and shoulder responsibility for the unemploy-
ment gap. Vocational training programs have seen a $300,000 rescission in funds for this fiscal year alone, and many programs have been reduced or cut in Gov. Dannel Malloy’s recent budget proposal, Villano said. Villano added that Malloy has exhibited a commitment to employment incentives and initiatives. The governor dedicated $4.5 million in funding for summer jobs and year-round youth
employment, in addition to allocating bond funds to support on-the-job training programs for new hires and manufacturing training programs in community colleges. DeLauro said that safeguarding robust job training and investment opportunities is a “core responsibility of government.” She said that she supports not only federal funding for Job Corps but also Workforce Invest-
CIPE revamps website BY CLINTON WANG STAFF REPORTER Students still hoping to plan their summer activities have the Center for International and Professional Experience’s newly revamped website at their disposal. As student demand for summer fellowships has increased in recent years, CIPE restructured its fellowships website last summer to help students better navigate the fellowship application process before seeking individual attention from the center’s overworked advisers. The center also has plans to revamp the entire Web domain next year to better integrate its different services, including study abroad, career planning, summer study and funding opportunities. “We’re trying to give students an even stronger start [to the application process], and equip them with the tools to think carefully and intentionally about these opportunities,” said April Ruiz ’05, assistant director of Yale College fellowships. “We want them to move forward as much as they can [using the resources on our website] before coming to us with advanced, personalized questions.” Director of Fellowship Programs Kelly McLaughlin said
that while the previous website primarily allowed students to view and apply to fellowships, the revised website focuses on helping students choose an appropriate fellowship and on advising students how to go about the application process. He said the new strategy helps students take ownership of planning their summers and gauge the requirements for the application process.
We’re trying to give students an even stronger start [to the application process]. APRIL RUIZ ’05 Assistant director, Yale College fellowships Since the changes to the website were made, Ruiz said fewer students have scheduled appointments with CIPE advisers requesting information about available fellowships and the application process. Instead, students have sought advising on how to refine their summer plans in the context of their past experience and future goals.
Over the next year, McLaughlin said CIPE will also revamp all the websites under its domain to continue the trend of streamlining the advising process and better linking its services. In the past, McLaughlin added, CIPE’s services have each operated independently, but the office is gradually improving communication between its different functions. “There are lots of places where we overlap and can build synergy. We may be replicating efforts across the CIPE where we could be streamlined.” McLaughlin said. “We’re very aware that many of the summer opportunities are in website ‘silos.’” Eight of 10 students interviewed said they feel the fellowships application process this year was effective and straightforward, though none of them noticed that significant changes were made to the website. Nine students also said they do not have specific suggestions to improve the website. “I found everything I needed,” Kia Quinlan ’16 said. “The website was super helpful.” CIPE was launched in August 2011. Contact CLINTON WANG at clinton.wang@yale.edu .
CROSS CAMPUS THE BLOG. THE BUZZ AROUND YALE THROUGHOUT THE DAY.
cc.yaledailynews.com
We’re trying to give students an even stronger start [to the application process]. APRIL RUIZ ’05 Assistant director, Yale College
ment Act programs, which established workforce investment boards to determine local jobtraining needs that target demographics ranging from dislocated workers to youth. Nationwide labor, health and education programs remain endangered, seeing cuts of nearly 7 percent in funding, or $12 billion, since 2002. The federal sequester resulted in an additional estimated 5.3 percent cut,
stripping approximately $7.5 billion in funding from such programs, according to the Departments of Labor, Education and Health and Human Services. Providing job training in careers ranging from carpentry to culinary arts, Job Corps centers total 125 nationwide, including one based in New Haven. Contact NICOLE NAREA at nicole.narea@yale.edu .
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YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, MARCH 26, 2013 · yaledailynews.com
YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, MARCH 26, 2013 · yaledailynews.com
PAGE 7
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY GUEST COLUMNIST SAHELI SADANAND
Previewing Deep Impact
BY DAN WEINER STAFF REPORTER
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Last week, the Senate Science and Space Subcommittee and separately, the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, hosted panels of NASA administrators and former astronauts to assess our preparedness for a meteor or asteroid collision. One of the NASA administrators estimated that approximately 10,000 large asteroids have been detected. This number is just a fraction of the number of asteroids out there, though. Less than 1 percent of small asteroids (30 to 100 meters in diameter) and only about 10 percent of asteroids larger than 140 meters in diameter have been detected. While these aren’t going to kill all earthlings, they could easily wipe out a city or even an entire state. Meteors like the one that exploded over Siberia are actually fairly small and difficult to detect with existing ground-based telescopes due to sun glare. Last week’s panel was optimistic that a future asteroid could be diverted — if given some prior warning. NASA and White House officials think it would take at least five years to develop a method for destroying or diverting an asteroid. Less warning time would likely mean that the most that could occur would be that the collision area could be evacuated. Or, to paraphrase NASA Administrator Charles Bolden’s response to a question about what we could do if an asteroid was on a collision course towards Earth in just a few weeks: “Pray.” NASA has an ambitious goal — set by Congress — of cataloging 90 percent of smaller asteroids (between 140 meters and 1 kilometers in diameter) by 2020. NASA administrators believe this goal is more likely to be reached by 2030. The budget allocated for finding new asteroids has risen fourfold in the past few years, but NASA and other space agencies around the world need more money to improve the lookout not only for huge asteroids but also for smaller asteroids and meteors that could wipe out entire cities. Unfortunately, the recent sequester has hit everyone — including NASA — very hard. In the meantime, private groups have expressed an interest in taking on the challenge of detecting asteroids. A new telescope called the Sentinel is currently being developed by the nonprofit B612 Foundation, led by former astronaut Edward Lu. Thanks to its near-Venus orbit, the Sentinel would see more of the sky, including asteroids on the other side of the sun. The foundation is aiming to launch this telescope in 2018. I recognize that there are many other pressing threats — global warming, pandemic flu and bad New Haven drivers — that endanger my life far more than an asteroid is likely to. The odds of a “citykiller” asteroid hitting the Earth are about one every 20,000 years. But some extra preparedness never hurts, and it is encouraging that private groups have stepped in to do what NASA cannot. Now, if only we could get Bruce Willis involved, we’d be all set.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN 16TH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
Study explores alcohol dependence
arely do I have a “For serious? That just happened?!” moment while reading the morning news, but last month’s meteor explosion in Siberia was pretty freaky. I have never cared for meteoroids or their larger brethren, asteroids — after all, one of them was responsible for the mass murder of the dinosaurs. The films “Deep Impact” and “Armageddon” only sharpened my space rock fears. Thankfully, nobody was killed as a result of the meteor explosion on Feb. 15. However, over 1,000 people were injured due to the explosion shock wave, primarily because of shattered windows. The explosion is estimated to have been 30 times stronger than that of the atomic bomb that leveled Hiroshima in 1945. Had the meteor exploded closer to the surface, the damage may have been even worse. But arguably the scariest part of this story is that we didn’t see this 17 meter-wide space rock coming. Coincidentally, a known asteroid passed close by the previous day, but it is believed that the meteor and asteroid were not part of the same cluster of space objects since their orbits were different.
NASA’S ASTEROID MAPPING COULD SAVE US ALL
“Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?”
KAREN TIAN
Researchers at the Yale School of Medicine have shown that the brains of heavy drinkers process alcohol in a way that encourages substance dependence. The study found that the brains of heavy drinkers consume acetate, a molecule produced from alcohol in the liver, at twice the rate of light drinkers. While the brain typically runs on the sugar glucose, it can also use acetate for energy, which suggests that the finding has implications for understanding alcohol dependence, said senior author and professor of psychiatry Graeme Mason GRD ’91. The paper appears in the March 8 issue of The Journal of Clinical Investigation. “If you are really binging and not eating properly for a day or two, when you start drinking, your blood sugar can drop acutely, enough to make you uncomfortable,” he said. “The brain may learn that if you have a drink, you feel better because this little bit of extra energy from the acetate can make up the difference for what is missing in the blood sugar.” Mason recruited seven heavy drinkers — defined as men who consumed more than 14 drinks per week or women who consumed more than eight — and seven light drinkers who consumed fewer than two drinks a week. The researchers injected acetate, a byproduct of alcohol metabolism, in the subjects to examine the
molecule’s interactions with the brain. After tracing the molecule using magnetic resonance spectroscopy, a technology measuring metabolic changes in the brain, they confirmed their hypothesis that the brains of heavy drinkers burned the acetate more readily than those of light drinkers.
