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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 · FRIDAY, AUGUST 30, 2013 · VOL. CXXXVI, NO. 4 · yaledailynews.com

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CROSS CAMPUS Food Nation. Starting today, Commons will operate on its regular dining hours schedule.

Hot breakfast will be served from 7:45 a.m.-10:30 a.m. and lunch from 11 a.m.- 2:30 p.m.

Lean, green, fighting machines. According to a

new report by the Natural Resources Defense Council, Yale’s athletic program is among the most sustainable in the nation. The report — which evaluated the energy, water, waste and supply-chain initiatives at 30 colleges — cited Yale’s “Green Athletic Team Certification” program for varsity and club teams.

Launched by Yale studentathletes, the program aims to encourage athletes and coaches to adopt sustainable practices.

Triple A. School of Management Professor Shyam Sunder has been awarded the 2013 Outstanding Accounting Educator Award by the American Accounting Association. Established in 1972, the award honors “sustained contributions to accounting education” through research and teaching.

Sunder’s research focuses on problems with international accounting and auditing institutions.

Goin’ places. Yale alumnus

Lazar Krstic ’08 is gearing up to take over Serbia’s finance ministry later this week.

Krstic, who has pledged to reduce the budget gap to 4 percent of economic output, has already acknowledged that “belt tightening will be required.” He is expected to approve spending cuts to pensions and state employees.

Do you miss James Franco, formerly GRD ’16? Well, you

may be able to catch him on the big screen soon. On Thursday, the Telluride Film Festival premiered “Palo Alto,” a movie based on a book of short stories written by Franco about his hometown in California. The movie stars Franco as a football coach who develops a romantic interest in a teenage babysitter, played by Emma Roberts.

A bug’s life... involves infecting

Connecticut residents, apparently. The first human case of West Nile Virus in the state has been identified in Stratford, Conn. The infection was discovered in a patient in his 60s who became ill at the end of July after reportedly suffering from a mosquito bite.

THIS DAY IN YALE HISTORY

2012 University President Richard Levin announces that he will step down at the end of the 2012-’13 year after serving 20 years as president.

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THROUGH THE LENS

Conn. legislative panel approves regulations for medical marijuana

LUXURY RESORT OWNER TALKS TO FULL AUDIENCE

Photographers from the News document a year in Bulldog athletics

PAGE B3 WEEKEND

PAGE 3 CITY

PAGE 3 CULTURE

PAGE 12 SPORTS

hools high sc c i l b d pu e r d ts of colo n en e t d t tu a as s ho y f w i ultiracial t m n s ts a y de ntif oi s e h d i student l w a o n h io nat sw r ted e accep s Int n tio ca i l p

6.72%

University celebrates $35 million raised

10% % 15

Don’t forget. Monday classes meet today, and there will be no classes on Labor Day.

ARCHITECTURE

2017 IS HERE

FUNDRAISING CAMPAIGN HONORS WORK OF CIO DAVID SWENSEN

Freshman class boasts socioeconomic, racial diversity

BY JULIA ZORTHIAN STAFF REPORTER

“Year-to-year comparisons are often difficult, but over time, I think we’ve seen increasing diversity, and this is another year of increasing that trend,” Quinlan said.

In the class of 2017, 12 percent of students are the first in their families to attend college, and 10 percent hail from abroad. More than half of the students are from public high schools, and around 15 percent of the class self-reported more than one ethnicity, compared to 14

Friends and colleagues of Chief Investment Officer David Swensen celebrated the completion of the “Swensen Initiative,” a one-year fundraising campaign that raised $35 million, at a dinner the Development Office threw in Swensen’s honor on Aug. 22.

The initiative, a brainchild of former University President Richard Levin, began last fall and ran the entirety of the 2012– ’13 academic year. University President Peter Salovey said the University tailored the “mini-campaign” toward a network of people who know and admire Swensen, who is responsible for managing the University’s roughly $19 billion endowment.

Yale will funnel the $35 million raised toward the parts of the University that are important to Swensen himself, such as innovations in teaching and financial aid.

“It was a very successful fundraising effort,” Salovey said. “And of course [honoring Swensen] was great. David’s work has produced greater financial resources for Yale than any other single activity.”

Part of the $35 million raised will establish an endowment of a professorship in economics, a fund for teaching innovation and a coaching position for the women’s tennis team in Swensen’s honor, Vice President for Development Joan O’Neill said. Swensen is an “avid player,” she

SEE CLASS OF 2017 PAGE 4

SEE SWENSEN PAGE 6

37 .1%

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INTERN LABOR HOW YALIES DEAL WITH UNPAID JOBS

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INSIDE THE NEWS

55%

BY AMY WANG STAFF REPORTER Amid soaring application counts and plummeting acceptance rates each year, one trait that holds steady in Yale admissions is the diversity of the University’s incoming class.

This year’s new freshmen follow in the footsteps of the class of 2016 — which boasted the most racially diverse incoming student population in the University’s history — in terms of socioeconomic and racial diversity. Among the 1,360 stu-

dents, 37.1 percent are U.S. citizens or permanent residents who identify as students of color, compared to 40.6 percent last year. Additionally, roughly 50 percent of both the class of 2016 and class of 2017 qualified for University financial aid.

Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Jeremiah Quinlan said that over time, the Admissions Office has seen more and more students in Yale’s applicant pool come from first-generation or low-income backgrounds. Growing numbers of students also have identified as multiracial.

Summer ends in slew of homicides

BY LORENZO LIGATO STAFF REPORTER After a relatively tranquil summer, New Haven was struck by a series of homicides in the two weeks before students began moving into their dorm rooms.

In the three months after finals, the Elm City was en route to a record low summer homicide count of only four murders — a significant reduction compared to the 11 homicides in the summer of 2011 and nine homicides during the same period in 2012, according to police records.

But between Aug. 11–26, New Haven witnessed a string of three yet-unsolved murders, lifting the city’s murder tally to a total of 13 homicides since January.

The last homicide to hit the streets of the Elm City took place between late Sunday night and early Monday morning this week in the midst of Camp Yale celebrations. At about midnight, the New Haven Police Department received several reports of gunfire in the area around 127 Clay St., the heart of the city’s Fair Haven neighborhood, department spokesman David Hartman said. When police officers arrived on the scene, they found Marquis Harris suffering from a single gunshot wound to his head. Harris, a 22-year-old New Haven resident, was transported by ambulance to YaleNew Haven Hospital, where he died as a result of his wound later that morning.

Detectives from the depart-

Commons closes between breakfast and lunch

ment’s Major Crimes Division and Bureau of Identification have opened an investigation into the case and are currently in the process of interviewing witnesses and collecting evidence, Hartman said. No information has yet been released regarding a potential suspect or the motive behind the shooting.

You didn’t hear anyone say a bad thing about the police department and its efforts in respect to community policing.

DANNEL MALLOY Governor, Connecticut Eleven days prior to Harris’s death, an evening shooting in New Haven’s Hill neighborhood led to the death of Devaante Jackson, an 18-year-old West Haven resident. Jackson was shot around 8:14 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 15, at the intersection of Rosette and Hurlburt street — a 10-minute drive south from Yale’s central campus. Rushed to Yale-New Haven hospital to receive treatment, the victim remained in critical condition for hours and was ultimately pronounced deceased later that night.

SEE CRIME PAGE 6

YDN

Commons will be closed from 10:30–11 a.m. to prevent students from using a single meal swipe for both breakfast and lunch.

BY JULIA ZORTHIAN STAFF REPORTER Administrators’ recent tinkering with Commons policy brought another change to the dining hall this week — the eatery will close its doors for a half-hour between breakfast and lunch.

The change is part of the University’s ongoing effort to prevent students from eating both breakfast and lunch on just a breakfast swipe. Commons has traditionally stayed open between breakfast and

lunch, but Director of Residential Dining Cathy Van Dyke SOM ’86 said the dining staff decided to close between the meals this year to eradicate the swipe problem.

While Yale Dining implemented a new policy last spring requiring that students swipe into the Commons food service area instead of just the dining hall, administrators removed that system this year in response to student discontent.

The dining hall closed at 11 a.m. for the SEE COMMONS PAGE 4

PAGE 2

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, AUGUST 30, 2013 · yaledailynews.com

OPINION

.COMMENT “I hope Yale never offers a journalism degree." yaledailynews.com/opinion

The gluttony of uncertainty W

e’re buoyed through Yale by questions.

Freshman year, the big question is classes. “Intro Micro” or a freshman seminar on paper cutting? English 120 or “Intro Psych,” or both?

Prereqs or survey courses?

Premed or DS? It’s like walking into Wonka’s Chocolate Factory and having no idea what to eat, but having only so much stomach space to cram it all into. What will taste good?

What will make me strong and healthy? The answer commonly offered: Don’t worry too much about your classes; it doesn’t matter what you take freshman year. Try a lot of things and take something funky. The conversation probably turns to extracurriculars, which are a much more serious affair.

We come out of our first year rubbing our stomachs, either purring from satisfaction or feeling kind of queasy.

We’ve likely eaten some things we don’t want to put down our gullets again, and with the tastes still on our tongues, we as sophomores turn to the next big question: majors. Why doesn’t Yale have minors? Can I triple major? Does my major determine my career? How much will it define me? What exactly is Global Affairs? And eventually you wander into the chocolate or chewing gum or chive department. But when you ask others which way to wander, they commonly answer: Don’t worry too much about your major; it doesn’t dictate what you do in the long term. Don’t force yourself into something because you think it’s what you should be doing.

Do you, and the major will follow.

Maybe you pace between the chocolate and chive departments for a while. Chocolate tastes way better, but chives are superior in terms of health.

If you end up in chives, you’ll glance longingly at chocolate.

If you end up in chocolate, you’ll enviously eye chives.

Either way, the next big question starts tugging at your shirt: junior summer. Can I go back to camp counseling or will my future be doomed?

