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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 · TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2013 · VOL. CXXXVI, NO. 15 · yaledailynews.com

INSIDE THE NEWS MORNING EVENING

SUNNY SUNNY

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CROSS CAMPUS Message from Ronnell. In

an email to the University community on Sunday, Yale Police Chief Ronnell Higgins informed students that the department had received a report from a Quinnipiac student who reported being sexually assaulted by a Yale undergraduate. According to Higgins, the assault occurred on campus early Sunday morning.

Mommy friendly. For the

fourth time in a row, Yale has been recognized by “Working Mother” magazine as one of the top 100 companies for working mothers. Yale earned its top marks for representation of women in the workforce, access to scholarships, tuition reimbursement and company culture, among other reasons.

Five of the University’s 10 officers — as well as the deans of Yale College, the School of Engineering & Applied Science and the Nursing School — are women.

The mystery continues. A

block of New Haven homes lost power for about two hours on Monday after an intrepid squirrel tripped on an electronic transformer above Bristol Street. The guilty rodent was found dead on a nearby curb. Looks like this lone warrior was yet another casualty of the allegedly rapidly diminishing squirrel population in New Haven.

WEIGHT BIAS OBESE PATIENTS FACE STEREOTYPES

FOREIGN RELATIONS

BUDGET SURPLUS

CROSS COUNTRY

Former U.S. special rep for Afghanistan and Pakistan talks Middle East

STATE SPENDING GROWTH LOWEST SINCE 2002

In the 100th Yale-Harvard dual meet, both the male and female Bulldogs fall

PAGES 6–7 SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

PAGE 3 NEWS

PAGE 3 CITY

PAGE 12 SPORTS

Women in the humanities GRAPH HUMANITIES MAJORS IN STUDENT BODY, BY GENDER 60%

50%

BY MATTHEW LLOYD-THOMAS STAFF REPORTER

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Answering your questions.

In an effort to continue campus discussion about the University’s response to sexual misconduct, Deputy Provost Stephanie Spangler, UWC Chair Michael Della Rocca, Assistant Dean of Student Affairs Melanie Boyd and University Vice President Kim Goff-Crews are inviting interested students to dinner conversations about the recently released sexual misconduct scenarios.

THIS DAY IN YALE HISTORY

1962 After undergoing a series of summer renovations, the Yale Bookstore — designed to resemble the nearby Morse and Ezra Stiles Colleges — opens in a new facility designed by Eero Saarinen ARCH ’34. Renovations included constructing the ladies sportswear, musical record and luggage departments.

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SEE HUMANITIES PAGE 6

SEE HARP PAGE 4

20%

Women

10%

Men 1970

1975

1980

1985

1990

1995

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2005

2010

SOURCE: NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY ASSISTANT PROFESSOR BENJAMIN SCHMIDT

ALLEGED HUMANITIES DECLINE MAY BE LINKED TO FEMALE MIGRATION TO OTHER DISCIPLINES

BY JANE DARBY MENTON STAFF REPORTER In June, New York Times columnist David Brooks sparked controversy and concern with his column decrying the death of the humanities in American institutions of higher learning.

“The humanities are not only being bulldozed by an unforgiving

job market,” Brooks wrote. “They are committing suicide because many humanists have lost faith in their own enterprise.”

Brooks — who is also a senior fellow at Yale’s Jackson Institute of Global Affairs who teaches an undergraduate seminar — cited national statistics that show a 50 percent decline in the number of humanities majors in the past 50

Democracy in action.

The Yale College Council introduced the 24 newly elected YCC representatives as well as the three student chairs of the council’s management board, a newly created group focusing on academics, student life and University services. Exact voting percentages will be released Tuesday.

years.

Academics and commentators across the country have cited these same figures as heralds of the impending collapse of the humanities disciplines, positing causes including the current state of the economy, a shift toward the sciences, the impracticality of studying ancient texts in a modern world, and as Brooks claimed, a loss of inspiration within the humanities disciplines themselves.

But one researcher, Northeast-

The fault lines in this year’s mayoral election, already centered on the role of money in politics, crystallized even further this week over nine $1,000 donations to the campaign of Toni Harp ARC ’78.

The donations all came from employees of Hamden-based Connecticut Orthopaedic Specialists, which previously held an $800,000 annual contract with New Haven. Under the contract, city workers in New Haven who sustained orthopaedic injuries while on the job were directed to COS doctors for treatment. However, the city discontinued its contract with the firm in late July, citing false information on a form filed by one of the group’s most prominent doctors, which excused a city employee from work. One day later, nine employees, including group CEO Glenn Elia, gave the maximum allowable amount to the Harp campaign.

“They are interested in influencing City Hall,” mayoral candidate Justin Elicker FES ’10 SOM ’10 said of COS. “This type of pay to play politics is exactly what we’re trying to get away from in the city.”

Elicker called on Harp to return the donations in a press conference at COS’ main officein Hamden Monday. In a press release issued shortly after, though, Harp said she plans on keeping the donations.

“I fully understand Mr. Elicker’s frustration that his lack of experience is turning voters off,” Harp said, also emphasizing that Elicker had failed to keep his promise to run a positive campaign. “However,

30%

0%

Elicker challenges Harp funding

Historic boathouse to be rebuilt

BY LORENZO LIGATO STAFF REPORTER Six years after the historic home of early 20th century Yale rowers was razed to the ground, a new boathouse will soon rise over the waters of the New Haven Harbor.

City and state officials joined a group of construction workers Monday morning to break ground on a two-story, hurricane-tolerant community boathouse that will lie at the site of the former Canal Dock shipping pier, on the western edge of the city’s harbor.

Entirely funded by the state and federal government, the brand-new $37-million facility will be a replica of the historic George Adee Memorial Boathouse, which was demolished in 2007 to allow for the expansion of Interstate 95 along the harbor.

With new boating programs and historical exhibitions, the construction of the Boathouse at Canal Dock will help to revitalize the waterfront, Mayor John DeStefano Jr. said at Monday’s groundbreaking ceremony.

“For over five decades our city has been cut off from one of its greatest natural resources, the New Haven Harbor,” DeStefano said. “The construction of the Boathouse at Canal Dock takes steps to remedy that.”

Towering over the shores of the Quinnipiac River, the historic George Adee Memorial Boathouse was erected for the Yale rowing crew in 1911. For 12 years, collegiate rowers raced

Gingrich and Amar debate Constitution

out of the Tudor-style, brickwalled Geroge Adee boathouse, pushing their blades against the New Haven Harbor waters.

After the crew team relocated to its current Derby location in 1923, the boathouse was sold and converted into office space for decades. After much debate, it was eventually razed in 2007 to accommodate the construction of the Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge, a partially completed bridge that carries the I-95 over the mouth of the Quinnipiac River.

For over five decades our city has been cut off from one of its greatest natural resources.

JOHN DESTEFANO JR. Mayor, New Haven As a mitigation for the loss of a historic structure, the Connecticut Department of Transportation agreed to pay up to $30 million to build a replica of the George Adee boathouse at the Canal Dock location, which functioned as a shipping pier until the 1940s. The remaining $7 million necessary to complete the project will come from federal funds.

The construction of the new boathouse, DeStefano said, follows more than 15 years of discussions to attempt to reconnect New Haven resiSEE BOATHOUSE PAGE 4

JOYCE XI/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Former GOP Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich debated issues such as gun control and voting rights with Yale Law professor Akhil Amar ’80 LAW ’84 Monday evening.

BY MATTHEW NUSSBAUM CONTRIBUTING REPORTER On the eve of “National Constitution Day,” a constitutional law expert debated one of the United States’ most accomplished legislators about lessons from the Founders.

The debate, which was held in a packed Sheffield-Sterling-Strathcona Hall, pitted Yale Law professor Akhil Amar ’80 LAW ’84 against former GOP Speaker of

the House and 2012 presidential contender Newt Gingrich. At the discussion, the two participants addressed issues such as gun control and voting rights.

“How do we limit the government’s power? How do we protect the people?”

Gingrich asked.

Gingrich, who served in Congress for two decades and helped the Republican Party gain a majority in the House durSEE GINGRICH PAGE 5

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YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2013 · yaledailynews.com

OPINION

.COMMENT “He's speaking about them like they're baby mini-Yalies... this is mad creepy.”

yaledailynews.com/opinion

'KNICKERBOCKER ' ON 'ENGAGING THE TRAILBLAZERS AT YALE-NUS'

GUEST COLUMNIST SAM COHEN

G U E ST C O LU M N I ST J OA N NA Z H E N G

Ending the stigma

Pay your interns

O

ne week ago today was World Suicide Prevention Day. This year, the theme was “Stigma: A Major Barrier to Suicide Prevention.” And for one group disproportionately affected by suicide, this theme was especially timely.

In the US military, suicide rates have been steadily increasing over the last decade. In the Army alone, the suicide rate tripled from 2001 to 2012. The reason for some of these military suicides is relatively clear: among troops who fought in Iraq during the brutal period between 2004 to 2007, the suicide rate was nearly doubled, though direct combat experiences are not necessarily linked to suicide.

According to surveys, the reasons why active duty servicemembers and veterans consider suicide vary from combat trauma-related PTSD to romantic failure, long work hours, separation from family and friends, even drug abuse — all stressors that are especially relevant to those in the military.

The truly disheartening aspect of this problem is that it continues despite a concerted effort by the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs, to train soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines to spot suicide warning signs. It also persists despite increased levels of support, from crisis intervention to long-term therapy for PTSD. Why do suicide rates among veterans remain high despite the best efforts of the US government? It is not for lack of resources: suicide prevention and awareness trainings are mandatory across the board at the DOD, and a quick Google search of lifelines for veterans brings up hundreds of resources, many of them DOD-sponsored. The military is also taking a number of steps to reduce the likelihood of contributing factors. In 2008, for example, the DOD changed a question on security clearance forms that unintentionally discouraged applicants from seeking mental help for fear of losing their clearance. The Navy, for example, has shortened the hours when alcohol can be sold on base — no longer can a sailor buy between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., a dark time of night when the dark thoughts can enter the mind.

All branches should follow the Navy’s lead. The military could do more to crack down on unnecessary access to loaded guns (the key being unnecessary), since studies show that suicide is often a decision made from easy access. And if one good thing comes from our decade at war, perhaps it will be incredible advances in our knowledge of the brain. The DOD has made huge investments in brain research

because of the high numbers of returning servicemembers with brain trauma — perhaps their advances will be part of the solution.

But the ultimate answer is that government policies alone cannot solve the problem — it takes all of society to clear the scourge of military suicide. This is where the theme of World Suicide Prevention Day 2013 becomes so important. Particularly in a military warrior culture, mental illness has for too long been considered a weakness. An attitude of man-up-machismo was the unstated undercurrent of military suicide prevention efforts.

But that is fast-changing. Efforts begun during the Bush administration have been increased and enhanced by First Lady Michelle Obama’s and Second Lady Jill Biden’s Joining Forces initiative, which seeks to help find returning veterans good employment with private companies. And military officials, from the Commander-in-Chief down, have been working to undo the dangerous stigma associated with seeking help. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel was explicit, saying that to seek mental health treatment is a “choice that embodies moral courage, honor and integrity.”

The military is well equipped to combat the stigma of seeking treatment for mental health.