Nothing is going to make the process [of detoxification] an easy thing. But if we can make it easier so that 5 or 10 percent more people quit, that would be a victory. GRAEME MASON GRD ’91 Psychiatry professor, School of Medicine Indiana University School of Medicine psychiatry professor Sean O’Connor said he thinks the finding is important because it explains one of the many ways alcohol changes the brain. “I thought it was one of the more significant pieces of research that I have seen in my field in a while,” he said. In the past decade, Mason demonstrated that the brains of diabetic individuals consume an increased amount of acetate when their blood
sugar drops. In this study, he wanted to explore the connection between alcoholism and acetate consumption because consuming alcohol on an empty stomach can induce a similar rapid drop in blood sugar levels. While the current study did not explore the mechanism behind increased acetate consumption levels in the brain, Mason said he suspects the transport proteins in the blood-brain barrier that uptake acetate are either more numerous or more active in the brains of heavy drinkers. He hopes to explore whether this is a “state or trait” effect — whether people who have greater ability to burn acetate are more likely to be drinkers, or drinking more induces increased acetate consumption. The finding that the brain is dependent on acetate suggests that providing acetate to a patient detoxifying from alcohol may alleviate the withdrawal symptoms. Mason said he hopes to come up with such a strategy to deliver acetate in the future. “Nothing is going to make the process [of detoxification] an easy thing,” he said. “But if we can make it easier so that 5 or 10 percent more people quit, that would be a victory.” According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, nearly one in three American adults drink enough to risk alcohol dependence.
Hamlin explains babies’ mean streak
Civil War clinical photography is currently on display in an exhibit at the John Hay Whitney Medical Library. Called “Portraits of Wounded Bodies,” the exhibit is open until April 1, showcasing photographs of injured Civil War soldiers alongside medical journals from the era. The exhibit, which draws upon portraits and artifacts from the Whitney Library’s collection, contains a set of 93 images taken at the Harewood Civil War Hospital in Washington, D.C. Exhibit co-curator Heidi Knoblauch GRD ’15 said the exhibit was created to highlight the stories of wounded soldiers and to explore the practice of clinical photography during the Civil War as the country commemorates the war’s 150th anniversary. “The Civil War was not only a watershed moment in the history of the United States, but also in medical photography,” Knoblauch said in a Monday email. By showcasing images of wounded soldiers alongside case studies describing the treatments prescribed to the men, the exhibit explores common medical practices during the Civil War era. It offers historical information on the formation of the first ambulance corps, which was created when Union generals decided to devise a more practical method of transporting wounded soldiers to hospitals following the First Battle of Bull Run in 1861. The exhibit highlights several individual stories by pairing portraits with detailed biographies of particular soldiers. Yale med-
ical history librarian and exhibit co-curator Melissa Grafe said visitors to the exhibit have been “particularly saddened” by the images of private Henry Krowlow who enlisted in the Union Army at age 18. Krowlow was shot in the leg and died after an unsuccessful amputation. Photographs of his body postmortem are included in the exhibit.
The Civil War was not only a watershed moment in the history of the United States, but also in medical photography. HEIDI KNOBLAUCH GRD ’15 Co-curator, “Portraits of Wounded Bodies” Exhibit visitors said Krowlow’s was not the only upsetting display. The collection of photographs also includes an image of a man who had just undergone an amputation carrying a prosthetic leg, as well as an image of a soldier with a bloody eye and scratches across his face. “The pictures in the exhibit were hard to look at,” said visitor Valerie Gallaher, the mother of a medical school student. “Some of them were really graphic — you could see the blood and bullet holes.” One of the strengths of the exhibit, Grafe said, is its ability to cater to a wide range of interests. She said that some visitors have
KAREN TIAN
Though babies may seem innocent, a new study has found that infants might in fact have a mean streak. The study, which tested both 9- and 14-monthold babies, was published online in early March in the journal Psychological Science. Lead author and former Yale psychology researcher Kiley Hamlin, currently a developmental psychology professor at the University of British Columbia, spoke with the News on Monday about her research methods and the surprising conclusion — babies like to see individuals with tastes different from theirs treated poorly.
liked a puppet who was mean to a dissimilar individual as they liked a puppet who was nice to a similar individual. Obviously we thought this result was possible, because we did choose to run the study. But we were surprised by how extremely robust the results were. In the older age group of 14-month-old infants, every single baby preferred the individual who was mean to the dissimilar puppet, even though the other individual was showing niceness. The older infants also clearly showed that they liked the mean puppet more than the neutral puppet, and the neutral puppet more than the nice puppet, when it came to how they treated an individual who had a different food preference.
Q
Q
BY PAYAL MARATHE STAFF REPORTER
What were you looking for when you started this research?
procedure did you use to QWhat explore that question?
A
We brought infants into the lab and asked them to indicate their food preference given a choice between graham crackers and green beans. Then we set up a situation in which one puppet had the same preference as the baby and another had the opposite preference as the baby. Half of the infants were then shown another puppet interacting with the puppet with a similar food preference, and this third puppet would either be nice or mean to the similar puppet. The other half of the infants saw the same nice and mean interactions, but with the dissimilar puppet. And we also included neutral interactions, where the third puppet was not explicitly nice or mean to the similar or dissimilar puppet.
Q
Were you surprised by what you found?
A
KATHRYN CRANDALL/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
The “Portraits of Wounded Bodies” exhibition at the John Hay Whitney Medical Library explores common Civil War medical practices through photographs and medical journals from the era.
Stronger support needed for healthy beverage practices
Salt identified as a trigger of autoimmunity
From previous work we knew that given the choice, infants would choose a puppet with a similar taste, but we were interested in the negative side of liking those who are similar to us. It’s not weird to think that I would want to be friends with people who have things in common with me, like sharing interests or opinions. On the other hand, what that can mean is that we enjoy when bad things happen to individuals with different preferences. It’s fine to like those who are similar to us, but there’s a dark side to that which leads us to dislike those who are dissimilar to us — sometimes so much that someone who harms them is perceived as good. That’s the question we were interested in asking — how would babies react when someone with a different opinion is treated badly?
SAHELI SADANAND is a graduate student in the Department of Immunobiology. Contact her at saheli.sadanand@yale.edu .
LAB
The project was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Healthy Eating Research Program, and researchers reviewed water use at child care centers in context of national and state water regulations. The researchers observed teacher behavior and water availability during lunchtime and physical activity at 40 child care centers in Connecticut and found many of the centers to be violating existing water promotion policies. Although water was available in 84 percent of the classrooms, in more than half of these, it had to be requested from the teacher. Additionally, water was available in only a third of the physical activity periods, and there were few prompts by instructors for the children to drink water.
A
Contact EMMA GOLDBERG at emma.goldberg@yale.edu .
THE
The study analyzed the policies of child care centers in the context of the 2010 Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act, which makes expanding access to drinking water for schoolchildren mandatory. Increased access to drinking water is thought to be essential to reducing childhood obesity.
Contact DAN WEINER at daniel.weiner@yale.edu .
focused on learning about photographic practices during the Civil War era, while others have been more interested in the medical history reflected in the exhibit. Gallaher said the exhibit’s location in the Medical Library is key because it emphasizes how far the medical industry has progressed in the last century. Yale Access and Delivery Services Librarian Melanie Norton, one of the exhibit’s visitors, said she enjoyed reading individual stories like Krowlow’s because they underscore the courage of the soldiers, some of whom were as young as 17. “In movies about the Civil War, the soldiers always look very old, but this exhibit makes it clear that they were really just teenagers,” Norton said. “I think it’s especially important for students to see how young the soldiers were.” Knoblauch said she and Grafe began planning the exhibit around July 2011. She was interested in the subject because her dissertation focuses on the development of clinical photography, and she used some of the Civil War photographs in the Medical Library as research materials. Exploring photography techniques used in Civil War hospitals, Knoblauch hoped to showcase the development of photography throughout the 19th century to a wider audience. The “Portraits of Wounded Bodies” exhibit opened Jan. 16.
FROM
Child care centers need to change their policies for promoting healthy beverage and water practices, a study conducted by Yale’s Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity has found.
Medical library showcases war photographs BY EMMA GOLDBERG STAFF REPORTER
LEAKS
We were pretty sure that the babies would prefer the individuals who were nice to the similar puppet. But we thought that with the dissimilar puppet, there would be a competing motivation. The baby might think, “I like nice behavior, but I don’t like you very much.” We expected that babies might be confused by that comparison. In fact, we found that they weren’t confused at all. The babies just as strongly
So does this mean that babies have a “mean streak,” that they are prone to enjoy watching puppets they do not like suffer?
A
Well, it’s important to note that there are two possibilities. It could be that babies dislike dissimilar puppets and actually want bad stuff to happen to those puppets. Another possibility, which I think is probably the right one and a more reasonable one, is that the process is something like the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Rather than analyzing the action, the infants are analyzing what it means for an individual to be mean to another individual — it means that the individual doesn’t like the puppet it’s being mean to. And since the baby doesn’t like that puppet either, it thinks, “He and I should be friends.” The process isn’t necessarily nefarious.
any way to test which of the QIstwothere possibilities is a true assessment of infant psychology?
A
Yes, there are a few things we could do. Namely, we could ask whether infants expect the individual who is being mean to be mean to others, too. If you think that this guy is a jerk, you might expect him to be mean to others, too, and if you liked those other individuals you would be upset by that. But if you think that this guy must agree with me, you should not think he’s bad in general. In a way, it’s like testing the “enemy of my enemy is my friend” theory in the opposite direction. Puppets are being nice to some individuals and mean to others, and we can access how the infant perceives those interactions. If someone you don’t like is nice to someone else, should you also dislike that someone else?
there any obstacles QWere encountered along the way?
A
you
This study had a fairly easy time of it compared to the typical process of getting research published. And that’s probably because the data was so strong. It was quite compelling, and the results were all clear, so there wasn’t much that viewers could really say. Contact PAYAL MARATHE at payal.marathe@yale.edu .