Should I secure an internship that will land me a job? Can I really see myself eating these chives forever? We ask, and we’re answered: Don’t worry too much about your summer; take advantage of the unique opportunities Yale offers and try not to annihilate yourself.

Take a break from the chocolate factory, but it doesn’t matter whether you go for fruit or Lunchables. As long as you’re tasting something new, whatever you choose will be a valuable experience.

And then you come back

for the last time — less excited than you know you once were and less excited than you know you TAO TAO should be HOLMES at the sight of the EverTaoisms l a s t i n g Gobstoppers. And you face your final question, which feels just as grave and all-determining as each of the first three did when you asked them: What do I do after I graduate? And if you ask adults around you, they’re likely to say: Don’t worry too much about what you do right after you graduate. You can’t predict the future, and often it’s better not to try. Keep an open mind.

GUEST COLUMNIST SAM COHEN

Show up to Sochi A

few months ago, Russia’s autocratic President Vladimir Putin signed into law legislation that was passed almost unanimously by the Russian Duma. This new law bans so-called "gay propaganda" under the guise of protecting Russian children from the pernicious influence of nontraditional relationships. In effect, the laws’ implications will be broad.

A newspaper article about gay issues must contain a disclaimer.

A public health campaign targeting the gay community would be illegal. Two men or two women holding hands in public could be illegal (never mind if they have the nerve to wave a flag or stage a kiss-in). Much of the world has reacted to the law with disgust.

This law is abusive — it notso-tacitly lends credence to the vicious and violent homophobia rampant in Russia today. In response, many have suggested protests and boycotts. Owners of gay clubs and bars, for example, say we should all stop drinking Stoli vodka. Some online peti-

SPORTS Eugena Jung John Sullivan

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NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT

athletes competing in Russia are making quietly subversive protests against the law, whether through subtle rainbow nail polish or in post-competition press conferences. Do not turn the athletes who have trained for years into a political statement the same way Russia has made a political statement out of a minority of its citizens.

Woody Allen famously said that 80 percent of life is showing up. Russia claims that homosexuality is so dangerous that it must be hidden and denigrated.

Instead of agreeing to be hidden by a boycott, the ultimate display of defiance would be seeing athletes on the pedestal proud of who they are and their achievements — not as gay athletes, but as the best athletes.

For athletes who are gay, athletes who are allies and their fans, showing up ultimately shows up Russia.

SAM COHEN is a junior in Calhoun College. Contact him at samson.cohen@yale.edu .

ANNELISA LEINBACH/STAFF ILLUSTRATOR

TAO TAO HOLMES is a senior in Branford College. Her column runs on alternating Fridays. Contact her at taotao.holmes@yale.edu .

YALE DAILY NEWS PUBLISHING CO., INC. 202 York Street, New Haven, CT 06511 (203) 432-2400

MANAGING EDITORS Gavan Gideon Mason Kroll

tional pressure, and how important it is that Russia remain pure in an unfriendly world. The IOC would become an excuse for inaction, not an impetus for change.

And boycotting the Olympics is the worst idea of all. Jesse Owens, and the many Jewish athletes who accompanied him to Germany, could have chosen to skip the 1936 Olympic Games to protest Adolf Hitler’s ideology.

Instead, Owens did one better: He went to Berlin and won four gold medals. He showed Hitler and the world that his theory of racial inferiority was an evil myth. Gay and lesbian athletes should do the same. A skier who is gay can fly down the slopes just as quickly as a skier who is straight. And the gay skier has an advantage that the straight skier does not: something to prove.

Give those athletes the chance to prove themselves. Shift the focus of the world away from protests against Russia’s laws, and instead focus on the achievements of gay and lesbian athletes in spite of the law. Already,

But we do worry about our first class, our major, our last college summer, our first year away from Mother Yale. And if none of them really matter, then what does?

In high school, the questions were simple and the answer was easy: you collect the gold stars that will get you into college — maybe even Yale, if you’re lucky.

And instinctually, most Yalies remain wired to questions in pursuit of that primal prestige.

When there were no easy answers to my yearly questions, I too often let my mind passively substitute the glitter of prestige in the place of wondering “what matters” at each step along the way. But in the moment that I subdued my inner magpie and stopped gazing at gold stars, it felt like cutting the umbilical cord to a system I’d been attached to for years. It felt like going adrift.

What does matter? I can’t say. But don’t let the answers of others be yours. If you set yourself adrift, I’ve found it’s a lot easier to see the shore.

Editorial: (203) 432-2418 editor@yaledailynews.com Business: (203) 432-2424 business@yaledailynews.com

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY Liliana Varman

tioners are demanding that the International Olympic Committee should force Russia to repeal its legislation. And actor Stephen Fry and others have advocated that nations boycott the Sochi Winter Olympics.

But the way to respond is not with pettiness or empty symbolism. You don’t change minds by being as petty as someone is cruel. You change minds by proving your worth.

All of the suggested protest measures, from boycotting Stoli to forgoing Sochi, are nothing more than incoherent, insubstantial, ineffective anger. Not buying a Russian vodka to protest the Russian legislature would be like not buying Budweiser to protest the war in Iraq. It ignores the source of the problem, and you won’t even make a dent in the corporation’s profits.

Telling the IOC to force Russia to change its laws is equally foolish. A combative and resurgent Russia would use the opportunity to prove to its citizenry how strong it is in the face of interna-

YEAR AFTER YEAR WE ASK THE QUESTIONS BUT OUR ANSWERS MUST BE OUR OWN

You only major once I

EDITOR IN CHIEF Tapley Stephenson

'LDFFLY' ON 'WOODWARD TO TEACH JOURNALISM'

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Direct all letters, columns, artwork and inquiries to: Marissa Medansky and Dan Stein Opinion Editors Yale Daily News opinion@yaledailynews.com

COPYRIGHT 2013 — VOL. CXXXVI, NO. 4

t’s the start of a new school year, and incoming freshmen are already being asked what they plan to major in. This is the annoying question that replaces the standard “Where are you going to college?” and foreshadows the inevitable “What are you going to do after graduation?”

This year, sophomores will have to start seriously thinking about this question, and many juniors will have to begin rethinking their old answers.

It is now an accepted fact that fewer of these students will choose to major in the humanities than ever before. Between 1991 and 2012, the number of English majors at Yale dropped more than 60 percent. The number of history majors likewise dropped nearly 40 percent in the last decade.

Meanwhile, Yale has increased its recruitment of students interested in science and math with the speed of a centrifuge and the force of a compressed spring — from organizing a prospective engineering students’ weekend to hiring a new squadron of scienceoriented “ambassadors.” With all this energy and money, the trend away from the humanities seems unlikely to reverse.

Indeed, some are willing to push this trend even further. A 2012 task force organized by Florida Governor Rick Scott recommended that state universities actually charge humanities majors more in tuition to dissuade them

from such a frivolous choice. Congress has even attempted to defund research in the humanities, taking yet SCOTT more money STERN away from already hurtA Stern ing academic Perspective departments.

In all that I’ve read on this subject, one of two reasons is usually given to justify this rapid move away from the humanities.

The first has to do with the present, the second with the future.

In the present, it is an economic reality that jobs are simply more plentiful in more vocational fields. Students are majoring in subjects such as business or engineering to be able to get jobs when they graduate, and that’s understandable.

The second reason is that science and math are the future.

That phrase comes up over and over again: They’re. Our. Future.

Personally, I’m sick and tired of this. Math and science are the future, but so is everything else.

We are all the future, regardless of our majors, and by dint of our existence we will all have to play some role in it. Many of our greatest scientists will have majored in the humanities, and many of our

greatest writers will have majored in the sciences. One recent study found that history majors who go into business earn just as much as business majors entering the same field. The idea that a major in the arts will lead you down a well-defined path to pretentious starvation is simply wrong, and it’s based on the incorrect assumption that a college major sets you up for a specific career.

In the last couple decades, as more and more students began enrolling in college, college came to seem more and more vocational. College was no longer the diversion of the elite, but rather the preparation of the smart for specific careers. This was a huge step in bridging the divide between the poor and the rich. Yet at the same time, it spread some false beliefs about the purpose of the humanities. People began to assume that if you majored in philosophy or English or classics, your only option was to enter academia. What else would you do with such an unfocused major?

When I tell people that I’m majoring in American Studies, they often cock their heads and squint — “So … what do you do with that? Teach?”

This belief that one’s career must be directly tied to one’s major is what is killing the humanities.

We’ve forgotten, apparently, that we can do so much more than just teach English or history or sociology. We can use them in many,

many fields. The American Association of Colleges and Universities recently found that 95 percent of employers surveyed say that “a candidate’s demonstrated capacity to think critically, communicate clearly and solve complex problems is more important than their undergraduate major.”

It is true that there are some careers that demand a specific course of study, but they are few and far between.

It is definitely true that a major in the humanities teaches you to think, communicate and reason in new ways. But that’s again missing the point. All majors teach us new ways to think, which is far more important than the actual facts we accumulate. If you want to major in the sciences, that’s great, but don’t be scared to major in something else. Yale has been unprecedentedly forceful in its endorsement of the sciences, but it would be a shame for students to shy away from their genuine interests in favor of the path Yale has carved with increasing enthusiasm.

No major can guarantee you a job, but no major defines your job either. What you want to learn and what you want to do are not inextricably linked. Go major in whatever excites you.

SCOTT STERN is a junior in Branford College. Contact him at scott.stern@yale.edu .

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, AUGUST 30, 2013 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE 3

FRIDAY FORUM

HENRY DAVID THOREAU “One must maintain a little bit of summer, even in the middle of winter.”

YALE TALKS FRESHMAN VOICES G U E S T C O L U M N I S T A D A M S O KO L

GUEST COLUMNIST LEO KIM

Prepping for preps I

am the proud product of a very interesting high school. Pennsbury High students are known throughout southeastern Pennsylvania for punching cops at prom and smearing blood on bathroom walls. Many of my classes took place in a building zapped in from the ’60s that contained not a single window in any classroom. We looked forward to biannual bomb threats, the air conditioning breaking every spring and the subsequent school closures due to a lack of funds to fix the broken air conditioning. The struggle was most certainly real.