Underlying almost everything our military does is a sense of teamwork and esprit de corps.

No servicemember — no teammate — should feel that they have nowhere to turn for help, or that asking for help is a sign of weakness. If the military works to extend the idea of teamwork to the realm of suicide prevention, not just in trainings but in practice, then the ugly rate of military suicide will decrease.

But this requires action from both the military and civilian worlds. It is not enough just to thank a soldier with a visible wound for his or her service — we must make the effort to seek out the warriors who face invisible internal battles. Writing letters, sending care packages, actively caring even after the Veterans Day parades have marched passed — these are all things everyone can do to make the transition home from war a little bit easier for our men and women in uniform. Doing something so simple and yet so selfless is a fitting tribute to the men and women who have served overseas. And you just might save a life.

SAM COHEN is a junior in Calhoun College. This column expresses his personal views only and not the views Yale, Yale NROTC, the Department of Defense or any other entity. Contact him at samson.cohen@yale.edu.

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COPYRIGHT 2013 — VOL. CXXXVI, NO. 15

E

very summer, thousands of starry-eyed college students leave their dorm rooms and backpacks behind for the thrill of cramped apartments, cheap take-out, and chintzy suits and skirts. For the investment banking and consulting crowd, life will be exhausting, but well-paid.

But for those in other industries, like public service, journalism and academic research, compensation can be meager — if it even exists at all.

These kinds of experiences are common. According to a June 11 New York Times article, undergraduates fill over 1 million summer internship positions each year, half of which are unpaid.

Many with unpaid positions rely on family support, financial or otherwise, or work other parttime jobs in order to support themselves.

And while unpaid internships are common, they are by no means uncontroversial, and have been the subject of media attention and debate in recent years.

This past June, a controversial Fox Searchlight Pictures ruling once again put the spotlight on unpaid interns. In the decision, the judge ruled that the entertainment con-

glomerate had violated minimum wage laws by failing to pay two production interns for their contributions during the summer.

Why are we, as a society, willing to give unpaid internships the benefit of the doubt while fighting so hard to raise the minimum wage domestically or abolish sweatshops overseas? The difference, it seems, lies in the notion of “education.” Interns are learning valuable work and life skills, the story goes, that will allow them to land high-paying jobs later in life. But this attitude is problematic in that it implicitly cements existing social stratifications by disadvantaging students who can’t rely on wealthy families to support unpaid posts. A student who needs to work over the summer to pay off student loans, support herself or even support her family is out of the running before she can even say “interview.” As a result, privileged students inevitably find themselves in some of the most competitive internships — internships with legislators and policymakers, for example, that are crucial to entering the good graces of America’s political elite. In a system that is already rigged against the poor

and minority classes, adding even more distance between Washington, D.C., and the disadvantaged is as unsurprising as it is counterintuitive.

And unpaid internships are exploitation, plain and simple.

The idea that companies provide interns with experience commensurate to what they would have had to pay employees in salary is absurd. Most of the time, interns add real value to the company by doing work other employees would otherwise have had to do.

And sure, the first few weeks of an unpaid internship might just be coffee runs, but any employee doomed to interact with an executive before her morning coffee can attest to the value of that particular service.

In all seriousness, though, interns — many of them bright college students — are often integral to a company’s summer life.

And many do end up learning from their jobs and come back with positive reviews of their summer. But this argument is not unique; the same thing can be said of any low-wage employee.

Recent immigrants who take a job at McDonald’s, for example, are learning English language and

communication skills through their work. But can you imagine the public outrage that would occur if McDonald’s announced it was suddenly going to stop paying its ESL workers?

Admittedly, Yale is among the better end of colleges doing its part to make all internships accessible to everyone. Residential college grants designed for the express purpose of allowing students to do things like trek across the Appalachians studying birdcalls for a summer are good steps on the way to internship equality.

The Bulldogs Across America programs, which provide free housing for accepted students, foster supportive environments while still exposing undergraduates to the cultural and social nuances of a new American city.

But these are only Band-Aid solutions to a larger problem.

Society needs to acknowledge that interns are people too, and begin paying them the money they deserve — or at least enough to cover Thursday night take-out in their shoe-closet apartments.

JOANNA ZHENG is a senior in Trumbull College. Contact her at joanna.zheng@yale.edu .

G U E S T C O L U M N I S T E M E FA A G A W U

It could be great S

o here’s the thing: there are a lot of problems in the world.

Like, a million big scary problems. And I have read a million and one (very well-written) pleas to the best and brightest in our generation to answer the call and attend to the world’s hurts.

I know very few who are arguing that the world is actually best served by incentivizing investments in male pattern baldness and iPhone apps to find hookup partners instead of eradicating malaria. Even so, it sometimes feels as though we are constantly being asked to choose between being good and virtuous and caring — a life of public service — and leading a “normal” life. But why can’t a normal life include a fair bit of being good and virtuous and caring?

But just because it’s scary to care, doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t even try. It doesn’t all have to be so overwhelming, it’s not all or nothing.

Some issues are more terrifying than others — not all problems are created equal. There’s a scale of how depressing and complicated everything is. Syria? That’s com-

plicated. The dangers of religious extremism and spread of global terrorism? Pretty messy. Reforming public education in this country? Where do we even begin.

But our mistake is assuming that all the problems in the world are equally headache-inducing. If you want to feel less overwhelmed, read about the incredible social and economic effects of making contraception widely available to poor women, or look at how crops fortified with Vitamin A can prevent blindness.

There’s a long list of serious issues with tangible solutions, and if we don’t get to them, then maybe the older generation will be right about us after all.

My dad loves to grumble about our generation and our lack of values, our inability to communicate outside of Facebook and our obsession with self-image. And underneath his complaints is a serious concern that we’re pretty much screwed. I think he’s dead wrong. With all the kind, passionate and hardworking people I have the pleasure of knowing, I’m sincerely optimistic about the ability of young minds and spirits to

haul us out of trouble and vault the world into safety, just in time.

Still, it wouldn’t hurt to have a backup plan. Even if we tap into all this potential, saving the world might be kind of a close shave.

And with such high stakes, why not build a bigger army to fight the world’s fight?

Maybe you’ve heard those stats about how doable it would be to put a huge dent in global poverty.

Maybe you are convinced that a malaria-free or largely hungerfree world is within our grasp.

Maybe something is stopping you from deciding to give money in the sustained manner that effects real change. Haven’t we had enough of pretending to be held captive by the thought, “well, how can I get the most bang for my philanthropic buck?” Or, “I’d give, but where’s my guarantee that this is the absolute best use of my time or money? What if — what if! — there’s a better charity out there?

I’d better not risk it.”

Don’t you see the problem?

There’s a missing link, an intellectual disconnect here. Putting aside for one moment the spending we do on things we won’t

remember we paid for in a month, we often forget to employ this impossibly high standard of costeffectiveness in our lives. In fact, we’ve made it all overwhelming again.

You try a new restaurant and pay for an entrée — it could be great, it could be so-so, it could be terrible. You buy a new album on iTunes — it could be great, it could be so-so, it could be terrible.

You give blood at a Red Cross drive.

You donate $20 to World Vision.

You spend the summer after graduation tutoring middleschoolers.

It could be great, or it could be great.

Look, it’s not particularly helpful or fair to try to guilt ourselves out of certain lifestyle habits, so let’s just introduce some new ones. If you need a place to start, check out givewell.org. Start small and form the habit. It’s not all or nothing here.

EMEFA AGAWU is a junior in Silliman College. Contact her at emefa.agawu@yale.edu .

GUEST COLUMNIST LEO KIM

Partying — such sweet sorrow A

s the chaos of Camp Yale and the opening weeks of school slowly recede into the past, I find myself left on a shore filled with empty red solo cups and stale beer. For many freshmen, the experience of partying is new, fresh, novel. Yet, for others, including myself, it’s been a mere extension of the past few years of our lives — but now I find a deep sense of emptiness as I stare down into the abyss of another shot of vodka.

Around this time freshman year the routine is the same. You hunt for a pregame, do a meet and greet, learn and forget people’s names, go out to a frat house, go to another frat house, get late night pizza you really shouldn’t eat, stumble home, repeat. This is what college is supposed to be, right?: the girls, the partying, the alcohol. Yet, once the novelty fades away, what worthwhile substance are you left with?

What personal growth truly comes from it?

Nietzsche was fond of the saying “become what you are.” But as Camp Yale’s drunken revelries continue through September, I find myself constantly asking — who am I, and who are “we” sup-

posed to be? Before Yale we were valedictorians and published authors. But on coming to Yale we now find ourselves utterly dazed and completely normal in the company of equally capable peers.

This new environment has its negatives, many of which I’ve personally felt: a feeling of loss, confusion, dejection, rejection.

Yet many of us are soon liberated by the realization that we are, in fact, average. Our normalness seems to authorize and even obligate many to partake in the trappings of the “normal” college experience: heavy drinking, Toad’s and the occasional random hook up. There’s no such thing as being too nerdy to party in a school filled with ex-honor roll students.

And as I see my once-inexperienced peers drink themselves to oblivion, I ask: why now? What has changed in that former straightedge, straight-A student? Yes, college is a time for new things, self-discovery and growth. But that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a time for learning the subtle distinctions between dark and light rum, or how to shotgun a beer.

That may be the best path for some, but there seems to be an overreaching on-campus atmosphere that preaches partying should be everyone’s path. It’s hard to stay in for a night finishing that essay when all of your friends are going to Woad’s. Yet, after 18 years, there’s no reason to abandon your principles (or even just your preferences) because it’s what you’re “supposed to do” in college. After the whirlpool of alcohol and inebriated dancing, all you’re left with are a hangover and a pocket filled with empty stories.

It’s only after years of partying that I am beginning to see this reality. It’s only after countless half-remembered nights and toasts and booze runs that I wish I’d focused on something more meaningful over the past few years. That’s not to say parties should be avoided; in fact, they’re usually a fun and interesting way to socialize and meet new people. But they aren’t necessary. Partying should never be the thing keeping you from going to the meeting for the club you’re interested in, or writing the essay you need to finish or doing what you really want to be doing with

your friends.

Find what you love, because that beer will only fill you up for a few hours, and on those dreary weekday afternoons when everyone has work, that spare handle you have sitting in your room won’t do you much. Find people with similar passions and interests that lie beyond mutual love for Jack Daniels.

With the titan waves of liquor battering your every being left and right, it’s easy to forget these lessons. It’s easy to ditch your friends and go out for fear of missing out, it’s easy to alienate your suitemates by waking them up in the middle of the night with your drunken ramblings and it’s easy to forget that drinking isn’t the only thing to do with a Saturday night. But college isn’t about the easy way out. It’s about becoming what you are, and despite the temptation, another shot won’t help. And the moment that idea is forgotten is the moment you miss the shore and drown in the tormented ocean that’s known as freshman year.

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

YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2013 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE 3

NEWS

“If the laws could speak for themselves, they would complain of the lawyers.”

GEORGE SAVILE ENGLISH STATESMAN

CORRECTION MONDAY, SEPT. 16

The article “Climate panel focuses on local responses” mistakenly stated that U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy has daughters, when in fact he has two sons.