Dietary salt may be the major culprit behind autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis, a study by researchers at the Yale School of Medicine, Harvard Medical School and the Broad Institute has found. The Yale study, published in the March 6 issue of the journal Nature, shows how salt intake induces and worsens pathogenic immune reactions in mice. The genes involved are the same as the ones associated with autoimmune responses. David Hafler, the chair of the Department of Neurology at the Yale medical school and the senior author of the Yale paper, was quoted in a press release issued by Yale Office of Public Affairs as saying that diets high on salt could cause autoimmune diseases. “These are not diseases of bad genes alone or diseases caused by the environment, but diseases of a bad interaction between the genes and the environment,” he said. The study was inspired by a previous finding that eating at fast food restaurants increases the creation of inflammatory cells, similar to the body’s response in autoimmune diseases. Researchers at Yale wanted to find out whether high salt diets produced the same destructive immune system responses that characterize autoimmune diseases. “Humans were genetically selected for conditions in sub-Saharan Africa, where there was no salt,” Hafler said. “Today, Western diets all have high salt content, and that has led to increase in hypertension and perhaps autoimmune disease as well.”
Making old brains young again A paper written by Yale scientists has found the genetic switch that determines the difference between the brains of adolescents and adults. The study, which was published in the March 6 issue of the journal Neuron, identified the Nogo 1 receptor as being the molecular switch that reduces the brain’s plasticity as it ages. Due to the presence of the Nogo receptor, the mice they experimented with became less competent with motor tasks and took more time to recover from brain injuries as they aged. Mice without the receptor, however, did not lose their ability to master new motor tasks and recovered quickly from brain injuries as they aged. The study also found that in the absence of the receptor, mice recovered from memories of traumatic injuries or stress more quickly. A possible application of this discovery to humans would be to target the Nogo receptor to better manage post-traumatic stress disorders. Feras Akbik MED ’13, the first author of the paper, said the findings could help manage the recovery of human patients from brain injuries. “This raises the potential that manipulating Nogo receptor in humans might accelerate and magnify rehabilitation after brain injuries like strokes,” he was quoted as saying in a March press release issued by the Yale Office of Public Affairs. Neurology and neurobiology professor Stephen Strittmatter, senior author of the paper, was quoted in the same release as saying that the Nogo receptor was necessary for the brain’s transition from adolescence to adulthood. “It suggests that we can turn back the clock in the adult brain and recover from the trauma the way kids recover,” he said.
PAGE 6
YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, MARCH 26, 2013 · yaledailynews.com
YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, MARCH 26, 2013 · yaledailynews.com
PAGE 7
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY GUEST COLUMNIST SAHELI SADANAND
Previewing Deep Impact
BY DAN WEINER STAFF REPORTER
R
Last week, the Senate Science and Space Subcommittee and separately, the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, hosted panels of NASA administrators and former astronauts to assess our preparedness for a meteor or asteroid collision. One of the NASA administrators estimated that approximately 10,000 large asteroids have been detected. This number is just a fraction of the number of asteroids out there, though. Less than 1 percent of small asteroids (30 to 100 meters in diameter) and only about 10 percent of asteroids larger than 140 meters in diameter have been detected. While these aren’t going to kill all earthlings, they could easily wipe out a city or even an entire state. Meteors like the one that exploded over Siberia are actually fairly small and difficult to detect with existing ground-based telescopes due to sun glare. Last week’s panel was optimistic that a future asteroid could be diverted — if given some prior warning. NASA and White House officials think it would take at least five years to develop a method for destroying or diverting an asteroid. Less warning time would likely mean that the most that could occur would be that the collision area could be evacuated. Or, to paraphrase NASA Administrator Charles Bolden’s response to a question about what we could do if an asteroid was on a collision course towards Earth in just a few weeks: “Pray.” NASA has an ambitious goal — set by Congress — of cataloging 90 percent of smaller asteroids (between 140 meters and 1 kilometers in diameter) by 2020. NASA administrators believe this goal is more likely to be reached by 2030. The budget allocated for finding new asteroids has risen fourfold in the past few years, but NASA and other space agencies around the world need more money to improve the lookout not only for huge asteroids but also for smaller asteroids and meteors that could wipe out entire cities. Unfortunately, the recent sequester has hit everyone — including NASA — very hard. In the meantime, private groups have expressed an interest in taking on the challenge of detecting asteroids. A new telescope called the Sentinel is currently being developed by the nonprofit B612 Foundation, led by former astronaut Edward Lu. Thanks to its near-Venus orbit, the Sentinel would see more of the sky, including asteroids on the other side of the sun. The foundation is aiming to launch this telescope in 2018. I recognize that there are many other pressing threats — global warming, pandemic flu and bad New Haven drivers — that endanger my life far more than an asteroid is likely to. The odds of a “citykiller” asteroid hitting the Earth are about one every 20,000 years. But some extra preparedness never hurts, and it is encouraging that private groups have stepped in to do what NASA cannot. Now, if only we could get Bruce Willis involved, we’d be all set.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN 16TH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
Study explores alcohol dependence
arely do I have a “For serious? That just happened?!” moment while reading the morning news, but last month’s meteor explosion in Siberia was pretty freaky. I have never cared for meteoroids or their larger brethren, asteroids — after all, one of them was responsible for the mass murder of the dinosaurs. The films “Deep Impact” and “Armageddon” only sharpened my space rock fears. Thankfully, nobody was killed as a result of the meteor explosion on Feb. 15. However, over 1,000 people were injured due to the explosion shock wave, primarily because of shattered windows. The explosion is estimated to have been 30 times stronger than that of the atomic bomb that leveled Hiroshima in 1945. Had the meteor exploded closer to the surface, the damage may have been even worse. But arguably the scariest part of this story is that we didn’t see this 17 meter-wide space rock coming. Coincidentally, a known asteroid passed close by the previous day, but it is believed that the meteor and asteroid were not part of the same cluster of space objects since their orbits were different.
NASA’S ASTEROID MAPPING COULD SAVE US ALL
“Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?”
KAREN TIAN
Researchers at the Yale School of Medicine have shown that the brains of heavy drinkers process alcohol in a way that encourages substance dependence. The study found that the brains of heavy drinkers consume acetate, a molecule produced from alcohol in the liver, at twice the rate of light drinkers. While the brain typically runs on the sugar glucose, it can also use acetate for energy, which suggests that the finding has implications for understanding alcohol dependence, said senior author and professor of psychiatry Graeme Mason GRD ’91. The paper appears in the March 8 issue of The Journal of Clinical Investigation. “If you are really binging and not eating properly for a day or two, when you start drinking, your blood sugar can drop acutely, enough to make you uncomfortable,” he said. “The brain may learn that if you have a drink, you feel better because this little bit of extra energy from the acetate can make up the difference for what is missing in the blood sugar.” Mason recruited seven heavy drinkers — defined as men who consumed more than 14 drinks per week or women who consumed more than eight — and seven light drinkers who consumed fewer than two drinks a week. The researchers injected acetate, a byproduct of alcohol metabolism, in the subjects to examine the
molecule’s interactions with the brain. After tracing the molecule using magnetic resonance spectroscopy, a technology measuring metabolic changes in the brain, they confirmed their hypothesis that the brains of heavy drinkers burned the acetate more readily than those of light drinkers.
Nothing is going to make the process [of detoxification] an easy thing. But if we can make it easier so that 5 or 10 percent more people quit, that would be a victory. GRAEME MASON GRD ’91 Psychiatry professor, School of Medicine Indiana University School of Medicine psychiatry professor Sean O’Connor said he thinks the finding is important because it explains one of the many ways alcohol changes the brain. “I thought it was one of the more significant pieces of research that I have seen in my field in a while,” he said. In the past decade, Mason demonstrated that the brains of diabetic individuals consume an increased amount of acetate when their blood
sugar drops. In this study, he wanted to explore the connection between alcoholism and acetate consumption because consuming alcohol on an empty stomach can induce a similar rapid drop in blood sugar levels. While the current study did not explore the mechanism behind increased acetate consumption levels in the brain, Mason said he suspects the transport proteins in the blood-brain barrier that uptake acetate are either more numerous or more active in the brains of heavy drinkers. He hopes to explore whether this is a “state or trait” effect — whether people who have greater ability to burn acetate are more likely to be drinkers, or drinking more induces increased acetate consumption. The finding that the brain is dependent on acetate suggests that providing acetate to a patient detoxifying from alcohol may alleviate the withdrawal symptoms. Mason said he hopes to come up with such a strategy to deliver acetate in the future. “Nothing is going to make the process [of detoxification] an easy thing,” he said. “But if we can make it easier so that 5 or 10 percent more people quit, that would be a victory.” According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, nearly one in three American adults drink enough to risk alcohol dependence.