At Pennsbury, my graduating class of 825 spanned every socioeconomic background.

Plenty of Pennsbury students don’t make it to college, and a large portion of each graduating class heads to community college. Another huge conglomerate, Natty cases in hand, flocks voraciously to Pennsylvania state schools.

As you might imagine then, Ivy League acceptances are very rare. At the time of my application, Pennsbury had not produced a Bulldog since 2006. When I was accepted to Yale, I was treated like a king.

Some people would love that.

I hated it.

WILL WE BE LOST IN A SEA OF SALMON? I couldn’t go a single class period without somebody mentioning where I was going to college, because instead of calling me by my name, everybody just called me “Yale.”

And if I asked an innocent and good-natured question in class, my teachers would admit they were wrong and praise me.

I didn’t mind the attention at first, but it got old fast.

Whenever I tried to push open a door that said “pull,” the harassment would not end.

And this door-thing happened more than you would think.

If you thought you were the slowest member of the Class of 2017, guess again.

I should mention, too, that the academic environment at Pennsbury is, for lack of a better word, “laid back.” While many Yalies come from elite, rigorous high schools, Pennsbury classes are a breeze for bright students. Some teachers made it difficult not to get an A. At Yale, of course, the environment is different. I am genuinely looking forward to struggling with papers and failing the occasional midterm. My dream is that, one day, some Nobel Prize-winning Yale professor will tell me to sit down and shut up.

All jokes aside, I love Pennsbury dearly. That said, I blame

it for my single greatest preYale apprehension: the culture shock. The preppy life is alien to me. Will my single pair of salmon shorts and my threeyear-old pair of Sperry topsiders suffice? I’ve never worn formal attire to school, nor have I held a 9-iron (and I literally just googled “types of golf clubs”). The transition — from white-tank central to a palace of Polos — will be rapid, but I am both nervous and excited to interact with prepsters.

Regardless of our individual backgrounds, we all have something to bring to the table.

And I know that everyone will get along because there is already something we all have in common. Whether our high school was a miniature college campus dotted with blue blazers or an ugly cubic building designed by a prison architect (as the Pennsbury legend goes), we were all among the smartest ones there.

For all of us freshmen, I

expect Yale to be a very humbling experience. The first day of Spanish class, I’ll probably be amazed by a classmate’s beautiful soliloquy on Don Quixote. Then, when called upon, I will sit utterly speechless, considering a transfer to Penn State.

While it may take me a while to adjust to being surrounded by brilliant prepsters, I know I won’t be the only one going through a culture shock. No matter where you live or where you went to high school, we’re all in for something drastically new. Perhaps, sartorially and academically, I’ll feel out of place at first. But it’s okay — I’m sure that, within a few weeks, we’ll all be wearing salmon shorts happily together.

ADAM SOKOL is a freshman in Saybrook College. Contact him at adam.sokol@yale.edu.

KATE MCMILLAN/STAFF ILLUSTRATOR

G U E ST C O LU M N I ST CA R O L I N E P O S N E R

Matters of faith A

t the peak of my thirdgrade rebelliousness, I devised a genius plan to avoid attending Hebrew school. Instead of getting out of the car, I grabbed the seat with both hands, began to cry and screamed through the sobs: “I’m not going. You can’t make me.” My mom, flustered, told me I had no choice, and I ultimately gave up the fight. But this year, I — like many of my freshman peers — find myself in an entirely new situation: choice.

The past 18 years witnessed my involuntary assimilation into Jewish culture, though my personal religious freedoms did increase as I matured. At home, religious school attendance was an expectation, high holyday meals a given and Jewish traditions an inseparable element of life in the Posner household.

Now, the independence of

college life will force me to confront the role of religion in my personal development, and I must decide the role religion will play in my future.

Though we don’t all wrestle with whether to hang a mezuzah or celebrate the Sabbath, incoming Yale students, especially students from religious backgrounds, will likely all face similar situations.

The question is more than whether we believe in God. Our religious identity is tied to a few separate issues — spiritually, morality and tradition among them. When we decide to choose a particular religion, we don’t just opt into a faith, but also personal values, ethics, even customs and traditions — the latke, the Purim carnival, the bat mitzvah and the catchy Hebrew tunes. In questioning my own faith, I have found myself at odds with much of my religion’s spiritual components.

But as a Jew raised in the

Reform enclave of Palm Beach County, I am unspeakably attached to our traditions.

FRESHMAN YEAR MEANS FINDING MY RELIGIOUS PATH The challenge, then, emerges when we need to reconcile our religious background with our current beliefs. If I don’t believe in God, am I in the wrong to say prayers at Rosh Hashanah services? Or is my recitation of Hebrew verse just another expression of my devotion to Jewish tradition?

But after two decades of religious life, the interconnectedness of my personal

identity and my Jewish identity complicates this choice.

It can be nearly impossible for those of us raised in religious households to distinguish the religious and cultural elements — the Torah teachings and the bagels — that fostered our development. I frequently wonder how much of my character has been shaped

by Judaism — just as I wonder how much has been shaped by the fact that my mom is a high school teacher. My moral beliefs likely carry the imprints of my rabbi’s witty Shabbat sermons; my veganism may be the legacy of the conscientious eating condoned by the biblical laws of kashrut. My bat mitzvah may have marked my transition to Jewish adulthood, but the self analysis that my newfound independence demands feels far more like a step into maturity.

Though matters of religion can be highly personal,

my journey in college doesn’t have to be a solo trip. I know where to look for peers who share my particular struggles — it’s the building with the big “Shalom” flag on the outside. After all, religion revolves around community, and this fall, Yale will have no shortage of freshmen, from many faiths, looking to figure out their own religious identities.

Together we can work on our first problem set of religious questions: Should we fast on religious holidays?

Where can we find a dormproof menorah? To pray or not to pray? I’m no expert on the customs of other faiths, but I know that we can all benefit from turning to our classmates to help find answers.

CAROLINE POSNER is a freshman in Berkeley College. Contact her at caroline.posner@yale.edu .

The opportunity cost I

’m a bum. I’m not saying that I don’t get my work done, but in high school, my philosophy always centered on academically scraping by. My four years at high school weren’t filled with academic victories; I created no life-saving inventions, earned no national awards. Instead, I filled my time with procrastination, midnight Taco Bell runs and blackout weekends. I felt no need to go above and beyond; after all, a 92.6 percent and a perfect score were both the same A. Minimum effort for maximum results became the goal.

I REALIZED I DON'T DESERVE TO CALL MYSELF A YALIE YET Then came March 28 — Ivy Day, the most dread-worthy day of the nightmare landscape known as selective college admissions. When decisions came out, my friends dropped like flies. Rejection after rejection, it seemed hopeless. Students with higher GPAs and better accomplishments — peers who were, in all respects more qualified than me — were shot down. Then, the impossible happened: I had gotten into Yale.

Once the surprise and excitement passed, I was left with one emotion: confusion. Why me? How had I, in a process that had massacred thousands of valedictorians, made it?

The next few weeks at school only confirmed that sentiment. People were bitter and upset; I was the lazy one in class, the one that wasn’t supposed to go to Yale. What had I done to deserve my acceptance over the thousands, some of whom were close friends, who were rejected?

In economics, you learn about opportunity costs. They’re the idea that the options forgone factor into the overall cost of any action. So what was the opportunity cost of my acceptance? Was some hidden prodigy, who would have perhaps gone on to cure cancer, condemned to Harvard instead? Surely he would never realize his full potential at such a school. I began to feel guilty.

How could I deserve to be called a Yalie?

After thinking for quite some time, I could only come to one logical conclusion: I realized that I don’t deserve to be at Yale — at least not yet. There are, of course, students in the class of 2017 — geniuses, changers of the world — who already deserve to call themselves Yalies.

But I’m not one of them.

I realized, then, that my acceptance to Yale didn’t make me a Yale man after all. Instead, it gave and continues to give me the opportunity to become one. It’s not what I’ve done already that determines whether I deserve to be at Yale; it’s what I’ll do now, once I’m there.

Being a Yalie is a title earned, not given, and it isn’t one earned easily.

I’m often asked why I chose Yale, but I think the real question is why Yale chose me. I can’t answer that question now. But in one, two, 10 years, I hope I’ll be able to. Yale saw something in me that I didn’t, and now, I can’t afford to merely scrape by. I’m not saying that I won’t have my fair share of hangovers and blackout weekends, but this time, my attitude will be different.

No matter what we may like to think, the actions that we take now will no longer be only for us; they will be for something greater.

Whether we were the best, the brightest or the bums, Yale has given us all an opportunity we can’t afford to waste. Not just for ourselves, but for our school, and for those who were rejected so that we could be accepted. It will be so that the decision to accept us, to give us the chance to change the world doesn’t go in vain. It will be for God, for country and most of all, for Yale.

LEO KIM is a freshman in Trumbull College. Contact him at leo.kim@yale.edu .

PAGE 4

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, AUGUST 30, 2013 · yaledailynews.com

FROM THE FRONT

“College is a refuge from hasty judgment.”

ROBERT FROST AMERICAN POET

Freshmen maintain class of 2016 diversity high CLASS OF 2017 FROM PAGE 1 percent identifying as multiracial last year.

Although the effects of diversity in universities are hard to quantify, James Onwuachi, college counselor at the Westminster Schools in Atlanta, Ga., and a former admissions officer at Vanderbilt University, said diversity’s importance to a college education cannot be underestimated.

“I think that diversity in higher education is vitally important because that’s a reflection of what America is going to be in the next 30 to 40 years,” Onwuachi said. “It teaches and enlarges experiences.”

Similar to some of its peer institutions, Yale reports students’ race in multiple categories if students identify as multiracial. In the class of 2017,

roughly 60 percent of U.S. students identify as white, 20 percent identify as Asian, 10 percent identify as AfricanAmerican, 10 percent identify as Hispanic, 2 percent identify as Native American and 10 percent are international.