Diplomat talks Afghan peace

State announces $400M surplus

BY ELEANOR RUNDE CONTRIBUTING REPORTER The state of Connecticut reported a nearly $400 million budget surplus for the 2013 fiscal year early last week.

The surplus, which represents approximately 2 percent of the state’s total budget for this year, is likely due to a combination of unexpectedly high tax revenues and low spending growth, according to a report filed by State Comptroller Kevin Lembo. The release stated that about $220 million of the surplus will be spent in future fiscal year activity, while the remainder will be channeled into the state’s Budget Reserve Fund.

“The state’s surplus should be a sign of cautious optimism for the future — a good outcome, but potentially the result of one-time revenue windfalls,” Lembo said. He attributed the surplus mainly to the increase in the federal capital gains tax rate and strong stock market performance.

Steve Lanza, a University of Connecticut economics professor, agreed that the increased capital gains tax enhanced revenues, but he added that the state inheritance and gift taxes also contributed to the revenue spike.

Lanza stated that Connecticut’s substantial underlying economic growth boosted revenues as well.

Job growth and stabilization in the Connecticut housing market could mean surpluses in years to come, Lanza said, but these positive signs do not guarantee future performance. Lanza added that economic momentum could be diminished this fall by a national partisan conflict over the debt ceiling. “[The allotment of funds to the Budget Reserve Fund] makes

a lot of sense in an environment that’s prone to being volatile,” Lanza said.

The $180 million added to the Budget Reserve Fund will bring the total of the state’s reserve funds to $271.5 million, approximately 1.6 percent of the Connecticut operating budget for this year.

Lembo said the state should aim to have approximately $3 billion in the Budget Reserve Fund order to fully protect taxpayers against future economic downturns.

“While we’re pleased with the improvement over 2012, the economy still has a long way to go,” said Gian-Carl Casa, undersecretary for legislative affairs at the Office of Policy Management of the state of Connecticut.

“We’ll keep working hard to support the businesses and individuals that are growing Connecticut’s economy.”

Lembo reported that state spending growth was just 1.3 percent for the 2013 fiscal year. In contrast, the preceding 10 years’ average growth was 4.5 percent, and this year’s rate of spending growth is the lowest since 2002.

“The average annual rate of expenditures in this administration is lower than the average rate under the previous two administrations,” Casa said.

“Governor [Dannel] Malloy took prudent and necessary steps — such as mid-year budget cuts — to ensure that last year’s budget was balanced.”

Connecticut legislatures passed a two-year, $37.6 billion budget in June 2013.

Michelle Hackman contributed reporting.

Contact ELEANOR RUNDE at eleanor.runde@yale.edu .

STATE OF CONNECTICUT

State Comptroller Kevin Lembo, above, attributed the budget surplus largely to the federal capital gains tax rate increase.

ALEX SCHMELING/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Former Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Marc Grossman shared his experiences during a lecture Monday evening.

BY ADAM MAHLER CONTRIBUTING REPORTER The United States can make peace with its enemies by fostering economic development in the Middle East and Central Asia and facilitating dialogue within the region, according to Former Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Marc Grossman.

Grossman, a current fellow in the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs who also served as U.S. ambassador to Turkey in the mid-1990s, shared his experience as a diplomat in volatile Middle Eastern countries at a lecture Monday evening.

During the talk, he said the future of 21st century diplomacy depends on Middle Eastern countries becoming more economically and ideologically open.

“Prosperity leads to reduction in radicalization,” Grossman said. “When people have a job, the less they are seduced by the Taliban.”

The United States can only make peace with Afghanistan if the Taliban breaks its ties with Al Qaeda and respects others’ rights — particularly

women’s rights, he said. A key tenet of the Tokyo Mutual Accountability Framework, an international agreement to help fund Afghanistan’s economic development, dictates that the country’s human rights record must improve, Grossman added.

Prosperity leads to reduction in radicalization. When people have a job, the less they are seduced by the Taliban.

MARC GROSSMAN Former Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan The U.S. government will greatly scale back military forces and financial investment in Afghanistan in the next few years, leading to negative economic consequences, Grossman said. He said a “New Silk Road” — an increase in eco-

nomic cooperation between Afghanistan, India, Pakistan and Central Asia — could generate economic activity for the nation that would help it “invest in itself.” He added that he thinks connecting Afghanistan to these regions will help promote diplomacy in both Afghanistan and Pakistan more than the violent uprisings in Syria or Egypt.

When dealing with the Taliban, the United States has had to carefully balance military force with diplomatic efforts, but “it’s hard to fight and talk at the same time.”

Grossman said the increased number of Pakistani Fulbright scholars studying in the United States gives Pakistani citizens an opportunity to see and evaluate the United States for themselves.

Max Cook ’17 said he enjoyed hearing about on-the-ground experiences from an accomplished government official.

In 2004, Grossman was appointed career ambassador, the foreign service’s highest rank.

Contact ADAM MAHLER at adam.mahler@yale.edu .

Law School clinic helps battle state over education funding

BY MONICA DISARE AND POOJA SALHOTRA STAFF REPORTER AND CONTRIBUTING REPORTER A group of attorneys and Yale law students teamed up on Monday to battle the state over Connecticut’s education standards.

The group, Connecticut Coalition for Justice in Education Funding, filed a case against the state in 2005 challenging the adequacy of Connecticut’s education system. The case has been dragged through the legal system for eight years and finally came before a judge at a hearing Monday, when the state attempted to have the case dismissed and to limit the scope of permissible evidence. At the end of the day, those defending CCJEF felt that they had competently answered the judge’s questions, and said they hope their arguments brought the case one step closer to trial.

“We felt really good after the hearing was over, and we are cautiously optimistic that the judge will rule in our favor,” executive director of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities Jim Finley said after Monday’s hearing. Finley recently filed an affidavit in support of CCJEF’s claims.

When the case first began in 2005, it was ruled that CCJEF had no standing because there were no harmed parties filing the lawsuit. The team then regrouped and scored a victory in 2010 when the state decided that all public school students do have a right to an effective and meaningful education.

The coalition now hopes to go to trial in order to prove that Connecticut’s education policies do not meet legal standards.

On Monday, the state attempted to block that from happening by arguing that the case should be dismissed since the state’s education system is not the same as

the one that was originally challenged in 2005.

The state also argued that the court should adopt the standards that Justice Palmer outlined in his 2010 opinion, which would limit the scope of evidence allowed in the trial.

We felt really good after the hearing was over, and we are cautiously optimistic that the judge will rule in our favor.

JIM FINLEY Executive director, Connecticut Conference of Municipalities Defending the state’s argument at the hearing on Monday was Darren Cunningham, the Connecticut assistant attorney

general.

“The state’s duty to provide education is owed to the students and their parents standing in their shoes,” Cunningham said. “It’s not owed to the municipalities or boards of education or any of the other groups that are members of CJEFF.” But representatives from CCJEF said that the two motions rest on flawed arguments.

“Multiple lawyers have told me that the procedural claims lack genuine legal merit. And as an educator I can tell you that that they certainly lack any substantive merit,” said CCJEF founder and project director Dianne deVries.

The motion to dismiss was based on the claim that significant improvement has been made to the education system since the lawsuit was filed in 2005. But both deVries and Rachel Dempsey ’09 LAW ’15, a Yale Law School student working on the case, said that while

some money has been added to the state’s education budget, the additions are still far from adequate.

The hearing on Monday, along with prior developments in the case in the past, have been heavily influenced by the work of students at Yale Law School, who established a state clinic in 2004 and agreed to represent the CCJEF v Rell case pro-bono.

For the past nine years, over 200 Yale Law students have been involved in the case, in capacities ranging from researching to arguing before the U.S. Supreme Court.

It was only last year that Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, a law firm based in New York, joined the plaintiff team to help lead the case to trial. DeVries refers to the cohort of Yale Law Students and Debevoise attorneys as “The Dream Team,” and said that the partnership has created an unprecedented opportunity for mutual learning.

The plaintiffs’ ultimate goal at trial is to adequately and equitably fund Connecticut public schools and give all children equal access to educational opportunities. Currently, Dempsey said, there are significant problems with the education system resulting from a lack of adequate funding. Rachel said that she has visited public schools across Connecticut where textbooks are out of date and computers — that students are expected to use as learning tools — are not functional.

“Students just don’t have the basic resources they need. These issues need to be addressed comprehensively in court,” she said.

The trial is tentatively scheduled for July 2014.

Contact MONICA DISARE at monica.disare@yale.edu .

Contact POOJA SALHOTRA at pooja.salhotra@yale.edu .

PAGE 4

YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2013 · yaledailynews.com

FROM THE FRONT

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

NICK CARRAWAY NARRATOR OF F. SCOTT FITZGERALD’S “THE GREAT GATSBY”

Harp to keep controversial campaign donations HARP FROM PAGE 1 what he is suggesting about me is ridiculous. I have a 26-yearold track record of public service and everyone knows that I treat everyone the same, fairly and equally.”

In January 2012, COS doctor and founder Patrick Ruwe signed a form claiming a city public works employee could only work four to five hours per day. Ruwe’s actual medical evaluation, though, had suggested the employee could safely work eight hours per day, which in turn allowed the employee to wrongly receive paid leave from the city. The city employee asked Ruwe to sign the form so he could take a second job while still collecting worker’s compensation.

Ruwe, who declined to comment when contacted, admitted in a July 2012 deposition that no medical reasoning lay behind his decision. The employee was also fired, although a city union appealed. Eventually, the State Board of Mediation and Arbitration upheld New Haven’s decision.

After lobbying the city through the summer, Elia, the firm’s CEO, was able to have COS’ contract with the city reinstated in early September, under the condition that Ruwe not treat city employees. COS has benefitted enormously from the growth in the city’s worker’s compensation costs which, while down in the past two years, have nearly doubled over the past decade.

Campaign finance has come to dominate the current mayoral race, with Elicker making transparent and public financing a cornerstone of his campaign.

Harp, meanwhile, has portrayed public financing as a waste of taxpayer money that could be better spent on schools and public safety.

At his press conference Monday with four media outlets and

eight supporters, Elicker took care to highlight a recent quote Harp gave to the New Haven Independent that he says suggests Harp’s City Hall would be less than transparent.

“I think people who give don’t expect a quid pro quo,” Harp told the Independent. “They just want a meeting, maybe, to give their point of view. But they don’t expect you necessarily to go along with it or to give them any special favors.”

What he is suggesting about me is ridiculous. I have a 26-year-old track record of public service.

TONI HARP ARC ’78 Mayoral candidate

MATTHEW LLOYD-THOMAS/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

Justin Elicker FES ’10 SOM ’10, New Haven mayoral candidate, speaks to Fox News CT before resident supporters.

Elicker said that giving a meeting to a campaign donor itself constitutes a form of quid pro quo. He suggested that constituents unable to donate to Harp’s campaign would be unable to have access to her administration, should she win in the Nov. 5 general election.

He added that he has made no effort to encourage bundling — a common campaign practice of making an individual responsible for garnering large donations from their friends, an example of which appears to be the COS contributions — during the campaign.

Harp campaign manager Jason Bartlett declined to comment further on the issue.

New Haven paid $9.6 million last year in worker’s compensation, down from the 2009-’10 fiscal year high of $11.4 million.