Hamlin explains babies’ mean streak
Civil War clinical photography is currently on display in an exhibit at the John Hay Whitney Medical Library. Called “Portraits of Wounded Bodies,” the exhibit is open until April 1, showcasing photographs of injured Civil War soldiers alongside medical journals from the era. The exhibit, which draws upon portraits and artifacts from the Whitney Library’s collection, contains a set of 93 images taken at the Harewood Civil War Hospital in Washington, D.C. Exhibit co-curator Heidi Knoblauch GRD ’15 said the exhibit was created to highlight the stories of wounded soldiers and to explore the practice of clinical photography during the Civil War as the country commemorates the war’s 150th anniversary. “The Civil War was not only a watershed moment in the history of the United States, but also in medical photography,” Knoblauch said in a Monday email. By showcasing images of wounded soldiers alongside case studies describing the treatments prescribed to the men, the exhibit explores common medical practices during the Civil War era. It offers historical information on the formation of the first ambulance corps, which was created when Union generals decided to devise a more practical method of transporting wounded soldiers to hospitals following the First Battle of Bull Run in 1861. The exhibit highlights several individual stories by pairing portraits with detailed biographies of particular soldiers. Yale med-
ical history librarian and exhibit co-curator Melissa Grafe said visitors to the exhibit have been “particularly saddened” by the images of private Henry Krowlow who enlisted in the Union Army at age 18. Krowlow was shot in the leg and died after an unsuccessful amputation. Photographs of his body postmortem are included in the exhibit.
The Civil War was not only a watershed moment in the history of the United States, but also in medical photography. HEIDI KNOBLAUCH GRD ’15 Co-curator, “Portraits of Wounded Bodies” Exhibit visitors said Krowlow’s was not the only upsetting display. The collection of photographs also includes an image of a man who had just undergone an amputation carrying a prosthetic leg, as well as an image of a soldier with a bloody eye and scratches across his face. “The pictures in the exhibit were hard to look at,” said visitor Valerie Gallaher, the mother of a medical school student. “Some of them were really graphic — you could see the blood and bullet holes.” One of the strengths of the exhibit, Grafe said, is its ability to cater to a wide range of interests. She said that some visitors have
KAREN TIAN
Though babies may seem innocent, a new study has found that infants might in fact have a mean streak. The study, which tested both 9- and 14-monthold babies, was published online in early March in the journal Psychological Science. Lead author and former Yale psychology researcher Kiley Hamlin, currently a developmental psychology professor at the University of British Columbia, spoke with the News on Monday about her research methods and the surprising conclusion — babies like to see individuals with tastes different from theirs treated poorly.
liked a puppet who was mean to a dissimilar individual as they liked a puppet who was nice to a similar individual. Obviously we thought this result was possible, because we did choose to run the study. But we were surprised by how extremely robust the results were. In the older age group of 14-month-old infants, every single baby preferred the individual who was mean to the dissimilar puppet, even though the other individual was showing niceness. The older infants also clearly showed that they liked the mean puppet more than the neutral puppet, and the neutral puppet more than the nice puppet, when it came to how they treated an individual who had a different food preference.
Q
Q
BY PAYAL MARATHE STAFF REPORTER
What were you looking for when you started this research?
procedure did you use to QWhat explore that question?
A
We brought infants into the lab and asked them to indicate their food preference given a choice between graham crackers and green beans. Then we set up a situation in which one puppet had the same preference as the baby and another had the opposite preference as the baby. Half of the infants were then shown another puppet interacting with the puppet with a similar food preference, and this third puppet would either be nice or mean to the similar puppet. The other half of the infants saw the same nice and mean interactions, but with the dissimilar puppet. And we also included neutral interactions, where the third puppet was not explicitly nice or mean to the similar or dissimilar puppet.
Q
Were you surprised by what you found?
A
KATHRYN CRANDALL/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
The “Portraits of Wounded Bodies” exhibition at the John Hay Whitney Medical Library explores common Civil War medical practices through photographs and medical journals from the era.
Stronger support needed for healthy beverage practices
Salt identified as a trigger of autoimmunity
From previous work we knew that given the choice, infants would choose a puppet with a similar taste, but we were interested in the negative side of liking those who are similar to us. It’s not weird to think that I would want to be friends with people who have things in common with me, like sharing interests or opinions. On the other hand, what that can mean is that we enjoy when bad things happen to individuals with different preferences. It’s fine to like those who are similar to us, but there’s a dark side to that which leads us to dislike those who are dissimilar to us — sometimes so much that someone who harms them is perceived as good. That’s the question we were interested in asking — how would babies react when someone with a different opinion is treated badly?
SAHELI SADANAND is a graduate student in the Department of Immunobiology. Contact her at saheli.sadanand@yale.edu .
LAB
The project was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Healthy Eating Research Program, and researchers reviewed water use at child care centers in context of national and state water regulations. The researchers observed teacher behavior and water availability during lunchtime and physical activity at 40 child care centers in Connecticut and found many of the centers to be violating existing water promotion policies. Although water was available in 84 percent of the classrooms, in more than half of these, it had to be requested from the teacher. Additionally, water was available in only a third of the physical activity periods, and there were few prompts by instructors for the children to drink water.
A
Contact EMMA GOLDBERG at emma.goldberg@yale.edu .
THE
The study analyzed the policies of child care centers in the context of the 2010 Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act, which makes expanding access to drinking water for schoolchildren mandatory. Increased access to drinking water is thought to be essential to reducing childhood obesity.
Contact DAN WEINER at daniel.weiner@yale.edu .
focused on learning about photographic practices during the Civil War era, while others have been more interested in the medical history reflected in the exhibit. Gallaher said the exhibit’s location in the Medical Library is key because it emphasizes how far the medical industry has progressed in the last century. Yale Access and Delivery Services Librarian Melanie Norton, one of the exhibit’s visitors, said she enjoyed reading individual stories like Krowlow’s because they underscore the courage of the soldiers, some of whom were as young as 17. “In movies about the Civil War, the soldiers always look very old, but this exhibit makes it clear that they were really just teenagers,” Norton said. “I think it’s especially important for students to see how young the soldiers were.” Knoblauch said she and Grafe began planning the exhibit around July 2011. She was interested in the subject because her dissertation focuses on the development of clinical photography, and she used some of the Civil War photographs in the Medical Library as research materials. Exploring photography techniques used in Civil War hospitals, Knoblauch hoped to showcase the development of photography throughout the 19th century to a wider audience. The “Portraits of Wounded Bodies” exhibit opened Jan. 16.
FROM
Child care centers need to change their policies for promoting healthy beverage and water practices, a study conducted by Yale’s Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity has found.
Medical library showcases war photographs BY EMMA GOLDBERG STAFF REPORTER
LEAKS
We were pretty sure that the babies would prefer the individuals who were nice to the similar puppet. But we thought that with the dissimilar puppet, there would be a competing motivation. The baby might think, “I like nice behavior, but I don’t like you very much.” We expected that babies might be confused by that comparison. In fact, we found that they weren’t confused at all. The babies just as strongly
So does this mean that babies have a “mean streak,” that they are prone to enjoy watching puppets they do not like suffer?
A
Well, it’s important to note that there are two possibilities. It could be that babies dislike dissimilar puppets and actually want bad stuff to happen to those puppets. Another possibility, which I think is probably the right one and a more reasonable one, is that the process is something like the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Rather than analyzing the action, the infants are analyzing what it means for an individual to be mean to another individual — it means that the individual doesn’t like the puppet it’s being mean to. And since the baby doesn’t like that puppet either, it thinks, “He and I should be friends.” The process isn’t necessarily nefarious.
any way to test which of the QIstwothere possibilities is a true assessment of infant psychology?
A
Yes, there are a few things we could do. Namely, we could ask whether infants expect the individual who is being mean to be mean to others, too. If you think that this guy is a jerk, you might expect him to be mean to others, too, and if you liked those other individuals you would be upset by that. But if you think that this guy must agree with me, you should not think he’s bad in general. In a way, it’s like testing the “enemy of my enemy is my friend” theory in the opposite direction. Puppets are being nice to some individuals and mean to others, and we can access how the infant perceives those interactions. If someone you don’t like is nice to someone else, should you also dislike that someone else?
there any obstacles QWere encountered along the way?
A
you
This study had a fairly easy time of it compared to the typical process of getting research published. And that’s probably because the data was so strong. It was quite compelling, and the results were all clear, so there wasn’t much that viewers could really say. Contact PAYAL MARATHE at payal.marathe@yale.edu .
Dietary salt may be the major culprit behind autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis, a study by researchers at the Yale School of Medicine, Harvard Medical School and the Broad Institute has found. The Yale study, published in the March 6 issue of the journal Nature, shows how salt intake induces and worsens pathogenic immune reactions in mice. The genes involved are the same as the ones associated with autoimmune responses. David Hafler, the chair of the Department of Neurology at the Yale medical school and the senior author of the Yale paper, was quoted in a press release issued by Yale Office of Public Affairs as saying that diets high on salt could cause autoimmune diseases. “These are not diseases of bad genes alone or diseases caused by the environment, but diseases of a bad interaction between the genes and the environment,” he said. The study was inspired by a previous finding that eating at fast food restaurants increases the creation of inflammatory cells, similar to the body’s response in autoimmune diseases. Researchers at Yale wanted to find out whether high salt diets produced the same destructive immune system responses that characterize autoimmune diseases. “Humans were genetically selected for conditions in sub-Saharan Africa, where there was no salt,” Hafler said. “Today, Western diets all have high salt content, and that has led to increase in hypertension and perhaps autoimmune disease as well.”