Though the overlap in those reporting as multiracial creates a total of 112 percent, Quinlan said Yale counts these students in multiple categories in order to present a holistic picture of the University’s diversity.

“We have numbers over 100 percent because we want to count students for each ethnicity for which they self-identify,” Quinlan said.

Terry Kung, co-director of college counseling at Immaculate Heart High School in Los Angeles, said she believes enrolling a class in which 37.1 percent of students identify as people of color is a “respectable

accomplishment” for Yale. Still, Kung said she believes universities cannot set a national benchmark for what a “good level of diversity” should be, because the goals and values of different institutions vary so widely.

Quinlan underscored the importance of assembling a diverse incoming class, though he added that each application is still evaluated holistically and individually.

“We are actively looking for students of color and lowincome students who will be incredibly successful at Yale,” Quinlan said. “[But] we are looking for the top students in our pool, no matter their background.”

For the class of 2017, Yale admitted 1,991 students from a record pool of 29,610 applicants.

GRAPHIC CLASS OF 2017 STATISTICS

12%

are the first in their family to attend four-year college or university

Half

Contact AMY WANG at amy.wang@yale.edu .

MAP CLASS OF 2017 GEOGRAPHIC BREAKDOWN

of the class receives University financial aid

35.5%

16.8% 12.5% 4.6%

12%

7.1%

are interested in majoring in one of Yale's eight engineering majors

10.8%

DATA TAKEN FROM YALE NEWS RELEASE; 10% OF STUDENTS WERE REPORTED AS INTERNATIONAL CITIZENS

Commons alters dining hours COMMONS FROM PAGE 1 break in dining service earlier this week, a time Yale Dining changed to 10:30 a.m. on Thursday to cause the least amount of disruption to student dining habits, Van Dyke said. But students have expressed annoyance with their new expulsion from the hall.

“It’s a terrible move for us,” said Shalmoli Halder ’15. “I feel like I’m just standing on the street and not doing anything constructive [during the break].

I could work on a p-set if Commons were open.”

Commons General Manager Maureen O’Donnell-Young told the hungry students on Thursday that she sympathizes with them and informally polled the students after they were expelled from the dining hall to find out if the new 30-minute closure prevented them from eating.

“We’re really working on coming up with a different solution so all of you who have class between 11:35 and 2:15 can eat,” O’Donnell-Young said to the students gathered outside of Commons Thursday morning, referring to the decision to close Commons at 10:30 a.m. instead of 11 a.m.

Students with varying degrees of annoyance and confusion filed out of Commons Thursday when staff members walked among the tables, asking them to leave. The interrupted diners interviewed called the change “inconvenient” and “stupid.” Some were unsure about whether they could leave their trays at their seats and return at 11:30 a.m. Others milled around the entrance, where a group of roughly 30 assembled by the time the doors opened again.

Students who lined up outside in Uncommon, the food vendor

Fill this space here.

JOIN@YALEDAILYNEWS.COM

attached to the dining hall, said they were especially upset to use their lunch swipes before class at 11:35 a.m.

“I have class at 11:35, and I was looking forward to a solid lunch at Commons,” said Jonathan Yao ’15, who bought a yogurt and a protein bar before his trek up Science Hill.

After Thursday’s closure at 11 a.m., Yale Dining administrators decided to shut down Commons at 10:30 a.m. instead and allow students to eat a full meal at 11 a.m. before the popular 11:35 a.m. time slot for classes, Van Dyke said. Yale Dining informed meal plan participants of the decision in a Thursday afternoon email.

Students interviewed said that alteration makes more sense, but still think administrators should remove the entire closure policy.

Two Commons staff members, who wished to remain anony-

mous because they have been instructed not to speak with the press, said they think closing Commons between breakfast and lunch works better than last semester’s swipe system.

Fourteen out of 17 students interviewed had negative opinions of the 30-minute closure.

The other three said they are unaffected by the change.

Administrators have faced complaints in the past for other policies concerning Commons.

Yale Dining officials received even more serious backlash, including student petitions and staff protests, after closing Commons for dinner in the fall of 2011.

Commons opens for breakfast at 7:45 a.m. and closes at 2:30 p.m.

Contact JULIA ZORTHIAN at julia.zorthian@yale.edu .

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, AUGUST 30, 2013 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE 5

NEWS

“We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us.” WINSTON CHURCHILL BRITISH POLITICIAN

Resort developer talks luxury travel

BY MATTHEW NUSSBAUM CONTRIBUTING REPORTER Globe-trotting luxury resort tycoon, entrepreneur extraordinaire, wine-lover and selfdescribed “worst guitarist in the world,” John Spence, spoke to a full house at the School of Architecture Thursday night.

This semester’s Bass Fellow, who participates in one of the school’s advanced design studio classes, drew a crowd that spilled beyond Hastings Hall into two overflow rooms, where attendees watched a live feed. As the owner and chair of Karma Royal Group, Spence oversees the operations of 22 luxury resorts on four continents and is currently considering his first purchase in the United States.

The college-dropout-turneddeveloper considers himself to be in “the entertainment business,” saying his target guests are people whose best vacation came when they were 21 years old and drinking too much. Spence’s resorts cater to fun-loving tourists — now older and with a

bit more money — in a manner that might be unrecognizable to most resort-goers. While Spence’s resorts are quite expensive, he said they are not targeted for those seeking to rise early and play a few rounds of golf. Karma is the place to be “if you’re trying to have fun,” he explained, citing the resorts’ luxurious spas, activities and child-occupying diversions.

It’s more fun being a pirate than being in the navy.

JOHN SPENCE Owner and chair, Karma Royal Group “Our job is to entertain people,” Spence said.

With hair down to his shoulders and dressed modestly in an open-collared buttondown shirt, blazer and blue jeans, Spence delivered a widely praised — if rather unconventional — performance Thursday night.

“This was like a sales pitch,” Jason Roberts ARC ’14 said. “[The lecture was] way over the top, which was great.”

Filled with photographs of his resorts and of the breathtaking landscapes he said he hopes to develop into high-class tourist destinations, Spence’s presentation was lighthearted and different from the academic lectures that attendees usually find at School of Architecture events, Roberts said. Spence had the entire audience, from tenured architecture faculty to students and visitors, laughing throughout.

But not all attendees found Spence’s talk as heavy on content as on style. School of Architecture professor Tom Zook ARC ’95 said that while he found the lecture “very entertaining,” it did not focus heavily on the architecture of the resorts.

Zook added that the “potential of [each resort’s] site is what is attractive,” rather than the fullydeveloped resorts themselves.

Four audience members interviewed said that as architecture

students and alumni, they enjoy listening to developers’ and business leaders’ perspective on the field they will be entering.

Spence, who will be taking a group of students to Spain as part of the studio design class, said in an interview after the lecture that his work as a developer has fostered his deep appreciation for architects and their “key role” in his business. He added that he wished he had spoken more about the architectural aspects of development during his lecture.

Spence’s lecture concluded with a list of pithy slogans by which he lives, including “It’s more fun being a pirate than being in the navy.” He closed with his favorite saying of all: “Now is the time to drink.” He was the most popular guest of all at the cocktail party following the event.

Spence is a native of Great Britain.

Contact MATTHEW NUSSBAUM at matthew.nussbaum@yale.edu .

ALEXANDRA SCHMELING/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

John Spence, who addressed a packed auditorium at the School of Architecture Thursday, oversees the operations of 22 luxury resorts on four continents.

Yale neighbor criticizes Univ. pesticide use

BY MONICA DISARE STAFF REPORTER Those living near Yale’s athletic fields were struck by the familiar stench of pesticides used to maintain the fields this summer, breaking an agreement allegedly reached with the University two years before.

It is not the first time these Westville residents have been exposed to Yale pesticides, said Laura Cahn, a resident of Cleveland Road, which borders the fields. In 2011, she said, she met with two officials from the Yale Office of Facilities who agreed to notify residents the next time they sprayed. But this summer, the pesticides came without warning at the beginning of August.

“It was pervasive — the whole air was filled with this nasty smell,” she said.

“The smell is so bad that we can’t even be outside.”

University spokesman Tom Conroy said that he did not know the history of the 2011 meeting. Yale is not in violation of state law, he said, adding that the state of Connecticut found no violation in Yale’s use of the pesticides, as the University only uses approved methods and products in its landscaping.

Conroy said that Yale athletic officials met with residents of Cleveland Road earlier this month and told them they will suspend treatment of the fields in that area while the University explores other options for field maintenance. Residents will be notified when an alternative plan has been developed, he added.

Connecticut forbids spraying pesticides near schools that have students in preschool through eighth grade, barring extreme situations, said Dennis Schain, a spokesman for the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. Schain added that pesticides can be harmful for developing children — a

fact that concerns Cahn, the mother of a 14-year-old daughter, who first noticed the smell a few years ago while hosting a party for her daughter and her daughter’s friends. Cahn also questioned the wisdom of exposing college students to a substance that has been deemed unhealthy for children.

It was pervasive — the whole air was filled with this nasty smell.

The smell is so bad that we can’t even be outside.

LAURA CAHN Resident, Cleveland Road Schain said that other institutions in Connecticut likely use pesticides, though it is uncommon to hear concerns from neighbors about their usage. But while the practice is legal, Schain said that “less is better” when it comes to pesticides.

While the practice is not against Connecticut law, Cahn hopes that Yale will conclude that it is best for Yale’s neighbors and New Haven’s environment that the University ceases to use pesticides on its athletic fields.

“Yale is a world leader in so many areas,” she said. “I think Yale can be a world leader in this area, too.”

Of 30 commonly used lawn pesticides, studies have linked 13 with birth defects, 21 with reproductive defects and 26 with liver or kidney damage, according to Beyond Pesticides, a nonprofit organization headquartered in Washington, D.C. Contact MONICA DISARE at monica.disare@yale.edu .