Contact MATTHEW LLOYD-THOMAS at matthew.lloyd-thomas@yale.edu .

KATHRYN CRANDALL/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Toni Harp ARC ’78, New Haven mayoral candidate, refutes negative comments made by fellow candidate, Justin Elicker FES ’10 SOM ’10.

Boathouse to see renovation BOATHOUSE FROM PAGE 1 dents with the currently underused waterfront, a narrow patch of beachfront just a 20-minute walk from Yale’s central campus.

“Good things sometime take a long time,” DeStefano said, adding that of the many improvements he has seen in his 20 years of service to the city, “this one holds special significance.”

Echoing the mayor’s words, U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro celebrated the groundbreaking of the new community boathouse — a project she said pays homage to the history of the New Haven Harbor and of the original George Adee boathouse.

“I am so proud to see this

project taking shape,” DeLauro said. “It will strengthen our city and bond us together for decades to come.”

The project — which has been designed by Gregg Wies & Gardner Architects in partnership with the city and the state’s Department of Transportation — will be developed in two phases.

Construction has begun for a 48,000-square-feet platform that will be completed in approximately one year, said Sam Gardner ARC ’82, one of the architects working on the project. The full project, he said, will then be brought to completion by the end of 2015, when a 30,000-square-feet, two-story

building will be erected atop the platform.

Gardner added that the building has been designed to reflect the original George Adhee boathouse, with original terracotta decorations, wooden plaques and other fragments of the historic boathouse incorporated into the exterior and the interior of the new facility.

When fully completed, the upper story of the building will house meeting rooms, offices and locker rooms. The lower floor — which will be built above the flood elevation to protect the building from floods and hurricanes — will be used to store boats, kayaks and canoes ready to sprint out into the Quinnip-

iac River.

City Hall spokeswoman Anna Mariotti said that the city is partnering with local and outof-state agencies to support an array of programs ranging from youth rowing lessons to marine education classes sponsored by the University of New Haven. “[The new boathouse] will provide a central facility in New Haven for water recreation,” Mariotti said.

Yale University founded the first collegiate crew in the United States in 1843.

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

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YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2013 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE 5

FROM THE FRONT

“Our culture is more shaped by the arts and humanities than it often is by politics.”

JIM LEACH CHAIRMAN OF THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES

Decline of the humanities up for debate HUMANITIES FROM PAGE 1 ern University assistant professor Benjamin Schmidt, a Princeton Ph.D. candidate, felt that many studies on the humanities’ decline did not explain the statistics fully. Through research of his own, Schmidt discovered that the brunt of the national decrease in humanities majors was caused by the migration of female students to other disciplines that had traditionally been dominated by men. Schmidt said he feels his research provides an alternate explanation for the much-hyped “crisis” in the humanities, adding that he thinks humanities enrollment is unlikely to decline significantly more in the future.

“I want to combat two things,” Schmidt said. “The first is the idea that people have gotten suddenly practical and stopped majoring in humanities, and then the other is that self-fulfilling prophecy that comes from people [thinking the humanities is impractical].”

Though Schmidt’s research

has begun receiving attention among scholars of higher education, its broader applicability remains unclear. At Yale and the other Ivy League schools, Schmidt acknowledged that the story is more complex. Yale College did not open its doors to women until 1969 — after second-wave feminism began offering new career options to women.

[The professor] was trying to be nice, so pretty much every class he’d ask me what was the woman’s point of view.

BARBARA BLAINE ’71 In 1971, the first year that women graduated from Yale, roughly 53 percent of female students majored in the humanities, compared to 37 percent of males.

For the class of 2013, those statistics stand at about 25 percent for females and 21 percent for males.

Deputy Provost for the Arts and Humanities Emily Bakemeier said she thinks some students will always be interested in the humanities, but she added that the University has seen increased interest in fields outside the humanities, particularly in economics.

When women were first admitted to Yale, the University was widely considered a citadel of the humanities.

Ruth Jarmul ’71, who was a member of Yale’s first co-ed class, said the humanities departments — led by “god-like” professors such as Vincent Scully ’40 GRD ’49 and John Hersey ’36 — made up the essence of the University when she was there.

“Yale was, as it continues to be, so strong in the humanities that people sort of expected to major in the humanities,” Jarmul said. “You could major in the sciences or something else, but it just wasn’t the focus of the Uni-

versity and it wasn’t the focus of society.”

When she entered Yale, Barbara Blaine ’71, another member of the college’s first co-ed class, said she did not feel pressure to major in any given discipline because she was a woman.

Still, Blaine acknowledged that certain courses were taken only by males.

“The first year I was there, I was in a macroeconomics class, and I was the only woman in a class of about 60 to 70 people,” Blaine said. “The professor just really didn’t know what to do with me, but he was trying to be nice, so pretty much every class he’d ask me what was the woman’s point of view.”

But Blaine said she does not think the dominance of humanities for Yale’s first women reflected a gendered choice, as most students at Yale, male and female alike, majored in the humanities.

For almost 30 years, history reigned as the University’s most popular major for all undergraduates. But students today

are choosing to major in a more diverse range of disciplines — in 2010, history lost its spot at the top and was replaced by political science and economics. Over 40 percent of the Yale class of 2016 intends to major in a STEM field — making it the first class to reach the Admissions Office’s STEM recruiting goals.

Though some have pointed to these changes as a sign of the humanities’ decline, administrators said the demand for humanities courses has remained consistently high. Growth in other fields, they said, does not necessarily mean interest in the humanities is declining.

Yale College Dean Mary Miller said she thinks the strong teaching in Yale’s humanities departments will continue to attract students, regardless of their major. Miller added that she thinks that hype surrounding the “crisis” in humanities is a selffulfilling prophecy and encourages students, who are facing an uncertain job market, to view humanities majors as impractical.

“I think students feel pressure on many more dimensions than they did in the past,” Miller said.

“We’re in the middle of a great recession, and there’s a lot more pressure on students and their families to have measurable, demonstrable success.”

The exact reasons for the humanities’ decline cannot be simplified to one factor alone, but faculty and administrators said they have cause to believe that the humanities at Yale will remain strong.

Classics professor Christina Kraus said she thinks the humanities crisis has been exaggerated, noting that enrollments in the humanities have fluctuated over time in response to numerous factors, including the economy.

“I think we need to be more optimistic about it because I actually don’t think it’s as bad as everyone keeps telling us it is,” Kraus said.

Contact JANE DARBY MENTON at jane.menton@yale.edu .

Former speaker and constitutional law professor face off GINGRICH FROM PAGE 1 ing the 1994 midterm elections, said the Constitution is an attempt by the Founders to establish order while avoiding dictatorship. The Constitution’s authors aimed to craft a government with enough checks — and inefficiencies — to avoid giving too much power to any single person or group, he said.

Gingrich added that the checks are accomplished through separation of powers and corresponding limitations, which he thinks have been diminished in recent decades by “elite” federal judges.

Amar, who teaches the popular undergraduate course “Constitutional Law,” said he thinks the Constitution is adaptable to different generations and is an “inter-generational project” that fosters a “national, liberal, egalitarian government.”

“You want inefficiency, stick with the Articles of Confederation,” Amar said. “And a lot of traditionalists did. But not George Washington.”

He said he disagrees with what he thinks is an assault by the Republican Party on minority voting rights. Amar pointed to June’s five-to-four Supreme Court decision striking down a crucial part of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 as well as a slew of recent legislation in Republican-controlled state governments to limit early voting and require government-issued photo identification to vote as examples of the trend.

Amar called on Gingrich to “reclaim your party and set it right again” in the image of the Republican Party of Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt. But Gingrich said Amar’s point of view represents

an “assault” on the fairness of voting.

“This is not 1965,” Gingrich said. “It is a new world with new problems.”

Both speakers agreed on issues such as judicial restraint, the individual right to bear arms and the description of Russian President Vladimir Putin as a “thug.”

In an interview with the News, Gingrich said he thinks Amar is a “very unusual professor” for the breadth of historical knowledge he applies to his constitutional thinking and said he enjoyed debating such a formidable opponent.

You want inefficiency, stick with the Articles of Confederation.

AKHIL AMAR ’80 LAW ’84 Professor, Yale Law School Jeremy Hutton ’15 said he was glad to see an attempt to reach consensus between people with significantly differing opinions.

“I think that there is much more common ground between schools of Constitutional thought than there would be between schools of political thought,” Hutton said.

Kelsey Miller ’16 said she was intrigued by the discussion between “an expert and an active participant” in the United States’ political sphere.

Gingrich was the first speaker of the House to hold a Ph.D., which he received in education from Tulane in 1971.

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

JOYCE XI/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Newt Gingrich and Akhil Amar ’80 LAW ’84 squared off in a debate on Monday to discuss constitutional issues on the eve of “National Constitution Day.”

PAGE 6

YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2013 · yaledailynews.com

YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2013 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE 7

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

“HIV does not make people dangerous to know, so you can shake their hands and give them a hug. Heaven knows they need it.”

PRINCESS DIANA

Mental health’s weight bias

BY PHOEBE KIMMELMAN CONTRIBUTING REPORTER

Minorities, women at higher risk for heart problems KAREN TIAN

BY ERMAL HAJRIZI CONTRIBUTING REPORTER A recent study conducted by researchers at the Yale School of Public Health shows that cardiac risk factors and prevention efforts differ significantly by characteristics such as age, sex and race, with black women falling under the category of most at-risk.

The study followed 2,369 patients who had suffered acute myocardial infarction, colloquially known as a heart attack, and monitored the patients for hypertension, hypercholester-

olemia, diabetes, obesity and smoking habits. Researchers also observed the differences in secondary prevention efforts at and after hospital discharge, focusing on the prescription of certain medications such as antihypertensives, as well as counseling services designed to address issues like smoking or weight loss. The study, published in the Aug. 22 issue of the Journal of Women’s Health, found that a staggering 93 percent of patients exhibited at least one risk factor, with 40 percent showing signs of at least three.

Perhaps even more alarming is the fact that risk factors were significantly higher in African-American patients, regardless of age or sex. Black women in particular faced the most daunting set of risk factors, with 60 percent of black women aged 55 years or older demonstrating three or more risk factors.

“Often people think of all patients with heart attacks as being the same and lump groups together,” said Judith Lichtman, the study’s senior author and associate professor of epidemiology at SPH. This study,

however, separated heart attack patient data by subgroups, suggesting that the health care system needs to attend to the underlying causes of these risk factor inconsistencies.

The link between certain subgroups and the level of attention they receive in secondary prevention strategies seems just as deeply interwoven with the characteristics of age, sex and race. The study found that white patients received more counseling in smoking cessation than their black counterparts. Similarly, black youth were found to be pre-

scribed less medication than white youth, even though both groups faced the same risk factors.

Associate research scientist in epidemiology and study coauthor Erica Leifheit-Limson expressed her surprise at the results. “[We] wouldn’t think that one subgroup would differ from another,” she said, especially since the study was conducted consistently for all patients.

When asked about potential reasons for the discrepancies among subgroups, Lichtman was hesitant to pin down the

cause on one variable. However, she did say the study’s findings highlight potential discrepancies in the treatment people receive after their heart attacks.

“From a clinical and public health perspective, we need to be more aggressive in ensuring equal secondary prevention for everyone,” Lichtman added.