Making old brains young again A paper written by Yale scientists has found the genetic switch that determines the difference between the brains of adolescents and adults. The study, which was published in the March 6 issue of the journal Neuron, identified the Nogo 1 receptor as being the molecular switch that reduces the brain’s plasticity as it ages. Due to the presence of the Nogo receptor, the mice they experimented with became less competent with motor tasks and took more time to recover from brain injuries as they aged. Mice without the receptor, however, did not lose their ability to master new motor tasks and recovered quickly from brain injuries as they aged. The study also found that in the absence of the receptor, mice recovered from memories of traumatic injuries or stress more quickly. A possible application of this discovery to humans would be to target the Nogo receptor to better manage post-traumatic stress disorders. Feras Akbik MED ’13, the first author of the paper, said the findings could help manage the recovery of human patients from brain injuries. “This raises the potential that manipulating Nogo receptor in humans might accelerate and magnify rehabilitation after brain injuries like strokes,” he was quoted as saying in a March press release issued by the Yale Office of Public Affairs. Neurology and neurobiology professor Stephen Strittmatter, senior author of the paper, was quoted in the same release as saying that the Nogo receptor was necessary for the brain’s transition from adolescence to adulthood. “It suggests that we can turn back the clock in the adult brain and recover from the trauma the way kids recover,” he said.
PAGE 8
YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, MARCH 26, 2013 · yaledailynews.com
FROM THE FRONT
“To love and be loved is to feel the sun from both sides.” DAVID VISCOTT AMERICAN PSYCHIATRIST AND MEDIA PERSONALITY
Promising investments, mixed results SUNTECH FROM PAGE 1 should expect to see more frequent negative investments that are offset with less-frequent, but larger, positive investments.” In Yale’s 2009 report, the Investments Office described Suntech’s dominant role in the solar power industry, along with its rise to prominence in the 2000s, and noted potential challenges to the industry, but also cited Suntech CEO Shi Zhengrong’s confidence in the company’s long-run market position. Suntech’s stock prices peaked at $85.16 in December 2007 before proceeding to drop precipitously during the financial downturn, with shares valued
at $0.45 as of Monday. Experts said the company, though commended in the 2009 Yale report for its “culture of cost consciousness and innovation,” has suffered because of oversupply in the market for solar panels. When prices for solar panels were high, many solar companies built up their production capacity with the help of large government subsidies, said Michael Giberson, a professor of energy economics at Texas Tech University, adding that the resulting glut in the solar industry is now driving prices down. Suntech must also wrestle with large fixed costs for its production facilities and with import duties the U.S. placed on Chinese panels, which have given an advantage to panels
constructed in places like Taiwan, said Kenneth Gillingham, an economics professor at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, in a Monday email.
With relatively lower electricity prices, alternative energy is less attractive. KENNETH GILLINGHAM Economics professor, School of Forestry & Environmental Studies Recent policy changes, such as the expiration of ethanol sub-
sidies in November 2012 and the recent renewal of the production tax credit for wind power, have strongly influenced the profitability of energy companies in these industries, Knittel said. The alternative energy sector is also grappling with the market effects of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, which is a technique used to extract natural gas that gained widespread use and media attention over the past decade, experts said. “Fracking has opened up the supply of natural gas, which has put downward pressure on electricity prices,” Gillingham said. “With relatively lower electricity prices, alternative energy is less attractive.” Mascoma, the company that withdrew its long-planned IPO
of up to $100 million last week, is the fourth prominent biofuel company to delay or cancel an IPO since last year. Knittel said the elimination of the ethanol subsidy likely had a negative impact on Mascoma, adding that companies like Mascoma will struggle to be profitable unless policies are implemented that either indirectly or directly subsidize the expensive technologies needed for cellulosic ethanol production. If the Yale Investments Office is still invested in Mascoma, it is likely because the officers see the company as a “long-run investment,” Gillingham said. However, the other two companies profiled in the 2009 report appear to be doing well. Though the wind power com-
pany HT Blade remains privately owned and does not release public records as a result, Silver Spring Networks, a developer of smart grids, successfully completed its IPO last week, raising $81 million. The IPO was considerably smaller than the $150 million offering for which Silver Spring had originally hoped, and Silver Spring has yet to turn a profit since its founding in 2002, but experts said the company’s successful IPO suggests that investors have confidence in its future. Suntech declined to comment for this article, and Silver Spring did not respond to requests for comment. Contact SOPHIE GOULD at sophie.gould@yale.edu .
Salovey embedded in Yale-NUS leadership
Tan Chorh Chuan President, NUS
Salovey and Tan are in regular contact about Yale-NUS.
Pericles Lewis
President, Yale-NUS College Salovey was on the search committee that chose Lewis as president of Yale-NUS.
Governing Board
Peter Salovey
Yale-NUS College
President-elect, Yale
Salovey will join the board as Yale president, and Levin will stay on the board after he steps down.
Salovey was one of the initial professors and administrators to visit the Yale-NUS site in 2009.
Faculty
Yale-NUS College Salovey approved around 40 Yale-NUS faculty members.
Richard Levin President, Yale
Salovey and Levin meet regularly to discuss Yale-NUS.
YALE-NUS FROM PAGE 1 Yale’s involvement with the project will be in his hands instead of mine.” Salovey said he does not currently have plans to change Yale’s involvement with the Singaporean college, noting that he was a proponent of a partnership with the
National University of Singapore since the project’s early days. As he approaches the start of his term as Yale’s top administrator, Salovey is ramping up communications with leaders from both Yale and YaleNUS, including Lewis and NUS President Tan Chorh Chuan. Meetings between Lewis and Salovey are nothing new: The two
Join the conversation.
met regularly in New Haven after Lewis was appointed president of Yale-NUS in May 2012. Salovey was on the search committee that appointed Lewis to the Yale-NUS presidency and said he approves of the policies Lewis has created to promote academic freedom at Yale-NUS. Though some members of the
Yale community have criticized Yale for establishing a college in a country that restricts civil liberties, Yale-NUS administrators have repeatedly told the News that academic freedom will be guaranteed on the Singaporean college’s campus. In fall 2012, the new college announced that Yale-NUS students will be unable to form
OPINION. YOUR THOUGHTS. YOUR VOICE. YOUR PAGE.
Join the Yale Daily News.
Send submissions to opinion@yaledailynews.com
branches of existing Singaporean political parties on campus or groups that “promote racial or religious strife.” “I very much support President Lewis’ approach in which free expression on campus — the ability to teach, discuss and write about essentially anything at YaleNUS — is a bedrock principle,”
Salovey said. The Yale-NUS governing board last met in Singapore earlier this month. Contact ALEKSANDRA GJORGIEVSKA at aleksandra.gjorgievska@yale.edu. Contact JULIA ZORTHIAN at julia.zorthian@yale.edu .
YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, MARCH 26, 2013 · yaledailynews.com
PAGE 9
BULLETIN BOARD
TODAY’S FORECAST
TOMORROW
A slight chance of rain and snow showers. Mostly sunny, with a high near 46. Low of 31.
THURSDAY
High of 48, low of 32.
High of 49, low of 34.
REUXBEN BARRIENTES BY ZERO LIKE ME
ON CAMPUS TUESDAY, MARCH 26 2:00 PM “Politics, Celebrity and Mad Men in the Age of Eisenhower” Drawing on his current book project, a study of celebrity politics in the 1950s, David Haven Blake of the College of New Jersey will discuss his research in presidential libraries, vintage television programming and the papers of leading advertising agencies. Free and open to the general public. Sterling Memorial Library (120 High St.), International Room. 7:00 PM Author Signing — Suzanne Palmieri Local author Suzanne Palmieri will be conducting a signing of her new book, “The Witch of Little Italy.” Barnes & Noble (77 Broadway St.).
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27
THAT MONKEY TUNE BY MICHAEL KANDALAFT
6:00 PM “An Evening with Senator Blumenthal” In conjunction with the Sierra Club, the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies will welcome Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Yale Project on Climate Change Communications Director Anthony Leiserowitz and Yale assistant professor of atmospheric chemistry Nadine Unger for a panel discussion on climate change communication, clean energy policy and climate science. The panel will be moderated by School of Forestry & Environmental Studies Associate Dean David Skelly. Seating begins at 5:30 p.m. Free and open to the general public. Kroon Hall (195 Prospect St.), Burke Auditorium.
THURSDAY, MARCH 28 4:30 PM “Can Money Bring You Happiness? What if The Answer is Yes?” Join Yale Flourish and InspireYale to find out the answer! The lecture will be given by Michael Norton, associate professor at Harvard Business School and co-author of “Happy Money, The Science Of Smarter Spending.” Free and open to the general public. William L. Harkness Hall (100 Wall St.), Room 207.