Panel approves pot regulations

BY MICHELLE HACKMAN STAFF REPORTER A 14-member legislative panel approved regulations for the sale of medical marijuana Tuesday evening, clearing the way for medical marijuana to be sold in the state of Connecticut.

The state legislature first legalized the limited use of medical marijuana in May 2012, authorizing the state’s consumer protection bureau to generate more specific guidelines, mandating that medical marijuana grown and sold in the state be held to the same high standard as all other pharmaceuticals. The new regulations, which were approved by legislative consensus, drew both praise for their comprehensive nature and criticism that they will spur a standoff with the federal government, which outlaws all use of the drug.

“We’ve spent a lot of time putting together what we think are appropriate regulations,” said Bill Rubenstein, commissioner of the Consumer Protection Bureau. “What I can say is that we’ve based the program on how we regulate other pharmaceuticals.”

Unlike other states that have legalized medical marijuana, Connecticut mandates that the chemical makeup of every batch be tested to ensure consistency, Rubenstein said. Additionally, each batch will be labeled with the exact amount of its THC content.

The regulations specify 11 debilitating conditions that would permit a Connecticut resident to qualify for medical marijuana use, including cancer, HIV/AIDS, Parkinson’s disease and epilepsy. Additional conditions can only be added through legislative action or a public petition which would have to be approved by a board of doctors.

Patients who qualify are granted one-year licenses to purchase medi-

cal marijuana, though each patient can purchase only up to a month supply at a time. In addition, doctors can revoke medical marijuana cards at any time, Rubenstein said.

The state began registering patients on a preliminary basis on Oct. 1, 2012, Rubenstein said, and 881 Connecticut residents have been certified thus far.

We’ve based the program on how we regulate other pharmaceuticals.

BILL RUBENSTEIN Commissioner, Consumer Protection Bureau Once the regulations go into effect early next week, the state will begin accepting applications from those who wish to produce and sell marijuana. Applicants must pay $250,000 to apply for a permit and an additional $750,000 if they are granted one. Rubenstein said that the large price tags are necessitated by a clause in the law that prohibits the cost of regulating medical marijuana to come from the state’s budget. In all, Connecticut will award licenses to between three and 10 marijuana dispensaries as specified by the law.

Seven of the 14 committee members who approved the regulations on a voice vote voted against the initial 2012 medical marijuana bill. Much of the discussion before the vote was dominated by these dissenters — five Republicans and two Democrats — who opposed the law both for its potential conflict with federal law and the possibility that it will promote greater drug use.

State Sen. Len Fasano said that he had initially voted against the bill because U.S. Attorney General Eric

Holder had sent letters to 10 states with medical marijuana laws warning that the federal government would be ready to seek an injunction against states who allow marijuana growers to open FDIC-ensured bank accounts or advertise their product.

“I voted against the bill because I thought state employees could go to jail [for enforcing the law],” Fasano said. “State employees are not immune from federal law.”

But on Thursday morning, Holder released a memorandum saying that the federal government would not prosecute states who tightly regulated their medical marijuana markets — which Fasano said are “essentially Connecticut’s regulations.”

If Holder had sent the letter in 2012, Fasano said he would have voted for the bill.

Republican State Sen. Vinny Candelora also criticized the regulations for their potential to incite a federal challenge. He also said he worries that many patients procure marijuana prescribed for medicinal purposes simply to enjoy for recreational use, and that the increased availability of the drug will act as a gateway drug for more people.

“I think for me on a personal level, my son came home referring to marijuana as medical marijuana one day,” he said. “To me, that’s disconcerting. That’s not to say that THC does not have medicinal use, but I don’t like the way that other states especially have treated the drug, and a lot of people use it to get high. They make jokes of it.”

Currently, 20 states permit the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes, while two states, Washington and Colorado, permit the use of the drugs for recreation.

Contact MICHELLE HACKMAN at michelle.hackman@yale.edu .

PAGE 6

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, AUGUST 30, 2013 · yaledailynews.com

FROM THE FRONT Dinner honors Swensen SWENSEN FROM PAGE 1 added, and he and Levin hosted the annual “Levin-Swensen Tennis Extravaganza” to fundraise while Levin was president.

Swensen, who could not be reached for comment, is widely credited with redefining the model for institutional investing, having overseen dramatic growth in the endowment from just over $1 billion in 1985 when he arrived at the University.

The money raised in his honor will also add to a pre-existing scholarship in Yale College in honor of Swensen, while the remaining funds will enter a pool of money to support general costs for the University.

At last week’s event, the Development Office announced a number of tributes to Swensen, including naming the Berkeley College Master’s House “Swensen House,” said O’Neill.

A Berkeley fellow, Swensen has remained involved with the residential college and close with its masters, including current Berkeley Master Marvin Chun, throughout his 28-year tenure.

Roughly 200 people attended the dinner, which the Development Office held in Commons, because their original venue choice — Berkeley College — could not accommodate all the attendees, O’Neill added.

Levin and his wife, Jane Levin, came back to New Haven for the event, as well as numerous people Swensen has mentored during his career. Richard Levin, Yale Investments Senior Director Dean Takahashi ’80 SOM ’83 and economist William Brainard GRD ’63 all made remarks on Swensen’s behalf.

After Levin announced he would retire from the presidency in an August 2012 email to the University, O’Neill said Levin organized the initiative with her as his last bit of “unfinished business.”

It was a very successful fundraising effort. …

[Swensen’s] work has produced greater financial resources for Yale than any other single activity.

PETER SALOVEY President, Yale University “David had been somebody who had done so much for Yale during [Levin’s] presidency,” O’Neill said. “He made it possible to launch so many new initiatives and strengthen the academic parts of the University.”

Swensen returned to teaching the undergraduate seminar “Investment Analysis” this semester after taking a leave of absence from teaching last September due to a cancer diagnosis. He told the News last April he planned to resume teaching, noting that his health was good and that he was working a full schedule in the Investments Office.

Swensen worked at Lehman Brothers for six years before joining the Yale Investments Office.

Contact JULIA ZORTHIAN at julia.zorthian@yale.edu .

“The lack of money is the root of all evil.”

MARK TWAIN AMERICAN AUTHOR AND HUMORIST

City homicide count up to 13 CRIME FROM PAGE 1 While investigations into the 18-yearold’s death are still ongoing, Hartman said that the police department’s detectives are following “strong leads” in the case. The shooter, he added, appears to have fled in a white Chrysler 300, adorned with chrome wheel rims, tinted windows and a sunroof.

Just four days before Jackson’s murder, a birthday party ended in tragedy after a shooting broke out at the Cheetah Club, a nightclub located at 169 East St. Torrance Dawkins, of Waterbury, Conn., was celebrating his 22nd birthday on Aug. 11, when he was shot and killed in the parking lot adjacent to the club, only a few minutes away from the I-95 Connecticut Turnpike. It was the third homicide this year to involve a bar or a club, bringing the NHPD’s attention to the issues of gun violence in the city’s nightclubs, Hartman said.

With 13 homicides in total this year, New Haven’s murder tally has surpassed the number of homicides at this time in 2012.

Still, the murder count is far down from the

24-homicide high in the first eight months of 2011 – a grisly year that saw a total of 34 murders in only 12 months.

This reduction in violent crime has often been attributed to the NHPD Chief Dean Esserman’s commitment to a model of community policing, a philosophy that moves officers away from their desks and puts them on walking patrols around the city to build relationships with the public.

Community policing has received recognition from Mayor John DeStefano Jr. as well as other political figures, including most recently Gov. Dannel Malloy. During an Aug. 19 visit to New Haven, Malloy praised the police department’s efforts to combat gang violence through community policing.

“You didn’t hear anyone say a bad thing about the police department and its efforts in respect to community policing,” Malloy said after a round-table discussion with DeStefano, Esserman, members of the New Haven state legislative delegation and several other community members.

Most Elm City residents also appear to

appreciate Esserman’s community-based strategy, according to Mark Abraham, executive director of DataHaven, a nonprofit organization that compiles public statistics for the Greater New Haven area. “[For residents], seeing police officers walking or conducting bicycle patrols on main streets like Whalley Avenue […] is a visible reminder that police are nearby and can help them get to know the officers in their department on a personal level,” Abraham said.

However, he added, it is not yet possible to assess whether community policing is primarily responsible for the city’s drop in crime, as many factors have an impact on New Haven’s crime rate, including socioeconomic inequality and the uneven distribution of violent crime from neighborhood to neighborhood.

At this time last year, the city had recorded 12 murders, en route to a threeyear low of 17 homicides.

Contact LORENZO LIGATO at lorenzo.ligato@yale.edu .

GRAPH HOMICIDES IN NEW HAVEN

34

30

20

17

2011 10

13

2013 2012

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

June

July

Aug

Sept

Oct

Nov

Dec

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, AUGUST 30, 2013 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE 7

BULLETIN BOARD

TODAY’S FORECAST Mostly sunny, with a high near 81. Light south wind becoming southwest.

TOMORROW

SUNDAY

High of 83, low of 70.

High of 82, low of 70.

SCIENCE HILL BY SPENCER KATZ

ON CAMPUS FRIDAY, AUGUST 30 3:45 PM Yale Precision Marching Band First Rehearsal The YPMB is so much more than a marching band. (In)famous for its spectacle, satire and unrelenting Yale spirit, it is the star attraction at Yale football games, playing student-arranged music from Nirvana to Rihanna and entertaining students and fans with wild halftime shows. Entire shows dedicated to funk music, to Beyoncé, or to the entirety of “Bohemian Rhapsody” (complete with electric guitars and cellos)? Check. How about odes to Harry Potter, “Lord of the Rings” or the glorious musical phenomenon that is the rickroll? Of course! And who can forget the year two YPMB alumni were married on the field in the most heartwarming halftime show in history? Hendrie Hall (165 Elm St.), Room 301.

THAT MONKEY TUNE BY MICHAEL KANDALAFT

SATURDAY, AUGUST 31 8:00 PM The 5th Humour Recruitment Show Enjoy a performance from Yale’s oldest sketch comedy group. Audition information will be provided. Morse College (304 York St.), Crescent Theater.