Robert Harrington, chairman of the Department of Medicine at Stanford University, echoed these sentiments in a Saturday email.

These findings, he said, are “consistent” with observations from other research assessing

SIV, gut bacteria linked in Yale-led study

health care disparities.

“Much work remains to be sure that we are offering equitable health care for all,” Harrington added.

Researchers said the next step is to focus on improving risk factor modification to decrease medical issues in post-heart attack patients.

The study was principally supported by CV Therapeutics, Inc., with funding for all analyses from CV Outcomes, Inc. Contact ERMAL HAJRIZI at ermal.hajrizi@yale.edu .

According to Yale’s Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity, mental health professionals treating patients with eating disorders are hardly immune to weight bias.

Previous research teams have tackled the question of how mental health professionals view their obese patients. A 2003 study published in the journal Obesity Research used an Implicit Associations Test, or IAT — a timed association test that aims to uncover unconscious biases — to show that practitioners exhibited significant weight-related biases against their obese patients. The IAT was also used to show that doctors thought obese patients endorsed the implicit stereotypes associated with obesity such as “laziness, stupidity and worthlessness.”

This new study, which can be found in the latest edition of the annual International Journal of Eating Disorders, takes a more specialized look at mental health practitioners’ biases 10 years later, in a world where obesity is more prevalent. Rudd Center Deputy Director and study coauthor Rebecca Puhl emphasized the current importance of studying this issue.

“Given that many individuals who struggle with eating disorders also struggle with weight, and in light of research showing that individuals who experience weight stigma are at risk for developing symptoms of eating disorders, this is an important group of providers to be reaching,” Puhl said in a Thursday email.

Researchers asked 329 mental health practicioners treating eating disorders about their perceptions of their patients and colleagues. Of the study’s participants, 42 percent believed that mental health professionals specializing in eating disorders often have negative weight biases against obese patients. Other results supported this finding — 56 percent of mental health professionals had heard colleagues make negative comments about patients’ obesity, 35 per-

KAREN TIAN

cent reported that their colleagues feel uncomfortable treating their obese patients and 64 percent believe that obese patients do not follow recommended courses of treatment. The professionals themselves also displayed a lack of faith in obese patients — 76 percent said they are not confident that obese patients can maintain weight loss, with 16 percent claiming that they think obese patients have “no willpower.”

Even though 88 percent of professionals in the study reported that they feel “confident and professionally prepared” to treat obese patients, these results suggest a need for changes to the field.

“Our hope is that these findings will help increase attention to the issue of weight bias and serve as the starting point for discussions on how to implement efforts to reduce stigma as part of training and clinical practice,” Puhl said.

The research team has also laid out some more specific plans for how to fix the problem. According to the study, such measures are needed to ensure patients seek help and do not feel stigmatized by health professionals.

“A first step is for clinicians to identify their personal attitudes or

assumptions about weight, as well as the language that they use when talking about weight, that might unintentionally interfere with their ability to effectively treat patients of diverse body sizes,” Puhl said. She added that she believes educational interventions highlighting obesity causes and challenging weight stereotypes could prove effective in reducing weight bias.

Lewis Landsberg, Director of Northwestern University’s Comprehensive Center on Obesity, said he was “not at all surprised” by the study’s conclusions.

“The obese are always stigmatized as having no self-discipline, no willpower, even when there are important biological differences between lean and obese people,” he said. “There is a whole trend in the field of obesity in getting away from thinking about obesity as a character flaw.”

In addition to Puhl, the study was coauthored by associate professor of psychology Janet Latner of University of Hawaii, former Rudd Center research associate Kelly King and Rudd Center statistical consultant Joerg Luedicke.

Contact PHOEBE KIMMELMAN at phoebe.kimmelman@yale.edu .

Peabody buzzes over cicadas

BY PIERRE ORTLIEB CONTRIBUTING REPORTER Simian immunodeficiency virus has detrimental implications on the stability of the gut microbiome of Tanzanian chimpanzees, a recent Yale-led study has shown.

Led by former Yale ecology and evolutionary biology researcher Howard Ochman, the research team observed an increase in pathogenic bacteria in chimpanzees infected with the immunovirus SIV after the meticulous examination of years’ worth of their fecal samples at western Tanzania’s Gombe Stream National Park.

This increase, in turn, overwhelmed chimpanzees’ already beleaguered immune systems in a lethal fashion, exacerbating a debilitating medical situation.

The study was published on Sept. 11 in the journal Cell Host & Microbe.

“It’s very exciting,” said Chair of Duke University’s Department of Evolutionary Anthropology Anne Pusey, a co-author of the paper. “It’s an extraordinary system where we can study the disease, and apply [our findings] to humans.”

Study co-author Megan Shilts, a former Yale researcher and current student at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, said this research could change the way doctors treat HIV and AIDS patients.

“Soon, we will have a study with humans to see if it does the same thing,” she said. Though there is no guarantee of success, Shilts said it is very likely that attempts will soon be made to apply this newfound information to a clinical environment.

By examining HIV patients, physicians could potentially identify similar gut bacteria and thus develop new techniques to slow the progression of the disease and keep people healthy longer, she added.

The findings outlined in the study are a result of “years of diligent, long-term observation” of Gombe, the world’s only study site where SIV is present, said study co-author Elizabeth Lonsdorf, assistant professor of psychology at Franklin & Marshall College, in a Sunday email to the News.

TASNIM ELBOUTE/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

The Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History features a cicada exhibit every 17 years.

BY STEPHANIE ROGERS CONTRIBUTING REPORTER

WILLIAM WARBY/CREATIVE COMMONS

Symptoms of simian immunodeficiency virus in Tanzanian chimpanzees have parallels to those in human AIDS patients.

While the initial discovery of SIV amongst these primates was thought to be unfortunate, Pusey said the team of researchers leading the Tanzanian site slowly became cognizant of the sheer criticality of their finding.

“After a few years of sampling, they were writing papers, and they saw that it [SIV] was pathogenic,” she said. “We said, ‘Hold on a minute, let’s look at this,’ and we found that … they

had depleted CD-4 cells and their spleens looked terrible, very much like human AIDS patients.”

Many of her fellow researchers, she said, were surprised.

Pusey added that researchers are now able to observe the same closed group of chimpanzees over an extended period of time — typically not possible in studies with human subjects.

“It actually can show a pretty

direct influence of the virus [SIV] on the microbiome. For me, it’s very exciting,” she said, noting that the scrutiny of this collection of chimpanzees will continue.

Yet in spite of the team’s optimism and excitement, Shilts pointed out that there are still several obstacles impeding the translation of their work on animals to human subjects.

Researchers must obtain fecal

samples from before and after an individual becomes HIVpositive, she said, which is difficult to accomplish since the precise time of infection cannot be recorded or determined in humans. She added that certain technological limitations prevented the researchers from being able to completely determine the structure of the gut bacteria.

In spite of this, Shilts said she

remains optimistic.

“There will be a big push soon,” she said. “It’s very exciting.”

The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.

Contact PIERRE ORTLIEB at pierre.ortlieb@yale.edu .

On May 1, the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History opened its doors to a temporary exhibit — “Return of the 17-Year Cicadas.”

The Peabody’s cicada exhibit, which the museum features every 17 years, re-opened this summer in response to the re-emergence of the Magicicada species of cicadas along the east coast. From Connecticut to North Carolina, thousands of cicadas emerged from their burrowed holes throughout May and June, laying their eggs and dying in the three months before the exhibition will close its doors Sept. 29.

There are over 2,500 species of cicadas worldwide, but the exhibition highlights the differences between two cicada species found in the northeast. The exhibit highlights the Magicicada, which spends 17 years in the nymph stage underground near tree roots, its primary food source, before digging to the suface to mate and reproduce over a 10-week period. On the other hand,

the Tibicen cicadas, native to Connecticut, re-emerge every year and are more commonly recognized by their familiar buzz of late summer and early autumn — giving them the name “Dog-day” cicadas.

“This exhibition has been occurring every 17 years along with the emergence of the cicadas — some cicada specimens were even recorded at Yale back in 1843,” Peabody entomologist Lawrence Gall said.

The cicada display includes the first documented reference of cicadas in 1633 by William Bradford, governor of Plymouth Rock. While many people take the approach of merely ignoring the cicadas, others such as James Rennie venerated them through poetry in London in 1847, and even more people eat them in cuisines worldwide.

Part of the museum’s goal is to correct the public’s misconceptions about cicadas as a parasitic creature, Gall said, adding that the exhibit has received “strong reactions” from visitors. To clear up these myths, the museum showed live specimens of cicadas to visitors earlier this sum-

mer and led tours to cicada colonies in Hammond, Conn.

“I always thought the 17-year cicadas were an invasive species,” museum visitor Sammy Bensinger ’17 said. “But I found out that they rarely ever cause fatalities to trees and are in no way harmful to human beings.”

This exhibition has been occurring every 17 years along with the emergence of the cicadas.

LAWRENCE GALL Peabody entomologist Her interest in cicadas, like that of many others, was sparked by the wide-ranging media coverage this summer. Indeed, Gall and other Peabody representatives worked closely with the media to educate the public about the cicada life cycle.

“I was expecting to see many more

cicadas this summer because of how much the media hyped up the event,” museum visitor Jillian Horowitz ’17 said. “I guess, living in New York City, the urbanization destroyed a lot of the populations.”

Horowitz added that she was “very enticed” by the idea of the exhibit but wished it were even larger and more informational.

Despite some media coverage suggesting that cicada numbers were lower this year, there is no strong data to back up these claims, Gall said. He emphasized the need to protect these colonies, which are often disrupted through deforestation and urbanization.

As the summer and the exhibit draw to a close, Gall said he is already looking forward to the next time the exhibit will open its doors again, in 2030.

Cicadas are edible and can be prepared by removing wings and legs and boiling them for at least four minutes, according to the exhibit.

Contact STEPHANIE ROGERS at stephanie.rogers@yale.edu .

SAHELI SADANAND

Voyager 1 joins the pantheon of great explorers The science world has of late seemed particularly gloomy. Thanks to sequestration and the dysfunctional nature of Congress, funding for the NIH and NASA — two major pillars of American science research — has either been cut or is facing cuts. But on Sept. 12 NASA officially declared an incredible scientific milestone: Voyager 1, a small, old spacecraft with a simple mission, became the first human-made object to leave the solar system. According to the article published in Science, Voyager 1’s actual departure occurred in August 2012, but determining that Voyager 1 had in fact left the solar system was not a trivial analysis. In fact, as recently as this past June, NASA scientists did not think Voyager 1 had made it out yet.

It turns out the solar system is not, as many of us think, just our planets — defining its boundary is complicated since neither the Sun’s light nor gravity’s effects ever completely go away. Instead, NASA defines the solar system’s boundary as where the solar plasma, or ionized gas radiated from the sun, effectively ends. Voyager 1 is currently in interstellar space where the plasma is at a higher density than it would be in the heliosphere — a region of charged particles around the Sun that includes the planets.