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Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle
CLASSIFIEDS
CROSSWORD Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Lewis ACROSS 1 PC screens largely replaced by LCDs 5 Exchange goodbyes 9 Breed, as salmon 14 Ghostly glow 15 “Nothin’ doin’!” 16 “Dallas” matriarch 17 Sleight-of-hand scam 19 Cold temperatures 20 Fountain of Rome 21 Levies on smokes and booze 23 Prefix with present 26 Playfully shy 27 Houston of Texas 30 Agenda item 36 World’s largest rainforest 38 Pearl Jam singer Eddie 39 Early whirlybird, for short 40 Winding curve 42 Body wash brand 43 Dressy ties 46 Mariachi’s headwear 49 Filmed like most of today’s films 51 Hyphenated ID 52 Fair-hiring abbr. 53 Wax-wrapped cheese 55 Alphabet soup, so to speak 60 Have an inkling 64 Abrasive mineral 65 Fight fiercely to the end 68 Barely burn 69 Continental cash 70 Armory supply, and a hint to the starts of 17-, 30-, 49- and 65Across 71 Left one’s seat 72 Slight impression 73 Author Uris DOWN 1 Plaster bandage 2 Essen’s region 3 “Magic __ House”: kiddie lit series
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By Gail Grabowski and Bruce Venzke
4 Battleship barrage 5 Curly-tailed pooch 6 “So that’s what that means!” 7 Caribbean liquors 8 It might be broken at a party 9 Prepare some letterpress printing 10 Appeal 11 Author Haley 12 Bistro beverage 13 Stack’s role in “The Untouchables” 18 “How low can you go?” competition 22 Grounding rule, perhaps 24 Convent resident 25 “On second thought, that’s not true” 27 Long stories 28 Pennsylvania Mennonites 29 Call before “Polo!” 31 Dogie catcher 32 Reminder to take out the trash? 33 Fritters away time
Monday’s Puzzle Solved
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SUDOKU EASY
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(c)2013 Tribune Media Services, Inc.
34 Gets within a stone’s throw of 35 Check for size 37 Type of baggy ’40s suit 41 One and only 44 Colored, hippiestyle 45 Snooty sort 47 ’60s chic 48 “The Godfather” hoodlum Luca 50 Discontinued
3/26/13
54 Lead or zinc 55 Military chow hall 56 “You’re looking at the one and only” 57 Strange: Pref. 58 Therefore 59 Scrapbook adhesive 61 Alaskan seaport 62 Osaka wrestler 63 Henry VI’s school 66 Spigoted server 67 Came down with
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YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, MARCH 26, 2013 · yaledailynews.com
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Dow Jones 14,447.75, -0.44% NASDAQ 3,235.30, -0.30%
T Oil $94.78, -0.03%
Obama urges immigration debate
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S&P 500 1,551.69, -0.33% 10-yr. Bond 1.91%, 0.00 Euro $1.29, +1.01%
Supreme court tickets pricey BY JESSICA GRESKO ASSOCIATED PRESS
SUSAN WALSH/ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — The most expensive ticket to “The Book of Mormon” on Broadway: $477. The face value of a great seat for this year’s Super Bowl: $1,250. Guaranteed seats to watch the U.S. Supreme Court hear this week’s gay marriage cases: about $6,000. Tickets to the two arguments that begin Tuesday are technically free. But getting them requires lining up days or hours ahead, or paying someone else to. The first people got in line Thursday, bringing the price of saving a seat to around $6,000. For some, putting a value on the seats is meaningless. “It’s just not possible,” said Fred Sainz a spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest gay rights organization, which began employing two people to stand in line Thursday. The court will hear arguments Tuesday over California’s ban on same-sex marriage. On Wednesday, the court will take up the federal Defense of Marriage Act, the 1996 federal law that defines marriage as between one man and one
woman. Supporters and opponents of same-sex marriage say the cases are so potentially historic that they want to be inside the courtroom to watch, no matter what the cost in time or money. Part of the reason the seats are so coveted is the court doesn’t allow TV broadcasts of its arguments, so coming in person is the only way to see the justices at work. The court has said it will release transcripts of the hearings as well as audio recordings roughly two hours after each case ends, but advocates say that’s no substitute for being there. Seats, meanwhile, are at a premium because there aren’t that many. The courtroom seats about 500 people, but seats are reserved for court staff, journalists and guests of the justices and lawyers arguing the case. After those people are seated, there will be about 100 seats Tuesday for lawyers who are members of the Supreme Court bar and at least 60 seats for the general public. An additional 30 seats for the public will rotate every three to five minutes. Tickets for all those seats are handed out on a first-come, first-served basis.
President Barack Obama shakes hands with Julian de Lavalle from Colombia during a Monday naturalization ceremony. BY JULIE PACE ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama challenged Congress Monday to “finish the job” of finalizing legislation aimed at overhauling the nation’s immigration system. With members of the House and Senate away on spring break, Obama made his most substantive remarks on the difficult issue in more than a month, saying he expects lawmakers to take up debate on a measure quickly and that he hopes to sign it into law as soon as possible. “We’ve known for years that our immigration system is broken,” the president said at a citizenship ceremony at the White House. “After avoiding the problem for years, the time has come to fix it once and for all.”
The president spoke at a ceremony for 28 people from more than two dozen countries, including Afghanistan, China and Mexico. Thirteen of the new citizens are active-duty service members in the U.S. military. The oath of allegiance was administered by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. While Obama has hosted citizenship ceremonies in previous years, Monday’s event was laced with politics, given the ongoing debate over immigration reform on Capitol Hill. A bipartisan group of eight senators is close to finishing draft work on a bill that would dramatically reshape the U.S. immigration and employment landscape, putting 11 million illegal immigrants on a path to citizenship. The measure also would allow tens of thousands of new high- and lowskilled workers into the country.
The president applauded the congressional effort so far, but pressed lawmakers to wrap up their discussions quickly. “We’ve got a lot of white papers and studies,” Obama said. “We’ve just got to, at this point, work up the political courage to do what’s required.” Immigration shot to the forefront of Obama’s domestic agenda following the November election. Hispanics made up 10 percent of the electorate and overwhelmingly backed Obama, in part because of the tough stance on immigration that Republicans took during the campaign. The election results spurred Republicans to tackle immigration reform for the first time since 2007 in an effort to increase the party’s appeal to Hispanics and keep the GOP competitive in national elections.
JOSE LUIS MAGANA/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Californian Wally Suphap waits in line to enter the Supreme Court, a day before the court will hear a same-sex marriage case.
Gun link, but many questions in corrections death BY P. SOLOMON BANDA ASSOCIATED PRESS COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Colorado corrections chief Tom Clements and his wife were watching television when the doorbell rang last Tuesday night. Clements opened the door and was shot to death. “My life was changed forever,” Lisa Clements told hundreds of people, including corrections guards and officials from around the country, who gathered at a memorial service for her husband Monday. Nearly a week after Clements’ death, investigators in Colorado say the gun that suspect Evan Ebel used in a shootout with authori-
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ties in Texas is the same one used to kill Clements. However, they don’t know yet whether Ebel is the person who shot Clements, whether he acted alone, and what motivated the slaying of a corrections chief admired by prisoner advocates and prison guards alike. Authorities warned that could take some time. Until investigators determine whether Ebel, paroled from Colorado’s prison system in January, acted alone, “it’s hard to know what his role was,” Lt. Jeff Kramer of the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office told The Associated Press. “He remains a suspect in our investigation, obviously, especially after receiving this confirmed link from Texas,” he said.
No other suspects have been named. Denver police suspect that Ebel was involved in the killing of pizza deliveryman Nathan Leon. His body was found two days before Clements was killed. Investigators also do not know whether the pizza box and Domino’s Pizza shirt or jacket found in the car Ebel was driving when he was captured in Texas — similar to one spotted near Clements home — were used by the killer to persuade Clements to open the door of his home, Kramer said. A federal law enforcement official says Ebel was a member of the 211 Crew, a white supremacist prison gang in Colorado. Kramer said investigators are
looking at who Ebel’s associates were in prison and outside of prison.
[Clements] lived his life believing in redemption, in the ability of the human heart to be changed. LISA CLEMENTS At the memorial service at New Life Church, both Lisa Clements and Gov. John Hickenlooper spoke about Clements’ strong belief in redemption. His family said he
decided as a teenager to work in corrections after visiting his uncle in prison, and he worked to reduce the use of solitary confinement in Colorado prisons. Standing with her two daughters, Lisa Clements, a psychologist who oversees Colorado’s state mental health institutes, said her husband of 28 years would want justice as well as forgiveness. “We want everyone who hears Tom’s story to know that he lived his life believing in redemption, in the ability of the human heart to be changed. He would want justice certainly, but moreover he’d want forgiveness. Our family prays for the family of the man who took Tom’s life, and we will pray for forgiveness in our own
hearts and our own peace,” she said. Hickenlooper, who hired Clements about two years ago, told mourners that he was both pragmatic and principled. “He had common sense, and he had courage,” Hickenlooper said. Hickenlooper is a longtime friend of the suspect’s father, attorney Jack Ebel, who testified two years ago before state lawmakers that solitary confinement was destroying his son’s psyche. Hickenlooper confirmed he mentioned the case to Clements as an example of why the prison system needed reform before the job was offered, but the governor said he did not mention Evan Ebel by name.
YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, MARCH 26, 2013 · yaledailynews.com
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WORLD
“Alliance does not mean love, any more than war means hate.” FRANCIS PARKER YOCKEY AMERICAN POLITICAL THINKER AND POLEMICIST
Syrian rebels advance BY ZEINA KARAM ASSOCIATED PRESS BEIRUT — A dual picture of Syria’s rebellion is emerging: Fighters on the ground make advances, seizing territory in the south and even firing one of the heaviest mortar volleys yet into the heart of Damascus on Monday. But at the same time, the would-be opposition leadership is falling deeper into disarray. The dichotomy underlines the difficulties as the U.S. and its allies try to shape the course of the fight to oust President Bashar Assad — and, more importantly, avert chaos in the event the regime is toppled. As the Syrian civil war enters its third year, hopes that the perpetually fragmented opposition would coalesce to form a real leadership for the fighters on the ground seem more elusive than ever. Instead, divisions broke out this week in the main opposition group, the Syrian National Coalition. Its head announced he was stepping down, complaining of restrictions on his work. Amid infighting, 10 other members said they were suspending their membership. The resignation by Mouaz al-Khatib, a respected Muslim preacher seen as a uniting figure and a moderate against the rising influence of Islamic extremists among Syria’s rebels, came only days after the SNC narrowly elected a little-known information technology professional from Texas to head a planned interim government as its prime minister. In another blow, the head of the SNC’s military branch, Gen. Salim Idris, said his group refused to recognize the new prime minister, Ghassan Hitto, because he lacked broad support among the opposition. Hitto was backed by the Muslim Brotherhood and the Gulf nation of Qatar; many prominent opposition figures boycotted the vote that installed him. Amid the disarray, the Coalition, largely comprised of exiles, has made little mark among the hundreds of independent rebel brigades that are doing the fighting against Assad’s forces. Most rebel groups still cobble together their own funding and arms and give little more than lip service to the authority of Idris’ Office of the Chiefs of Staff.
Kerry, Karzai show unity in Kabul BY MATTHEW LEE ASSOCIATED PRESS
FREE SYRIAN ARMY/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Syrian commander Riad al-Asaad, who heads a group of Syrian army defectors, appeared in a video posted on the group’s Facebook page. Still, rebels have recently been running up successes on the ground. Fighters have been steadily gaining more ground near Syria’s southern border with Jordan and Israel. In the north, they have been expanding the territory they hold, recently capturing the city of Raqqa, a series of military bases and the country’s largest dam. Rebels have also seized footholds on the edge of the heavily guarded capital and, while they have been unable to break into the city, they have used their positions for mortar barrages, trying to shake the government’s grip. On Monday, they fired off a volley of mortar shells that crashed near a landmark downtown traffic circle in the capital, killing two people and wounding several others, state TV said. It was some of the worst shelling in the heart of the city since the rebellion against Assad began in March 2011.
Such sporadic strikes on Damascus have grown more common in recent weeks and often appear to target government buildings. Most cause only material damage, but spread fear in Damascus that the capital, which has so far managed to avoid the widespread clashes that have destroyed other cities, could soon face the same fate. Damascus residents reported hearing intensive shelling on Monday, though it was hard to tell where it was coming from. “We have gotten used to the sounds, but it saddens me to see the streets of Damascus empty after 6 p.m.,” said Youssef alAshhab, a 47-year-old civil servant. The mortar barrage struck Damascus’ Umayyad Square, at the center of a large intersection west of downtown near the government TV headquarters and less than a mile from Assad’s formal residence. The office of Syria’s general military command is also nearby.
KABUL — Eager to overcome a bout of bickering, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Afghan President Hamid Karzai made a show of unusual unity between their two nations on Monday. The friendly display came as the U.S. military ceded control of its last detention facility in Afghanistan, ending a longstanding irritant in relations. Kerry arrived in the Afghan capital of Kabul on an unannounced visit amid concerns that Karzai may be jeopardizing progress in the war against extremism with anti-American rhetoric. After a private meeting, Kerry said he and Karzai were “on the same page” on security and reconciliation issues and brushed aside suggestions that relations were in peril. Karzai infuriated U.S. officials earlier this month by accusing Washington of colluding with Taliban insurgents to keep Afghanistan weak even as the Obama administration pressed ahead with plans to hand off security responsibility to Afghan forces and end NATO’s combat mission by the end of next year. At a joint news conference after their talks, Karzai told reporters that his comments in a nationally televised speech had been misinterpreted by the media. Kerry demurred on that point but said people sometimes say things in public that reflect ideas they have heard from others but don’t necessarily agree with. “I am confident the president [Karzai] does not believe the U.S. has any interest except to see the Taliban come to the table to make peace, and that we are completely
cooperative with the government of Afghanistan with respect to the protection of their efforts and their people,” Kerry said. He noted that he had specifically raised the comment in question with Karzai and was satisfied with the response.
I am confident the [President Karzai] does not believe the U.S. has any interest except to see the Taliban come to the table to make peace. JOHN KERRY Secretary of State, United States “We’re on the same page,” Kerry said. “I don’t think there is any disagreement between us, and I am very, very comfortable with the president’s explanation.” For his part, Karzai said that he had been trying to make the point in his speech that if the Taliban really wanted foreign troops out of Afghanistan they should stop killing people. In the March 9 speech, he berated the Taliban for deadly bombings in Kabul and the city of Khost that he said “showed that they are at the service of America and at the service of this phrase: 2014,” — the withdrawal date set for most international forces. Karzai suggested in the speech that the U.S. and the Taliban were working together “trying to frighten us into thinking that if the foreigners are not in Afghanistan, we would be facing these sorts of incidents.”
Cyprus extends banks closure
PETROS GIANNAKOURIS/ASSOCIATED PRESS
The spray-painted message, blanketing the entrance of a Cyprus store that buys gold, reads “thieves” in Greek. BY ELENA BECATOROS AND MENELAOS HADJICOSTIS ASSOCIATED PRESS NICOSIA, Cyprus — Cyprus has extended the closure of its banks for two more days — until Thursday — a sudden postponement that comes after the country’s leaders spent days struggling to come up with a plan to raise the money needed to secure an international bailout. Banks in the country have already been closed for more than a week to prevent a run on deposits. All except the country’s two largest lenders had been due to open Tuesday morning after the country clinched an eleventh-hour deal with the 17-nation eurozone and the International Monetary Fund to provide Cyprus with a bailout. Without that deal, the country’s banks would have collapsed, dragging down the economy and potentially pushing it out of the eurozone. The decision to keep banks closed two more days was announced late Monday. The
Central Bank said that “for the smooth functioning of the entire banking system, the finance minister has decided, after a recommendation by the governor of the Central Bank, that all banks remain shut up to and including Wednesday.” Banks have been closed since March 16 to avert a run on deposits as the country’s politicians struggled to come up with a way to raise enough funds to qualify for the bailout. An initial deal that would have seized up to 10 percent of people’s bank accounts spooked depositors and was soundly rejected by lawmakers early last week. ATMs have been functioning, but many run quickly out of cash, and a daily withdrawal limit of 100 euros was imposed on the two largest lenders, Bank of Cyprus and Laiki. Under the deal reached in the early hours of Monday morning in Brussels, Cyprus agreed to slash its oversized banking sector and inflict hefty losses on large depositors in troubled banks to secure the 10 billion euro ($13 billion) bailout.
The new plan allows for the bulk of the funds to be raised by forcing losses on accounts of more than 100,000 euros in Laiki and Bank of Cyprus, with the remainder coming from tax increases and privatizations. People and businesses with more than 100,000 euros in their accounts at Laiki face significant losses. The bank will be dissolved immediately into a bad bank containing its uninsured deposits and toxic assets, with the guaranteed deposits being transferred to the nation’s biggest lender, Bank of Cyprus. Deposits at Bank of Cyprus above 100,000 euros will be frozen until it becomes clear whether or to what extent they will also be forced to take losses. Those funds will eventually be converted into bank shares. It is not yet clear how severe the losses would be to Laiki’s large bank deposit holders, but the euro finance ministers noted the restructure expected to yield 4.2 billion euros ($5.4 billion) overall. Analysts have estimated investors might lose up to 40 percent of their money.
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BASEBALL GAME CANCELED The baseball game against Michigan at Citi Field in Queens, N.Y., originally scheduled for today, has been canceled due to a winter storm in New York City. The match is expected to be rescheduled later this season.
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PRINCETON WINS NCAA FENCING TITLE The Princeton Tigers won the NCAA Fencing Championship on Sunday at San Antonio. The Tigers were seven bouts ahead of Notre Dame, who clinched the second spot in the championship. Four fencers from the men’s squad and all six Tiger women received All-American honors.
“The team has been on a roll at home so far this season.” DANIEL HOFFMAN ’13 CAPTAIN, MEN’S TENNIS
YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, MARCH 26, 2013 · yaledailynews.com
SAILING
Bulldogs sweep at home BY ADLON ADAMS STAFF REPORTER The nationally ranked No. 51 Yale men’s tennis team extended its home winning streak to eight this weekend.
MEN’S TENNIS
ZEENAT MANSOOR/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
The No. 1 Yale coed team defended its title at the largest fleet race of the season, the Truxtun Umstead, hosted by Navy last weekend.