10:00 PM The Great Minnesota Get-Together The Minnesota Club will celebrate the State Fair, featuring an array of items from the Great Minnesota Get-Together where anything worth eating is served on a stick. Ezra Stiles College (302 York St.), Room J31.

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 1 12:00 PM Extracurricular Bazaar and Payne Whitney Gymnasium Open House Representatives of undergraduate organizations will introduce freshmen to student-run activities.

Furthermore, the Payne Whitney Gymnasium Open House will provide information about intramural and club sports, physical education classes, tickets for varsity events, and Dawg Pound membership. The Ace Israel Fitness Center will be open for personal workouts, and brochures for self-guided tours will be distributed. Payne Whitney Gymnasium (70 Tower Pkwy).

DOONESBURY BY GARRY TRUDEAU

y SUBMIT YOUR EVENTS ONLINE yaledailynews.com/events/submit To reach us: E-mail editor@yaledailynews.com Advertisements 2-2424 (before 5 p.m.)

2-2400 (after 5 p.m.)

Mailing address Yale Daily News P.O. Box 209007 New Haven, CT 06520

Questions or comments about the fairness or accuracy of stories should be directed to Editor in Chief Tapley Stephenson at (203) 432-2418.

Bulletin Board is a free service provided to groups of the Yale community for events. Listings should be submitted online at yaledailynews.com/events/ submit. The Yale Daily News reserves the right to edit listings.

Interested in drawing cartoons for the Yale Daily News?

CONTACT KAREN TIAN AT karen.tian@yale.edu

To visit us in person 202 York St. New Haven, Conn. (Opposite JE) FOR RELEASE AUGUST 30, 2013

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

CLASSIFIEDS

CROSSWORD Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Lewis ACROSS 1 Use an updraft, say 5 Pacific veranda 10 Shoe site 14 “__ la Douce” 15 Mission attacked

by Santa Anna 16 “Betsy’s Wedding” director 17 Alfred E. Neuman expression 18 “I can’t believe ...”

20 See 56-Across 22 Winner of a record 82 PGA tournaments 23 Cheer from Charo 24 Bring down 28 Top 30 Book between Micah and Habakkuk 31 See 56-Across 38 Id checker 39 Get up 40 Comparative suffix 41 See 56-Across 46 Mail at a castle 47 SSA IDs, e.g.

48 Discrimination 49 Gay Nineties, e.g.

52 Catherine of “A Mighty Wind” 56 Some slogans, and what 20-, 31and 41-Across are?

59 Response to an awkwardly timed call 62 Whiff 63 Bed or bar attachment 64 Discussion group 65 Actress McClurg 66 “__ these days ...”

67 Signal to a runner 68 Negative impression?

DOWN 1 Chorus from adoring fans 2 Hatch of Utah 3 Nitrogen compound

HELPING HANDS THRIFT STORE has Quality used Furniture; 25% Discount to Yale Faculty and Students; Free Curbside Delivery in Greater New Haven.

CALL (203) 432-2424 OR E-MAIL BUSINESS@ YALEDAILYNEWS.COM

8/30/13

By Jeffrey Wechsler

4 Unger player 5 “This skull hath __ in the earth ...”: Hamlet 6 E’en if 7 __ passage 8 Knock the socks off 9 Eastern segment of the Louisiana Purchase 10 Purse 11 Unoriginal 12 Tribute in verse 13 Word with flung or reaching 19 Sumatran ape 21 Put in a word or two?

25 Win by __ 26 Ancient Mesopotamian kingdom 27 Buffing board 29 Flat-bottomed boat 31 Brought forth 32 Ancient gathering place 33 Towers (over) 34 Conciliatory offering 35 Advice after an injury, perhaps

Want to place a classified ad?

Thursday’s Puzzle Solved

(c)2013 Tribune Content Agency, LLC

36 Real end?

37 Commercial sign 42 Targets of many searches 43 Unexpected pleasure 44 Marshy wasteland 45 Red in the face 49 Fanfare 50 Van Gogh’s “Starry Night Over the __”

SUDOKU EXPERT

8/30/13

51 Nighttime disorder 53 Dramatic device 54 Frankincense or myrrh 55 Black-ink entry 57 Lights-out signal 58 Inferno 59 Rub the wrong way 60 Word of feigned innocence 61 Subtle assent

2 5 8 4 7 5 2 6 8 4 3 6 7 9 2 4 6 9 4 9 3 1 6 5 3 8

PAGE 8

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, AUGUST 30, 2013 · yaledailynews.com

AROUND THE IVIES

“I have no ambition to govern men; it is a painful and thankless office.” THOMAS JEFFERSON THIRD PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

C O R N E L L D A I LY S U N

Harold’s Square to rise above the Ithaca Commons

BY TYLER ALICEA STAFF WRITER A major $30 million building will soon join an ongoing redesign of the Commons in transforming the City of Ithaca’s downtown space.

On Tuesday, the city’s Planning and Development Board unanimously approved plans for Harold’s Square, a multiuse building that will add retail, office and residential space to the Commons. Plans for Harold’s Square have been met with praise from both the community and local politicians, who say it will help revitalize the downtown area and attract businesses to Ithaca.

The building, which will be 11 stories high on its back side, will be located between the Commons and Green Street and sandwiched between Maté Factor and Trader K’s. The former Benchwarmers building will be renovated as part of the project.

Harold’s Square will have a four-story facade that faces the Commons, with the rest of the tower set back 62 feet and facing Green Street. An atrium will connect the Green Street and Commons entrances, according to the project’s plan.

The development process of Harold’s Square was aided by a recent zoning code change made

by the Common Council in early June allowing buildings that would previously vioCORNELL late maximum building height to move forward in the development process. Prior to that change, the project would have required a height zoning variance — an exception from the city’s zoning code — in order for the project to come to fruition.

The designers worked … to increase the compatibility of the new construction with the rhythm and texture of the historic buildings.

JOHN SCHROEDER Member of Planning and Development Board, The Sun John Schroeder, a member of the Planning and Development Board and the production man-

ager for The Sun, said the board was very pleased with the work done by David Lubin, president and co-owner of L Enterprises with city officials.

“The designers worked very closely with the Design Review Committee of the Planning Board to increase the compatibility of the new construction with the rhythm and texture of the historic buildings on the Commons, which are part of a National Register historic district,” Schroeder said.

Many members of the community gave their support for the Harold’s Square project at the board meeting Tuesday. Doug Levine, executive director of the State Theatre of Ithaca, said he gave his full support for the project.

“I think it’s a well-thoughtout plan,” he said, lauding the amount of traffic and new business he said it will bring to downtown Ithaca.

Gary Ferguson, executive director of the Downtown Ithaca Alliance, also gave his support for the project at Tuesday’s meeting. He said the project will add “badly needed office space” and “modern retail space” to downtown Ithaca.

Levine also said the timing of the Harold’s Square project could not be better.

CORNELL DAILY SUN

The Harold’s Square project will bring new retail and office space to the Ithaca Commons.

T H E D A I LY P R I N C E T O N I A N

T H E D A I L Y P E N N S Y L VA N I A N

Petraeus to speak on campus

Alpha Sigma Phi focuses on recruitment

BY TEDDY SCHLEIFER STAFF WRITER David Petraeus will return to Princeton this October for the first time since he resigned from his post as CIA director nearly a year before.

Petraeus will speak at a dinner reception at the University’s conference for graduate alumni on Oct. 18, according to a conference schedule released Monday.

He will be interviewed by Michael O’Hanlon, a foreign policy analyst at The Brookings Institution who has also lectured at the Wilson School.

Since earning his Ph.D. from the Wilson School, Petraeus has mentored University alumni interested in the military. He delivered the Baccalaureate address in 2009. Following the resignation of former University President Shirley Tilghman, Petraeus also expressed interest in the University presidency, according to several of his friends, including O’Hanlon.

He resigned as the head of the CIA in November 2012 after admitting to having had an extramarital affair with his biographer, Paula Broadwell. Following his highly publicized departure, Petraeus did not give any speeches until March 2013, when he apologized for the affair. Since then, he has accepted faculty positions

at the City University of New York and the University of Southern California.

H i s PRINCETON speech will be part of “Many Minds, Many Stripes,” a conference for the Uni-

versity’s graduate alumni to be held from Oct. 17 to Oct. 19. Other speakers will include former CEO of Lockheed Martin, Norman Augustine, head of the Federal Aviation Administration, Michael Huerta, and University President Christopher Eisgruber.

It was also announced this week that Petraeus will speak at Duke University on Sept. 11.

CREATIVE COMMONS

In 2012, former military officer David Petraeus resigned as CIA director after admitting to an extramarital affair with his biographer.

BY FOLA ONIFADE STAFF WRITER One of Penn’s newest fraternities is looking to double its membership.

Newly-recolonized fraternity Alpha Sigma Phi, reintroduced to Penn after 35 years, will begin recruiting upperclassmen and transfer students beginning as early as next week. Its next “benchmark,” said Penn senior and Interim President Nikolai Zapertov, is to reach about 48 members.

The fraternity will also participate in spring rush, which will be open to freshmen.

Alpha Sigma Phi still has other benchmarks to complete, including educating members on the history of the fraternity, ensuring that all brothers maintain a GPA of 2.5 or above and establishing a functioning constitution. The colony expects to achieve full fraternity status by the end of spring semester, Zapertov said.

Zapertov described plans to incorporate parts of the old constitution in order to preserve the history of Alpha Sigma Phi’s Omicron chapter that was established at Penn in 1914, while charting its new direction.

Wharton sophomore and Vice President Eli Bernstein is excited by the opportunity to shape the organization’s future.

“I have the opportunity to join an organization full of tradition and history and be a part of crafting it into something great,” he said. “A lot of fraternities on campus already have an identity. When someone says ‘Alpha Sigma Phi, what are they?’ We can say, ‘Oh

they’re new.’”