The heliosphere actually extends well beyond even the former furthest planet Pluto. The very edge of the heliosphere is known as the heliopause, where the effects of the plasma from the Sun finally end. Voyager 1 does not have a sensor for plasma, so NASA had to use a different strategy to determine the spacecraft’s actual position. A solar flare in March 2012 finally reached Voyager 1 in April 2013 and the ensuing oscillations of the plasma around the spacecraft indicated a higher gas density than would be found in the heliosphere, proving that Voyager 1 had in fact left our solar system.

Voyager 1 and its sister space craft Voyager 2, the two longest continuously operated spacecraft, were both launched in 1977 — for those of us under age 36 looking for a relatable cultural reference, it was, appropriately, the same year that Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope opened. At the time, NASA was still in a Space Age high. Voyager 2 currently remains in the solar system but it too will eventually make it out (though in a different direction). The original purpose for the Voyager crafts was to roam around Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune for a few years taking photos.

The Voyagers revealed that Jupiter has rings (not as impressive as those of Saturn, but still), that one of its moons, Io, had volcanoes and that Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, had an Earth-like atmosphere. Among the many famous images the Voyagers took of space, perhaps the best-known is “The Pale Blue Dot” — a photo of Earth taken by Voyager 1 when it was well past Pluto in the periphery of the solar system. That photo, part of a “Family Portrait” series of the solar system as Voyager 1 looked back on all the planets, inspired a book by the astronomer (and member of the Voyager team) Carl Sagan, who wrote “There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny planet.”

In an age where we feel compelled to replace our laptops and smartphones every few years, it is impressive that the old-fashioned technology on the Voyagers is still working (maybe Apple can take some notes). NASA scientists predict that Voyager 1 will stop sending us information around 2025, when its power supply is expected to (finally) go kaput.

They hope to learn more about interstellar space in the remaining years that Voyager 1 can communicate with us. But even after Voyager 1 stops transmitting messages to us, it can still serve a unique purpose, one that seems less laughable now than it might have in 1977: it contains a disc full of Earthling photos, greetings from world leaders and samples of our music so that E.T. can learn a little about us. Human history has seen many explorers, who we celebrate for their courage and determination. Voyager 1 and the team of scientists who have stuck by it deserve the same credit.

SAHELI SADANAND is a graduate student in the immunobiology department. Contact her at saheli.sadanand@yale.edu .

PAGE 6

YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2013 · yaledailynews.com

YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2013 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE 7

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

“HIV does not make people dangerous to know, so you can shake their hands and give them a hug. Heaven knows they need it.”

PRINCESS DIANA

Mental health’s weight bias

BY PHOEBE KIMMELMAN CONTRIBUTING REPORTER

Minorities, women at higher risk for heart problems KAREN TIAN

BY ERMAL HAJRIZI CONTRIBUTING REPORTER A recent study conducted by researchers at the Yale School of Public Health shows that cardiac risk factors and prevention efforts differ significantly by characteristics such as age, sex and race, with black women falling under the category of most at-risk.

The study followed 2,369 patients who had suffered acute myocardial infarction, colloquially known as a heart attack, and monitored the patients for hypertension, hypercholester-

olemia, diabetes, obesity and smoking habits. Researchers also observed the differences in secondary prevention efforts at and after hospital discharge, focusing on the prescription of certain medications such as antihypertensives, as well as counseling services designed to address issues like smoking or weight loss. The study, published in the Aug. 22 issue of the Journal of Women’s Health, found that a staggering 93 percent of patients exhibited at least one risk factor, with 40 percent showing signs of at least three.

Perhaps even more alarming is the fact that risk factors were significantly higher in African-American patients, regardless of age or sex. Black women in particular faced the most daunting set of risk factors, with 60 percent of black women aged 55 years or older demonstrating three or more risk factors.

“Often people think of all patients with heart attacks as being the same and lump groups together,” said Judith Lichtman, the study’s senior author and associate professor of epidemiology at SPH. This study,

however, separated heart attack patient data by subgroups, suggesting that the health care system needs to attend to the underlying causes of these risk factor inconsistencies.

The link between certain subgroups and the level of attention they receive in secondary prevention strategies seems just as deeply interwoven with the characteristics of age, sex and race. The study found that white patients received more counseling in smoking cessation than their black counterparts. Similarly, black youth were found to be pre-

scribed less medication than white youth, even though both groups faced the same risk factors.

Associate research scientist in epidemiology and study coauthor Erica Leifheit-Limson expressed her surprise at the results. “[We] wouldn’t think that one subgroup would differ from another,” she said, especially since the study was conducted consistently for all patients.

When asked about potential reasons for the discrepancies among subgroups, Lichtman was hesitant to pin down the

cause on one variable. However, she did say the study’s findings highlight potential discrepancies in the treatment people receive after their heart attacks.

“From a clinical and public health perspective, we need to be more aggressive in ensuring equal secondary prevention for everyone,” Lichtman added.

Robert Harrington, chairman of the Department of Medicine at Stanford University, echoed these sentiments in a Saturday email.

These findings, he said, are “consistent” with observations from other research assessing

SIV, gut bacteria linked in Yale-led study

health care disparities.

“Much work remains to be sure that we are offering equitable health care for all,” Harrington added.

Researchers said the next step is to focus on improving risk factor modification to decrease medical issues in post-heart attack patients.

The study was principally supported by CV Therapeutics, Inc., with funding for all analyses from CV Outcomes, Inc. Contact ERMAL HAJRIZI at ermal.hajrizi@yale.edu .

According to Yale’s Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity, mental health professionals treating patients with eating disorders are hardly immune to weight bias.

Previous research teams have tackled the question of how mental health professionals view their obese patients. A 2003 study published in the journal Obesity Research used an Implicit Associations Test, or IAT — a timed association test that aims to uncover unconscious biases — to show that practitioners exhibited significant weight-related biases against their obese patients. The IAT was also used to show that doctors thought obese patients endorsed the implicit stereotypes associated with obesity such as “laziness, stupidity and worthlessness.”

This new study, which can be found in the latest edition of the annual International Journal of Eating Disorders, takes a more specialized look at mental health practitioners’ biases 10 years later, in a world where obesity is more prevalent. Rudd Center Deputy Director and study coauthor Rebecca Puhl emphasized the current importance of studying this issue.

“Given that many individuals who struggle with eating disorders also struggle with weight, and in light of research showing that individuals who experience weight stigma are at risk for developing symptoms of eating disorders, this is an important group of providers to be reaching,” Puhl said in a Thursday email.

Researchers asked 329 mental health practicioners treating eating disorders about their perceptions of their patients and colleagues. Of the study’s participants, 42 percent believed that mental health professionals specializing in eating disorders often have negative weight biases against obese patients. Other results supported this finding — 56 percent of mental health professionals had heard colleagues make negative comments about patients’ obesity, 35 per-

KAREN TIAN

cent reported that their colleagues feel uncomfortable treating their obese patients and 64 percent believe that obese patients do not follow recommended courses of treatment. The professionals themselves also displayed a lack of faith in obese patients — 76 percent said they are not confident that obese patients can maintain weight loss, with 16 percent claiming that they think obese patients have “no willpower.”

Even though 88 percent of professionals in the study reported that they feel “confident and professionally prepared” to treat obese patients, these results suggest a need for changes to the field.

“Our hope is that these findings will help increase attention to the issue of weight bias and serve as the starting point for discussions on how to implement efforts to reduce stigma as part of training and clinical practice,” Puhl said.

The research team has also laid out some more specific plans for how to fix the problem. According to the study, such measures are needed to ensure patients seek help and do not feel stigmatized by health professionals.

“A first step is for clinicians to identify their personal attitudes or

assumptions about weight, as well as the language that they use when talking about weight, that might unintentionally interfere with their ability to effectively treat patients of diverse body sizes,” Puhl said. She added that she believes educational interventions highlighting obesity causes and challenging weight stereotypes could prove effective in reducing weight bias.

Lewis Landsberg, Director of Northwestern University’s Comprehensive Center on Obesity, said he was “not at all surprised” by the study’s conclusions.

“The obese are always stigmatized as having no self-discipline, no willpower, even when there are important biological differences between lean and obese people,” he said. “There is a whole trend in the field of obesity in getting away from thinking about obesity as a character flaw.”

In addition to Puhl, the study was coauthored by associate professor of psychology Janet Latner of University of Hawaii, former Rudd Center research associate Kelly King and Rudd Center statistical consultant Joerg Luedicke.

Contact PHOEBE KIMMELMAN at phoebe.kimmelman@yale.edu .

Peabody buzzes over cicadas

BY PIERRE ORTLIEB CONTRIBUTING REPORTER Simian immunodeficiency virus has detrimental implications on the stability of the gut microbiome of Tanzanian chimpanzees, a recent Yale-led study has shown.

Led by former Yale ecology and evolutionary biology researcher Howard Ochman, the research team observed an increase in pathogenic bacteria in chimpanzees infected with the immunovirus SIV after the meticulous examination of years’ worth of their fecal samples at western Tanzania’s Gombe Stream National Park.

This increase, in turn, overwhelmed chimpanzees’ already beleaguered immune systems in a lethal fashion, exacerbating a debilitating medical situation.

The study was published on Sept. 11 in the journal Cell Host & Microbe.

“It’s very exciting,” said Chair of Duke University’s Department of Evolutionary Anthropology Anne Pusey, a co-author of the paper. “It’s an extraordinary system where we can study the disease, and apply [our findings] to humans.”

Study co-author Megan Shilts, a former Yale researcher and current student at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, said this research could change the way doctors treat HIV and AIDS patients.

“Soon, we will have a study with humans to see if it does the same thing,” she said. Though there is no guarantee of success, Shilts said it is very likely that attempts will soon be made to apply this newfound information to a clinical environment.

By examining HIV patients, physicians could potentially identify similar gut bacteria and thus develop new techniques to slow the progression of the disease and keep people healthy longer, she added.

The findings outlined in the study are a result of “years of diligent, long-term observation” of Gombe, the world’s only study site where SIV is present, said study co-author Elizabeth Lonsdorf, assistant professor of psychology at Franklin & Marshall College, in a Sunday email to the News.

TASNIM ELBOUTE/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

The Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History features a cicada exhibit every 17 years.

BY STEPHANIE ROGERS CONTRIBUTING REPORTER

WILLIAM WARBY/CREATIVE COMMONS

Symptoms of simian immunodeficiency virus in Tanzanian chimpanzees have parallels to those in human AIDS patients.

While the initial discovery of SIV amongst these primates was thought to be unfortunate, Pusey said the team of researchers leading the Tanzanian site slowly became cognizant of the sheer criticality of their finding.

“After a few years of sampling, they were writing papers, and they saw that it [SIV] was pathogenic,” she said. “We said, ‘Hold on a minute, let’s look at this,’ and we found that … they

had depleted CD-4 cells and their spleens looked terrible, very much like human AIDS patients.”

Many of her fellow researchers, she said, were surprised.

Pusey added that researchers are now able to observe the same closed group of chimpanzees over an extended period of time — typically not possible in studies with human subjects.

“It actually can show a pretty

direct influence of the virus [SIV] on the microbiome. For me, it’s very exciting,” she said, noting that the scrutiny of this collection of chimpanzees will continue.

Yet in spite of the team’s optimism and excitement, Shilts pointed out that there are still several obstacles impeding the translation of their work on animals to human subjects.