Elis maintain momentum BY NIKOLAS LASKARIS CONTRIBUTING REPORTER Both the No. 1 coed and No. 2 women’s sailing teams took advantage of five-day training programs at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Fla., over the break, in addition to participating in several regattas. The coed team first traveled to Maryland March 9-10 for the St. Mary’s Team Race, finishing fourth. The next weekend, after completing its training in Florida, the coed team defended its title at the largest fleet race of the season, the Truxtun Umstead hosted by Navy in Annapolis, Md. On the final weekend of spring break, the Bulldogs divided and conquered. At Navy, the coed team won the Owen, Mosbacher and Knapp trophies, the Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association equivalent of the Ivy League Championships. The Bulldogs also sent boats to the Boston Dinghy Cup hosted by Harvard and MIT and the Central Series Two hosted by BU, placing eighth and third, respectively. The women’s team began spring break with the Navy Women’s Interconference Regatta March 9-10 and the St. Mary’s Women’s Interconference Regatta March 16-17, placing fourth both weekends. This weekend they rebounded well at the Duplin Team Race Regatta hosted by Tufts University, finishing first overall. “Even though we didn’t finish as well as we would have hoped at Navy and St. Mary’s, we took those regattas as learning experiences,” women’s team captain Marlena Fauer ’14 said. “These fourth place fin-
ishes only further fueled our desire to win the upcoming regattas.” At Navy, the women’s A division boat skippered by Claire Dennis ’13 and crewed by Katherine Gaumond ’15 finished fourth overall, while their B division boat skippered by Emily Billing ’13 and crewed by Amanda Salvesen ’14 came in fifth. At St. Mary’s, skipper Morgan Kiss ’15 and crew Urska Kosir ’15 sailed to a third-place finish in the A division, while Fauer and crew Eugenia Custo Greig ’15 finished fifth in B division competition. The Duplin Team Race featured a different racing format, with a full-team round robin Saturday deciding the final four on Sunday. The Elis lost just one race each day and won the event with a cumulative 12-2 record. Dennis attributed the team’s training at Eckerd College to the improved result at Tufts. “The week of training in Florida was essential to our team’s winning performance at the Duplin trophy this past weekend. Our team worked hard to improve and felt we made big strides racing against the guys over break,” she said. The coed team experienced similar steps forward following the team training in Florida. After a disappointing finish at the St. Mary’s Team Race, the Bulldogs responded by winning the Truxtun Umstead Trophy and the Owen, Mosbacher and Knapp Trophies hosted by Navy. Head coach Zachary Leonard ’89 said it was clear the training helped push the Bulldogs to victory.
“We had zero days of practice before the St. Mary’s race, and we had a full week of practice in Florida before Navy. It’s a really important part of our season each year,” Leonard said. The Bulldogs enjoyed a great team-wide effort at the “Trux.” Skipper Graham Landy ’15 and crew Heather May ’15 sailed in both FJs and 420s to win the highly competitive A division, while former national champion laser sailors Cameron Cullman ’13 and Dennis turned in excellent performances as well. Cullman finished second in the C division and Dennis finished first in the D division. The team’s performance over the two weekends at Navy raised Yale coed to the No. 1 national ranking. However, Landy said that rankings are not the team’s top priority. “While we are excited to move into first place in the national rankings, it’s important to remember that we can’t become complacent,” he said. “While we take great pride in winning an Ivy League Championship for Yale, our team’s goals center around performing well at the National Championships in May.” The coed team will sail next weekend at the Southern New England Team Race hosted by Connecticut College and the Mystic Lake Team Race at Tufts, while the women’s team travels to Brown to compete for the Brad Dellenbaugh Trophy.
The Bulldogs (13–3, 0–0 Ivy) hosted two unranked teams at the Cullman-Heyman Tennis Center in the final two home matches before the start of Ivy play. Prior to the two victories against Binghamton (6-8) and St. Bonaventure (4-9, 0-1 Atlantic 10), Yale had won all six of its home matches thus far. The first match on Saturday ended 5–2 in favor of the Bulldogs over the Binghamton Bearcats. Yale ended the weekend with a 7–0 sweep of the St. Bonaventure Bonnies. “Overall, we definitely played really well,” Daniel Faierman ’15 said. “We did a great job of not taking these unranked teams lightly. However, I think there is certainly room for improvement. This is especially true in doubles, as we must win the doubles points in Ivies.” After traveling to Wilmington, N.C., over Yale’s spring break to capture two wins and a loss against Illinois State (5-7, 0-0 MVC), No. 55 Old Dominion (11-5, 0-0 CAA) and No. 72 UNC Wilmington (9-4, 0-0 CAA), respectively, the Bulldogs returned home to defend their perfect record at home. The loss moved Yale back three ranking spots from No. 48 to No. 51 nationally. With a perfect record in doubles at home, Yale clinched the doubles point early on against the Bearcats. The nationally ranked veteran duo of team captain Daniel Hoffman ’13 and Marc Powers ’13 defeated the pair of Bastian Bornkessel and Ismael Dinia at No. 1, 8–6. At No. 3, Zach Dean ’13 and Matt Saiontz ’15 followed suit with another 8–6 victory. Dean performed as well at
No. 5 singles when he came back after dropping the first set 5–7 to gain his third three-set win of the season. “This weekend was especially important for guys like Jason Brown ’16 and Kyle Dawson ’14, who have been injured,” Dean said. “Kyle won very easily after a close match the day before. Jason played a solid player and was able to keep it together mentally, which is always the toughest part when coming back after not playing for a while.” Dean added that Brown and Dawson are key players for Yale and that their health is instrumental to the team’s success. The eighth-straight victory at home occurred on Sunday when the Bulldogs took the Bonnies down 7–0 in a display of doubles and singles prowess. The win marked the team’s ninth victory out of the 10 last matches. Not a single set was lost in either singles or doubles. The doubles point was won at No. 3 with a game-winner by Dean and Saiontz, 8–3. The No. 1 pair of John Huang ’13 and Patrick Chase ’14 did not finish, ending 7–7. All six Elis won in singles play in the second match of the weekend. Faierman came out of his match at No. 6 with a 6–0, 6–0 sweep of his opponent, Gabriel Cardenas. Dawson also had a straightforward win at No. 5, 6–0, 6–1 against Celso de vera Rehberger. “The team has been on a roll at home so far this season,” Hoffman said. “If we can keep this momentum and hard work going into the Ivies, we’re expecting positive results.” This coming Saturday, the Elis will take the road to challenge St. John’s Red Storm (2–0–11, 0–1 Big East) at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, N.Y., home of the U.S. Open. Contact ADLON ADAMS at adlon.adams@yale.edu .
Contact NIKOLAS LASKARIS at nikolas.laskaris@yale.edu.
Forrester breaks record in final swim BY DIONIS JAHJAGA CONTRIBUTING REPORTER With the regular season wrapped up, two swimmers from the women’s team, Alex Forrester ’13 and Eva Fabian ’16, headed to Indianapolis to compete in the 2013 NCAA Championships on March 21.
WOMEN’S SWIMMING Last year, Forrester was the sole representative for the Bulldogs at NCAAs, where she finished sixth in the nation in the 100-yard butterfly. This time around, she was joined by Fabian, who made her first appearance at NCAAs. Forrester broke her Ivy record in the 200-yard butterfly and Fabian finished with a competitive record in the 1,650-yard freestyle. Forrester secured her place in the NCAA tournament by making two A-cuts at the Ivy League Championships, in the 100-yard and 200-yard butterfly events, setting per-
sonal records for both in the process. Fabian made the NCAA B-cut in the 1000-yard freestyle. The two spearheaded a strong effort for the team that resulted in a fourth place finish at the Ivy League Championships. Competing against the best swimmers in the nation, Forrester and Fabian were able to make an impact. Fabian produced her second fastest swim of the season in the 1650yard freestyle (16:13.94), finishing in the top 25. Despite this, she expressed a desire to return to NCAAs next year and perform even better. “It was a really good experience,” Fabian said. “I’ve never been to a college national meet before. There were some really fast swims.” After barely missing out on the finals for the 100-yard butterfly on Friday, Forrester was able to qualify for the B final of the 200yard butterfly the next day. In the final event of her Yale swimming career, Forrester won the final with a time of 1:54.49, breaking her
STAT OF THE DAY 8
own personal record from Ivies. Cheering on her teammate, Fabian called the performance “inspirational to watch.” Forrester’s final swim will now stand as the Yale record for the 200-yard butterfly. “Alex [Forrester], Eva [Fabian] and the coaches learned a lot from NCAAs,” Courtney Randolph ’14 said. “We are very proud of them as a team and we can all look forward to setting goals that will allow us to send a few more girls next year.” Looking ahead to next year, Fabian predicted a good forecast for the upcoming season. “We have great upperclassmen and a really good incoming class,” Fabian said. “The freshmen seem like they’ll fit in really well with the team.” The Bulldogs finished fourth in the Ivy League, with a record of 5-2. Contact DIONIS JAHJAGA at dionis.jahjaga@yale.edu .
MARIA ZEPEDA/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
The No. 51 Elis took down Binghamton 5–2, and ended the weekend with a perfect 7–0 sweep of St. Bonaventure.
THE AT-HOME WINNING STREAK THE NO. 51 YALE MEN’S TENNIS TEAM HAS RECORDED. The Elis defeated Binghamton 5–2 and crushed St. Bonaventure 7–0 at the Cullman-Heyman Tennis Center last weekend.