The colony is also implementing a scholarship with the help of the national organization. According to Penn sophomore and Scholarship Director Imran PENN Cronk, “the ‘To Better the Man’ scholarship will help make Alpha Sigma Phi a part of the community by supporting Penn students.”

The scholarship application, which will be open to all Penn students, is still currently being developed as they finalize their recolonization efforts.

We are a values-based organization and aim to raise gentlemen.

NIKOLAI ZAPERTOV Interim president, Alpha Sigma Phi “We are a values-based organization and aim to raise gentlemen,” Zapertov said.

“We’re offering an alternate experience to fraternity life — no hazing and one that isn’t solely based on drinking culture.”

The newly recolonized fraternity held a Made in Philadelphia concert last night in the Rotunda to celebrate both the start of a new academic year and their return to Penn.

YALE DAILY NEWS 路 FRIDAY, AUGUST 30, 2013 路 yaledailynews.com

NEWS

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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, AUGUST 30, 2013 · yaledailynews.com

NATION

“Football is a fertility festival. Eleven sperm trying to get into the egg. I feel sorry for the goalkeeper.” BJORK ICELANDIC SINGER-SONGWRITER

US eyes action against Syria

Feds won’t sue to stop marijuana

BY PETE YOST AND GENE JOHNSON ASSOCIATED PRESS

PABLO MARTINEZ MONSIVAIS/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Demonstrators take part in a protest outside the White House calling for no military action against Syria on Thursday.

BY JULIE PACE ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama faced deep resistance Thursday to plans for a possible military strike against Syria, with U.S. lawmakers demanding more proof that Bashar Assad’s government perpetrated a deadly chemical weapons attack and Britain’s Parliament rejecting military action in a stunning late-night vote. Even so, the U.S. could launch action within days.

Unless British Prime Minister David Cameron defies Parliament, Obama faces the prospect of proceeding without a major ally that was expected to come on board. The White House signaled he was willing to move without international partners if it came to that.

“The president of the United States is elected with the duty to protect the national security interests in the United States of America,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said.

Even before the vote in London, the U.S. was preparing to act without formal authorization from the United Nations, where Russia has blocked efforts to seek a resolution authorizing the use of force, or from Capitol Hill. Still, the White House sought to ease growing concerns among congressional lawmakers by deploying a bevy of top adminis-

tration officials to brief lawmakers Thursday evening on U.S. intelligence assessments.

Cameron made the case earlier Thursday that a military strike would be legal on humanitarian grounds. But he faced deep pressure from lawmakers and had already promised not to undertake military action until a U.N. chemical weapons team on the ground in Syria released its findings about the Aug. 21 attack.

The prime minister said in terse comments after the vote that while he believes in a “tough response” to the use of chemical weapons, he would respect the will of the House of Commons.

France, though, announced that its armed forces “have been put in position to respond” if President Francois Hollande commits forces to intervention against Syria. Hollande does not need French parliamentary approval to launch military action that lasts less than four months.

Obama discussed the situation in Syria with House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, who wrote to the president earlier this week seeking a legal justification for a military strike and the objectives of any potential action.

Assad, who has denied using chemical weapons, vowed his country “will defend itself against any aggression.”

Some of the U.N. chemical weap-

ons experts will travel directly from Syria on Saturday to different laboratories around Europe to deliver “an extensive amount of material” gathered, U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq said. While the mandate of the U.N. team is to determine whether chemical agents were used in the attack, not who was responsible, Haq suggested the evidence — which includes biological samples and witness interviews — might give an indication of who deployed gases.

Obama and other top officials say Assad’s government is responsible for last week’s attack. Yet the administration has not revealed definitive evidence to back its claims. U.S. officials say the intelligence assessments are no “slam dunk,” with questions remaining about who actually controls some of Syria’s chemical weapons stores and doubts about whether Assad himself ordered the strike.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the intelligence publicly.

Despite shortcomings in the intelligence, the White House signaled urgency in acting, with Earnest, the White House spokesman saying the president believes there is a “compressed time frame” for responding.

“It is important for the Assad regime and other totalitarian dicta-

tors around the world to understand that the international community will not tolerate the indiscriminate, widespread use of chemical weapons, particularly against women and children as they’re sleeping in their beds,” he said.

But many Congress members were pressing Obama to explain the need for military action and address fears that such a move might draw the U.S. deeper into the Syrian civil war. Both Democrats and Republicans were among lawmakers protesting that Obama hasn’t made the case for a military strike, with some arguing that the president needs congressional authorization to order an attack.

The White House has not responded directly to Boehner’s letter seeking more answers about Syria operations and the speaker’s office appeared unsatisfied after the president’s call Thursday.

“Only the president can answer these questions, and it is clear that further dialogue and consultation with Congress, as well as communication with the American public, will be needed,” Boehner spokesman Brendan Buck said.

Washington Rep. Adam Smith, senior Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, cautioned that an attack might be ineffective and might draw the United States into the Syrian civil war, now in its third year.

NFL to settle concussion lawsuits

BY MARYCLAIRE DALE ASSOCIATED PRESS PHILADELPHIA — The NFL agreed to pay more than three-quarters of a billion dollars to settle lawsuits from thousands of former players who developed dementia or other concussion-related brain disorders they say were caused by the very onfield violence that fueled the game’s rise to popularity and profit.

The class-action settlement, unprecedented in sports, was announced Thursday after two months of court-ordered mediation and is subject to approval by a federal judge. It came exactly a week before the first game of the 2013 season, removing a major legal and financial threat hanging over the sport.

U.S. District Judge Anita B. Brody in Philadelphia is expected to rule on the settlement in two to three months but said it “holds the prospect of avoiding lengthy, expensive and uncertain litigation, and of enhancing the game of football.”

More than 4,500 former players, some of them suffering from depression or dementia, accused the NFL of concealing the long-term dangers of concussions and rushing injured players back onto the field, while glorifying and profiting from the bone-crushing hits that were often glorified in slow motion on NFL Films.

“Football has been my life and football has been kind to me,” said former Dallas Cowboys running

back Tony Dorsett, one of at least 10 members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame who filed suit since 2011. “But when I signed up for this, I didn’t know some of the repercussions. I did know I could get injured, but I didn’t know about my head or the trauma or the things that could happen to me later on in life.”

The settlement applies to all 18,000 past NFL players and spouses of those who are deceased — a group that could total more than 20,000 — and will cost the league $765 million, the vast majority of which would go to compensate athletes with certain neurological ailments, plus plaintiffs’ attorney fees. It sets aside $75 million for medical exams and $10 million for medical research.

Individual payouts would be capped at $5 million for men with Alzheimer’s disease; $4 million for those diagnosed after their deaths with a brain condition called chronic traumatic encephalopathy; and $3 million for players with dementia, said lead plaintiffs’ lawyer Christopher Seeger.

The settlement does not include an admission from the NFL that it hid information from players about head injuries. Commissioner Roger Goodell told pro football’s lawyers to “do the right thing for the game and the men who played it,” according to a statement by the league.

Goodell was not made available for comment.

The NFL has annual revenue of about $9 billion.

PAUL SANCYA/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Former Detroit Lions quarterback Eric Hipple speaks in Detroit about hits to the head he took while playing NFL football.

In addition to Dorsett, the plaintiffs include Super Bowl-winning quarterback Jim McMahon, who suffers from dementia; former running back Kevin Turner, who has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s disease; and the family of All-Pro selection Junior Seau, who committed suicide last year.

Turner, who played for the New England Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles, predicted that most of his peers would support the settlement.

“Chances are … I won’t make it to 50 or 60,” said Turner, now 44.

“I have money now to put back for

my children to go to college and for a little something to be there financially.”

All former NFL players are eligible to seek care, screening or compensation, whether they suffered a documented concussion or not. The amounts they receive will be based on their age, condition and years of play. They do not need to prove that their health problems are connected to playing football.

Players’ lawyers said they expect the fund to cover the ex-athletes’ expenses up to age 65. Current players are not covered.

WASHINGTON — Despite 75 years of federal marijuana prohibition, the Justice Department said Thursday that states can let people use the drug, license people to grow it and even allow adults to stroll into stores and buy it — as long as the weed is kept away from kids, the black market and federal property.

In a sweeping new policy statement prompted by pot legalization votes in Washington and Colorado last fall, the department gave the green light to states to adopt tight regulatory schemes to oversee the medical and recreational marijuana industries burgeoning across the country.

The action, welcomed by supporters of legalization, could set the stage for more states to legalize marijuana. Alaska could vote on the question next year, and a few other states plan similar votes in 2016.

The policy change embraces what Justice Department officials called a “trust but verify” approach between the federal government and states that enact recreational drug use.

In a memo to all 94 U.S. attorneys’ offices around the country, Deputy Attorney General James Cole said the federal government expects that states and local governments authorizing “marijuana-related conduct” will implement strong and effective regulatory and enforcement systems that address the threat those state laws could pose to public health and safety.

“If state enforcement efforts are not sufficiently robust … the federal government may seek to challenge the regulatory structure itself,” the memo stated. States must ensure “that they do not undermine federal enforcement priorities,” it added.

If you don’t sell this product to children, if you keep violent crime away from your business, if you pay your taxes and you don’t use this as a front for illicit activity, we’re going to be able to move forward.

JAY INSLEE Governor, Washington state The U.S. attorney in Colorado, John Walsh, said he will continue to focus on whether Colorado’s system has the resources and tools necessary to protect key federal public safety interests.

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper said the state is working to improve education and prevention efforts directed at young people and on enforcement tools to prevent access to marijuana by those under age 21. Colorado also is determined to keep marijuana businesses from being fronts for criminal enterprises or other illegal activity, he said, and the state is committed to preventing the export of marijuana while also enhancing efforts to keep state roads safe from impaired drivers.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee also laid out guidelines for marijuana entrepreneurs.

“If you don’t sell this product to children, if you keep violent crime away from your business, if you pay your taxes and you don’t use this as a front for illicit activity, we’re going to be able to move forward,” Inslee said.