Researchers must obtain fecal

samples from before and after an individual becomes HIVpositive, she said, which is difficult to accomplish since the precise time of infection cannot be recorded or determined in humans. She added that certain technological limitations prevented the researchers from being able to completely determine the structure of the gut bacteria.

In spite of this, Shilts said she

remains optimistic.

“There will be a big push soon,” she said. “It’s very exciting.”

The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.

Contact PIERRE ORTLIEB at pierre.ortlieb@yale.edu .

On May 1, the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History opened its doors to a temporary exhibit — “Return of the 17-Year Cicadas.”

The Peabody’s cicada exhibit, which the museum features every 17 years, re-opened this summer in response to the re-emergence of the Magicicada species of cicadas along the east coast. From Connecticut to North Carolina, thousands of cicadas emerged from their burrowed holes throughout May and June, laying their eggs and dying in the three months before the exhibition will close its doors Sept. 29.

There are over 2,500 species of cicadas worldwide, but the exhibition highlights the differences between two cicada species found in the northeast. The exhibit highlights the Magicicada, which spends 17 years in the nymph stage underground near tree roots, its primary food source, before digging to the suface to mate and reproduce over a 10-week period. On the other hand,

the Tibicen cicadas, native to Connecticut, re-emerge every year and are more commonly recognized by their familiar buzz of late summer and early autumn — giving them the name “Dog-day” cicadas.

“This exhibition has been occurring every 17 years along with the emergence of the cicadas — some cicada specimens were even recorded at Yale back in 1843,” Peabody entomologist Lawrence Gall said.

The cicada display includes the first documented reference of cicadas in 1633 by William Bradford, governor of Plymouth Rock. While many people take the approach of merely ignoring the cicadas, others such as James Rennie venerated them through poetry in London in 1847, and even more people eat them in cuisines worldwide.

Part of the museum’s goal is to correct the public’s misconceptions about cicadas as a parasitic creature, Gall said, adding that the exhibit has received “strong reactions” from visitors. To clear up these myths, the museum showed live specimens of cicadas to visitors earlier this sum-

mer and led tours to cicada colonies in Hammond, Conn.

“I always thought the 17-year cicadas were an invasive species,” museum visitor Sammy Bensinger ’17 said. “But I found out that they rarely ever cause fatalities to trees and are in no way harmful to human beings.”

This exhibition has been occurring every 17 years along with the emergence of the cicadas.

LAWRENCE GALL Peabody entomologist Her interest in cicadas, like that of many others, was sparked by the wide-ranging media coverage this summer. Indeed, Gall and other Peabody representatives worked closely with the media to educate the public about the cicada life cycle.

“I was expecting to see many more

cicadas this summer because of how much the media hyped up the event,” museum visitor Jillian Horowitz ’17 said. “I guess, living in New York City, the urbanization destroyed a lot of the populations.”

Horowitz added that she was “very enticed” by the idea of the exhibit but wished it were even larger and more informational.

Despite some media coverage suggesting that cicada numbers were lower this year, there is no strong data to back up these claims, Gall said. He emphasized the need to protect these colonies, which are often disrupted through deforestation and urbanization.

As the summer and the exhibit draw to a close, Gall said he is already looking forward to the next time the exhibit will open its doors again, in 2030.

Cicadas are edible and can be prepared by removing wings and legs and boiling them for at least four minutes, according to the exhibit.

Contact STEPHANIE ROGERS at stephanie.rogers@yale.edu .

SAHELI SADANAND

Voyager 1 joins the pantheon of great explorers The science world has of late seemed particularly gloomy. Thanks to sequestration and the dysfunctional nature of Congress, funding for the NIH and NASA — two major pillars of American science research — has either been cut or is facing cuts. But on Sept. 12 NASA officially declared an incredible scientific milestone: Voyager 1, a small, old spacecraft with a simple mission, became the first human-made object to leave the solar system. According to the article published in Science, Voyager 1’s actual departure occurred in August 2012, but determining that Voyager 1 had in fact left the solar system was not a trivial analysis. In fact, as recently as this past June, NASA scientists did not think Voyager 1 had made it out yet.

It turns out the solar system is not, as many of us think, just our planets — defining its boundary is complicated since neither the Sun’s light nor gravity’s effects ever completely go away. Instead, NASA defines the solar system’s boundary as where the solar plasma, or ionized gas radiated from the sun, effectively ends. Voyager 1 is currently in interstellar space where the plasma is at a higher density than it would be in the heliosphere — a region of charged particles around the Sun that includes the planets.

The heliosphere actually extends well beyond even the former furthest planet Pluto. The very edge of the heliosphere is known as the heliopause, where the effects of the plasma from the Sun finally end. Voyager 1 does not have a sensor for plasma, so NASA had to use a different strategy to determine the spacecraft’s actual position. A solar flare in March 2012 finally reached Voyager 1 in April 2013 and the ensuing oscillations of the plasma around the spacecraft indicated a higher gas density than would be found in the heliosphere, proving that Voyager 1 had in fact left our solar system.

Voyager 1 and its sister space craft Voyager 2, the two longest continuously operated spacecraft, were both launched in 1977 — for those of us under age 36 looking for a relatable cultural reference, it was, appropriately, the same year that Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope opened. At the time, NASA was still in a Space Age high. Voyager 2 currently remains in the solar system but it too will eventually make it out (though in a different direction). The original purpose for the Voyager crafts was to roam around Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune for a few years taking photos.

The Voyagers revealed that Jupiter has rings (not as impressive as those of Saturn, but still), that one of its moons, Io, had volcanoes and that Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, had an Earth-like atmosphere. Among the many famous images the Voyagers took of space, perhaps the best-known is “The Pale Blue Dot” — a photo of Earth taken by Voyager 1 when it was well past Pluto in the periphery of the solar system. That photo, part of a “Family Portrait” series of the solar system as Voyager 1 looked back on all the planets, inspired a book by the astronomer (and member of the Voyager team) Carl Sagan, who wrote “There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny planet.”

In an age where we feel compelled to replace our laptops and smartphones every few years, it is impressive that the old-fashioned technology on the Voyagers is still working (maybe Apple can take some notes). NASA scientists predict that Voyager 1 will stop sending us information around 2025, when its power supply is expected to (finally) go kaput.

They hope to learn more about interstellar space in the remaining years that Voyager 1 can communicate with us. But even after Voyager 1 stops transmitting messages to us, it can still serve a unique purpose, one that seems less laughable now than it might have in 1977: it contains a disc full of Earthling photos, greetings from world leaders and samples of our music so that E.T. can learn a little about us. Human history has seen many explorers, who we celebrate for their courage and determination. Voyager 1 and the team of scientists who have stuck by it deserve the same credit.

SAHELI SADANAND is a graduate student in the immunobiology department. Contact her at saheli.sadanand@yale.edu .

PAGE 8

YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2013 · yaledailynews.com

NATION

T

WASHINGTON — A former Navy man opened fire Monday morning inside a building at the heavily secured Washington Navy Yard, spraying bullets at office workers in the cafeteria and the halls, authorities said. Thirteen people were killed, including the gunman.

Authorities said they were looking for a possible second attacker who may have been disguised in an olivedrab military-style uniform.

But as the day wore on and night fell, the rampage increasingly appeared to be the work of a lone gunman, and Navy Yard employees were being released from the complex and children were let out of their locked-down schools.

Investigators said they had not established a motive for the rampage, which unfolded about 8:20 a.m. in the heart of the nation’s capital, less than four miles from the White House and two miles from the Capitol.

As for whether it may have been a terrorist attack, Mayor Vincent Gray said: “We don’t have any reason to think that at this stage.” But he said the possibility had not been ruled out.

It was the deadliest shooting rampage at a U.S.-based military installation since Maj. Nidal Hasan killed 13 people and wounded more than 30 others in 2009 at Fort Hood in Texas.

He was convicted last month and sentenced to death.

President Barack Obama lamented yet another mass shooting in the U.S. that he said took the lives of American patriots. He promised to make sure “whoever carried out this cowardly act is held responsible.”

The FBI took charge of the investigation and identified the gunman killed in the attack as 34-year-old Aaron Alexis of Texas. He died after a running gunbattle with police, investigators said.

A federal law enforcement official who was not authorized to discuss the case publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity said Alexis was believed to have gotten into the Navy Yard by using someone else’s identification card. But Navy officials said it was not yet clear how he got onto the base.

Alexis was a full-time reservist from 2007 to early 2011, leaving as a petty officer third class, the Navy said. It did not say why he left. He had been working for a fleet logistics support squadron in Fort Worth, Texas. The Navy listed his home of record as New York City.

At the time of the rampage, he was working as a Defense Department contractor, but it was not clear if the information technology worker was assigned at the Naval Yard, according to two defense officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

He was also pursuing a bachelor’s degree in aeronautics online with Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, the school said. He started classes in July 2012.

In addition to those killed, more than a dozen people were hurt, including a police officer and two female civilians who were shot and wounded. They were all expected to survive.

The Washington Navy Yard is a sprawling labyrinth of buildings and streets protected by armed guards and metal detectors, and employees have to show their IDs at doors and gates to come and go. About 20,000 people work there.

The rampage took place at Building 197, the headquarters for Naval Sea Systems Command, which buys, builds and maintains ships, submarines and combat systems. About 3,000 people work at headquarters, many of them civilians.

Witnesses described a gunman opening fire from a fourth-floor overlook, aiming down on people in the cafeteria on the main floor. Others said a gunman fired at them in a third-floor hallway.

Patricia Ward, a logistics-management specialist, said she was in the cafeteria getting breakfast.

“It was three gunshots straight in a row — pop, pop, pop. Three seconds later, it was pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, so it was like about a total of seven gunshots, and we just started running,” Ward said.

Todd Brundidge, an executive assistant with Navy Sea Systems Command, said he and other coworkers encountered a gunman in a long hallway on the third floor. The gunman was wearing all blue, he said.

“He just turned and started firing,” Brundidge said.

Terrie Durham, an executive assistant with the same agency, said the gunman firing toward her and Brundidge.

“He aimed high and missed,” she said. “He said nothing. As soon as I realized he was shooting, we just said, `Get out of the building.’”

Police would not give any details on the gunman’s weaponry, but witnesses said the man they saw had a long gun - which can mean a rifle or a shotgun.

In the confusion, police said around midday that they were searching for two men who may have taken part in the attack - one carrying a handgun and wearing a tan Navy-style uniform and a beret, the other armed with a long gun and wearing an olive-green uniform.

Washington Police Chief Cathy Lanier said it was unclear if the men were members of the military.

But later in the day, police said the man in the tan uniform had been identified and was not involved in the shooting.

As emergency vehicles and law enforcement officers flooded streets around the complex, a helicopter hovered, nearby schools were locked down and airplanes at nearby Reagan National Airport were grounded so they would not interfere with lawenforcement choppers.

Security was tightened at other federal buildings. Senate officials shut down their side of the Capitol while authorities searched for the potential second attacker. The House remained open.

Adm. Jonathan Greenert, chief of naval operations, was at the base at the time the shooting began but was moved unharmed to a nearby military installation.

Anxious relatives and friends of those who work at the complex waited to hear from loved ones.

Tech Sgt. David Reyes, who works at Andrews Air Force Base, said he was waiting to pick up his wife, Dina, who was under lockdown in a building next to where the shooting happened. She sent him a text message.