Under the new federal policy, the government’s top investigative priorities range from preventing the distribution of marijuana to minors to preventing sales revenue from going to criminal enterprises, gangs and cartels and preventing the diversion of marijuana outside of states where it is legal.

Other top-priority enforcement areas include stopping state-authorized marijuana activity from being used as a cover for trafficking other illegal drugs and preventing violence and the use of firearms in the cultivation and distribution of marijuana. The top areas also include preventing drugged driving, preventing marijuana cultivation and possession on federal property.

The Justice Department memo says it will take a broad view of the federal priorities. For example, in preventing the distribution of marijuana to minors, enforcement could take place when marijuana trafficking takes place near an area associated with minors, or when marijuana is marketed in an appealing manner to minors or diverted to minors.

Following the votes in Colorado and Washington last year, Attorney General Eric Holder launched a review of marijuana enforcement policy that included an examination of the two states. The issue was whether they should be blocked from operating marijuana markets on the grounds that actively regulating an illegal substance conflicts with federal drug law that bans it.

Peter Bensinger, a former head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, said the conflict between federal and state law is clear and can’t be reconciled. Federal law is paramount, and Holder is “not only abandoning the law, he’s breaking the law. He’s not only shirking his duty, he’s not living up to his oath of office,” Bensinger said.

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, AUGUST 30, 2013 · yaledailynews.com

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WORLD

“When I was growing up, the exam system didn’t allow you to write fiction, so you never did.” RODDY DOYLE IRISH NOVELIST, DRAMATIST AND SCREENWRITER

UK PM Cameron loses Syria war vote

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron speaks during a debate on Syria in the British Parliament on Thursday.

BY RAPHAEL SATTER AND GREGORY KATZ ASSOCIATED PRESS LONDON — British Prime Minister David Cameron lost a vote endorsing military action against Syria by 13 votes Thursday, a stunning defeat that will almost guarantee that Britain plays no direct role in any U.S. attack on Bashar Assad’s government.

A grim-faced Cameron conceded after the vote that “the British Parliament, reflecting the views of the British people, does not want to see British military action.”

The prime minister said that while he still believed in a “tough response” to the alleged use of chemical weapons by Assad’s regime, he would respect the

will of Parliament.

The defeat was as dramatic as it was unexpected. At the start of the week, Cameron had seemed poised to join Washington in possible military action against Assad. The suspected chemical weapons attacks took place Aug. 21 in suburbs east and west of Damascus. The humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders has said the strikes killed 355 people.

Gruesome images of sickened men, women and children writhing on the floor drew outrage from across the world, and Cameron recalled Parliament from its summer break for an emergency vote, which was widely seen as a prelude to international action.

“The video footage illus-

trates some of the most sickening human suffering imaginable,” Cameron told lawmakers before the vote, arguing that the most dangerous thing to do was to “stand back and do nothing.”

But the push for strikes against the Syrian regime began to lose momentum as questions were raised about the intelligence underpinning the move.

During a debate with lawmakers, he conceded that there was still a sliver of uncertainty about whether Assad truly was behind the attacks.

“In the end there is no 100 percent certainty about who is responsible,” Cameron said, although he insisted that officials were still as “as certain as possible” that Assad’s forces were responsible.

That was not enough for Britain’s Labour Party, which is still smarting from its ill-fated decision to champion the invasion of Iraq in 2003. The party announced its opposition to the move despite Cameron’s concessions, which included a promise to give U.N. inspectors time to report back to the Security Council and to do his utmost to secure a resolution there.

He also promised to give lawmakers a second vote in a bid to assuage fears that Britain was being rushed into an attack.

Cameron’s impassioned pleas and hours of debate failed to dispel lingering suspicions that what was billed as a limited campaign would turn into an Iraq-style quagmire, and the prime minister lost the late–

25K fail Univ. of Liberia admit exam

BY ROBBIE COREY-BOULET ASSOCIATED PRESS MONROVIA, Liberia — After completing high school in June, 20-year-old Lawrence Bondo spent six weeks working with a private tutor to prepare for the University of Liberia’s entrance exam, focusing on the geometry he found so difficult.

Bondo, though, learned this month that he had failed. So had every one of the nearly 25,000 other applicants this year.

His cousin was admitted last year before they changed the way the test is graded.

“We live together, eat together and sleep in the same room, so I don’t understand how he’s accepted and I’m not. He did not prepare as much as me,” Bondo said.

Some of the applicants are accusing the university of fraud, and are organizing a march Friday to demand a refund of their exam fees — nearly $30 per student.

In previous years, candidates had been graded on a curve. Under the new system put in place this year, students were required to earn scores of 50 percent in math and 70 percent in English in order to pass. Around 300 met the math requirement, but no students met the requirements in English, said S. Momolu Getaweh, the university’s public relations chief.

Officials declined to provide copies of the test, which was a multiple-choice exam.

The incident has cast a spotlight on the education sector in this West African nation still recovering from a brutal 14-year civil war that ended in 2003.

Along with the undergraduate applicants, all candidates for graduate programs in law, pharmaceutical studies and six other graduate programs also failed, according to a university press statement.

After the dismal results were in, Liberia President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf laid out a plan Wednesday to relax admission stan-

night vote 285-272. Some lawmakers shouted: “Resign!”

Tony Travers, the director of the Government Department at the London School of Economics, said Cameron had clearly miscalculated when he brought Parliament back early from its summer recess. He said the move had been unpopular even within Cameron’s Conservative Party.

“Clearly this will be seen as a defeat, it suggests he got the politics wrong, both with the opposition and with some members of his own party,” Travers said.

“It’s not great, it’s not brilliant, nor is it the end of the world for him. He’s lost votes before. It doesn’t necessarily stop them taking further action, but they are going to have to start again

US releases two Algerians from Gitmo

BY BEN FOX AND KARIM KEBIR ASSOCIATED PRESS

MARK DARROUGH/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Members of the Student Integration Movement protest outside the president’s office at the University of Liberia on Wednesday. dards to enroll 1,626 undergraduate students as well as a handful of students in each graduate program. She said the test results underscored the need for further reforms.

“We concentrated in the early years on enrollment because we wanted to get all these young kids into schools,” Sirleaf said.

“We wanted to get them out of the farms, out of the markets, out of the street selling, and we did that. Enrollment has quadrupled since we started.”

The next step, Sirleaf said, is improving education quality.

“That’s the most difficult task. You got thousands of teachers in our school system, some of them with only a high school education,” she said. “You don’t turn that over in three years or four years or five

years.”

Not everyone agrees with Sirleaf’s analysis. The university spokesman suggested the students might be to blame.

“Perhaps they didn’t study, because our students don’t like to study,” he said.

“Liberia itself, it’s not a reading public. Go around and ask the people in the street, ‘Did you read a newspaper yesterday?’

They will say no. That culture of not reading, if you bring it to college you’re going to fail.”

Getaweh acknowledged there had been some problems in administering the test in previous years. He said that up until last year, the official in charge of testing used “statistical analysis” to determine how many students would be admitted on a curve.

really.”

He said there was “not a lot” of public support for British military activity in Syria.

Defense Secretary Philip Hammond confirmed that British forces would not be involved in any potential strike, something he said would doubtless upset Washington — and please Assad.

“It is certainly going to place some strain on the special relationship,” Hammond told BBC radio. “The Americans do understand the parliamentary process that we have to go through. … Common sense must tell us that the Assad regime is going to be a little bit less uncomfortable tonight as a result of this decision in Parliament.”

ALGIERS, Algeria — Two Algerians held at Guantanamo Bay prison for more than a decade have returned to their homeland, where they were interrogated by judicial authorities pending an investigation, the Algiers Court said Thursday.

Their release, the first from Guantanamo in nearly a year, followed a pledge by President Barack Obama to renew efforts to close the prison on the U.S. base in Cuba, an initiative that has been thwarted

by Congress.

The men, identified as Nabil Hadjarab and Mutia Sadiq Ahmad Sayyab, arrived late Wednesday, the court said. The Pentagon said their release reduces the prisoner population at the U.S. base in Cuba to 164 men.

“The men underwent a preliminary investigation by judicial police and were placed in detention until they appear before a prosecutor,” said the Algerian court statement. Detention without charge can last for up to 15 days.

Their treatment follows the pattern for other Algerians released from the U.S. maximum security prison of being interviewed by a judge on arrival to determine what, if any, charges they would face in a criminal court, said Farouk Ksentini, president of Algeria’s official National Human Rights Commis-

sion. The process usually takes a month, he said.

Most of the previous 13 Algerian nationals repatriated from Guantanamo have not been imprisoned.

One exception is Abdul Aziz Naji, who was sent back to his homeland against his will in 2010. He was later sentenced to three years in prison on a charge of past membership in an extremist group overseas and remains behind bars, according to human rights groups and his former U.S. lawyer.

Until the secret release Wednesday, no prisoner had left Guantanamo since September 2012.

Sayyab, now 37, was arrested in Pakistan along with hundreds of other foreigners following the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan and turned over to American authorities, who sent him to Guantanamo for interrogation.

His U.S. lawyer, Buz Eisenberg, said the prisoner was a trained chef who has worked in France and Syria and had no involvement with terrorism.

Sayyab was cleared for release years earlier but stayed at Guantanamo because of congressional restrictions on transfers, which include security guarantees intended to assure that anyone released from the prison does not attack the U.S. or its allies.

In recent months, Sayyab had joined a hunger strike at the prison intended to call attention to the men’s indefinite detention, Eisenberg said.

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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, AUGUST 30, 2013 · yaledailynews.com

THROUGH THE LENS

A

fter a long summer break, Yale Bulldogs are back in action. As they prepare for this year’s competition, the Elis reflect on a 2012-’13 that brought great victories — most notably the men’s hockey team’s NCAA championship — as well as crushing defeats — try not to think about the latest Yale-Harvard game. PHOTOGRAPHERS FROM THE NEWS document the year in Yale athletics.