“They are under lockdown because they just don’t know,” Reyes said. “They have to check every building in there, and they have to check every room and just, of course, a lot of rooms and a lot of buildings.”

NASDAQ 3,717.85, -0.12%

S

BY ERIC TUCKER, BRETT ZONGKER AND LOLITA C. BALDOR ASSOCIATED PRESS

S S&P 500 1,697.60, +0.57%

S

13 dead after rampage

Dow Jones 15,494.78, +0.77%

Oil $105.86, -0.67%

T 10-yr. Bond 2.87%, -0.02 T Euro $1.33, +0.02%

Concession clears way for mayoral election

MARK LENNIHAN/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Democratic mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio, behind the podium, embraces his primary election opponent Bill Thompson after Thompson conceded the election.

BY JONATHAN LEMIRE AND JENNIFER PELTZ ASSOCIATED PRESS NEW YORK — The runner-up in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary ended his campaign Monday, clearing the way for a general election that will pit the two major-party opponents with vastly different visions of how the city should move forward after 12 years of Michael Bloomberg as mayor.

Democratic front-runner Bill de Blasio will face Republican nominee Joe Lhota now that the second-place finisher in the Democratic primary, Bill Thompson, has withdrawn. Thompson’s decision eliminated a potential Oct. 1 runoff against de Blasio. That possibility had loomed as a significant distraction for Democrats, who are desperate to elect their first mayor since 1989 and were fearful that intra-party strife could provide a gift to Lhota and independent candidates.

Bill de Blasio’s change is radical. My change is practical.

It’s straight forward.

JOE LHOTA Republican mayoral nominee, New York City

J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE/ASSOCIATED PRESS

People sit near the U.S. Capitol as the American flag flies at half-staff following the shooting at the Washington Navy Yard.

“Bill de Blasio and I want to move the city forward,” Thompson said at City Hall news conference Monday morning.

“This is bigger than any one of us.”

De Blasio has run an unabashedly liberal campaign, calling for a tax hike on the city’s wealthiest neighborhoods to pay for universal pre-kindergarten and reforms to police tactics and demanding greater income equality to “put an end to the tale of two cities.”

He also placed his interracial family at the center of his campaign. An ad narrated by his 15-year-old son helped fuel his rise from fourth to first in the primary’s final month. He also received a boost in the campaign’s final days when, in an interview, Bloomberg labeled de Blasio’s campaign as “racist” and “class warfare,” criticisms that galvanized de Blasio supporters.

Bloomberg, who declined to endorse

in the race, refused to answer questions about his comments Monday during his first news conference since the remarks were published.

Lhota, who served as the head the city’s transit agency and was a onetime deputy mayor to Rudy Giuliani, has vowed to continue many of Bloomberg’s policies.

Lhota is an ardent defender of the police department’s use of stop-andfrisk, a policy that allows officer to stop people deemed acting suspiciously, saying it helped drive down crime. But a federal judge ruled that it discriminates against minorities and ordered a monitor to oversee changes to the policy.

Though Democrats outnumber Republicans 6-to-1 among registered voters, the GOP’s unlikely mayoral winning streak could continue if Lhota “runs as a manager,” according to Kellyanne Conway, a Washington-based pollster who has done polls the race.

“Managers tend to do pretty well in New York City,” said Conway, who is not affiliated with any candidate. “He’s literally the guy who can keep trains running on time and keep taxes low, and that has appeal to people.”

Lhota has mocked de Blasio’s plan to raise taxes, saying it would never pass the state legislature. He has suggested funding pre-kindergarten by cutting other government expenses.

“Bill de Blasio’s change is radical,” Lhota said at a news conference. “My change is practical. It’s straightforward.

It’s to be able to build upon what we have done, not tear down what has happened.”

He also took issue with de Blasio’s campaign theme and showed no reluctance to use one of Bloomberg’s inflammatory phrases.

“The `tale of two cities’ is a divisive device that he’s using,” said Lhota. “It’s a divide-and-conquer strategy. It’s class warfare.”

Lhota aims to showcase the inclusiveness of his own campaign by meeting with Democratic powerbroker the Rev. Al Sharpton on Tuesday.

De Blasio did not discuss Lhota at the Monday rally. But Thompson’s decision to drop out prevents what could have been a fortnight that cost Democrats time to campaign against Lhota.

YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2013 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE 9

BULLETIN BOARD

TODAY’S FORECAST Sunny, with a high near 66. Low of 41

TOMORROW

THURSDAY

High of 71, low of 49.

High of 75, low of 55.

THAT MONKEY TUNE BY MICHAEL KANDALAFT

ON CAMPUS TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17 7:00 PM “Escape Fire: The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare” Film screening of the 2012 Sundance Film Festival documentary about the complicated state of the U.S. health care system. Hosted by the Healthcare Improvement Interest Group and Medical Students for Choice. Popcorn, snacks and cookies will be provided. Free and open to the Yale community. The Anlyan Center (300 Cedar St.), Room N107.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18 12:30 PM “Playing Images: An Exploration of Music and Art” Combining sound and sight can enhance what is seen and heard. Featuring live music, this talk will connect close listening to music with close looking at art. Presented by the Haven String Quartet and Jessica Sack, the Yale University Art Gallery’s Jan and Frederick Mayer associate curator of public education. Free and open to the general public. Yale University Art Gallery (1111 Chapel St.).

THE INKWELL BY SYLVAN ZHENG

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19 4:30 PM The Philippines on the World Stage: A Talk With Ambassador Jose L. Cuisia Jr. Kasama: The Filipino Club of Yale and the Yale International Relations Association are proud to welcome Philippine Ambassador to the United States, Jose L. Cuisia Jr., for a speaker’s event. He will discuss the relevance of the Philippines on the global stage and the future of the Philippines as Asia’s up-and-coming tiger economy. Linsly-Chittenden Hall (63 High St.), Room 101.

5:00 PM What Matters to Me and Why: Jeffrey Brenzel The purpose of the “What Matters to Me and Why” series is to create a space for Yale faculty and administrators to discuss matters of personal values, beliefs and motivations, in order to better understand the lives of the people who shape the University community. Jeffrey Brenzel is the master of Timothy Dwight College and former dean of Yale Undergraduate Admissions.

Timothy Dwight College (63 Wall St.), Master’s House.

DOONESBURY BY GARRY TRUDEAU

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32 Meat-andpotatoes bowlful 36 Mil. school 37 1996 Hillary Clinton bestseller, and what might be said about the start of 17-, 24-, 48- or 59-Across 41 “High Hopes” lyricist Sammy 42 One printing defamatory text, in England 43 Prefix with gram 44 Bars to scan, briefly 47 Boy of la casa 48 Table scraps, to the dog 51 Zero-calorie protest 55 War hero played

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9/17/13

By Steve Blais

DOWN 1 Apollo 11 moon lander 2 Pink-slip issuer 3 Bugs with bounce 4 Fails to be 5 Stylish, ’60s-style 6 Hollywood’s Thurman 7 Greet someone casually 8 Uttered 9 Major heart vessels 10 Former Seattle NBAer 11 Doubtful 12 UFO pilots, in theory 13 Hair styles 18 Grammy winner Gloria 22 Halloween mo.

24 Cast a ballot 25 Dollar bills 26 Old enough 27 Bill attachment 29 Sound of disdain 32 __ tendonitis: arm muscle ailment 33 Daylong military march 34 Addis Ababa native 35 Mart opening

Monday’s Puzzle Solved

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36 The whole thing 38 Ristorante carafe contents 39 Footnoter’s “ditto,” briefly 40 Deighton of spy-fi 44 Final syllable 45 Scratcher on a post 46 Corp. money manager 49 Father of la casa 50 Hamburger topper

9/17/13

52 Wedding memento 53 Hybrid tennis garment 54 Wasp venom, for one 56 “The other one, too” 57 Throw in 58 Cubs’ home: Abbr.

60 MADD concern 61 Doctrinal word ending

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

2 3 4 5

8 1

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YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2013 · yaledailynews.com

WORLD

55

UN: Chem weapons in Syria

Number of U.S. ambassadors to Brazil

U.S. Ambassador Liliana Ayalde will become the 55th in a long line of ambassadors to Brazil. The first, Condy Raguet, was appointed the Chargé d’Affaires to Brazil Oct. 29, 1825

by President John Quincy Adams. Ayalde will succeed Thomas A. Shannon, Jr.

New Egyptian petition pushes general to run

BY SARAH EL DEEB ASSOCIATED PRESS

SETH WENIG/ASSOCIATED PRESS

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon speaks to reporters after a Security Council meeting about Syria on Monday.

BY EDITH M. LEDERER ASSOCIATED PRESS UNITED NATIONS — Careful not to blame either side for a deadly chemical weapon attack, U.N. inspectors reported Monday that rockets loaded with the nerve agent sarin had been fired from an area where Syria’s military has bases, but said the evidence could have been manipulated in the rebel-controlled stricken neighborhoods.

The U.S., Britain and France jumped on evidence in the report — especially the type of rockets, the composition of the sarin agent, and trajectory of the missiles — to declare that President Bashar Assad’s government was responsible.

Russia, Syria’s closest ally, called the investigators’ findings “deeply disturbing,” but said it was too early to draw conclusions. The Syrian government’s claims that opposition forces were responsible for the attack “cannot be simply shrugged off,” Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin insisted.

The conclusions represented the first official confirmation by impartial scientific experts that chemical weapons were used in Syria’s civil war, but the inspectors’ limited mandate barred them from identifying who was responsible for the Aug. 21

attack.

“This is a war crime,” U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the Security Council when he presented the report. “The results are overwhelming and indisputable. The facts speak for themselves.”

Ban called it “the most significant confirmed use of chemical weapons against civilians since Saddam Hussein used them” in Halabja, Iran, in 1988, and “the worst use of weapons of mass destruction in the 21st century.”

This is a war crime. The results are overwhelming and indisputable. The facts speak for themselves.

BAN KI-MOON Secretary-General, United Nations The deep division between Western backers of rebels seeking to overthrow Assad and Russian and Chinese supporters of the regime has paralyzed the U.N. Security Council since the Syrian conflict began two and a half years ago.

Even though the United States and

Russia agreed Saturday on the framework to put Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile and precursors under international control for future destruction, their top diplomats were at odds Monday over a new Security Council resolution that would make the deal legally binding — and whether there should be a reference to possible military enforcement if Syria doesn’t comply.

After months of negotiations, the U.N. inspectors went to Syria to visit the sites of three alleged chemical attacks earlier this year and were in the capital of Damascus on Aug. 21 when reports and videos began surfacing of a shelling attack in which victims experienced shortness of breath, disorientation, blurred vision, nausea, vomiting, weakness and a loss of consciousness.

They finally gained access to three towns where the Aug. 21 attack occurred, and on one occasion their convoy was hit by sniper fire, but the inspectors were nonetheless able to collect a large amount of material and talk to survivors and witnesses.

“The environmental, chemical and medical samples we have collected provide clear and convincing evidence that surface-to-surface rockets containing the nerve agent sarin were used … in the Ghouta area of Damascus,” their report said.

CAIRO — A group of professionals and former army officers launched Monday a petition urging Egypt’s military chief, who ousted the country’s first freely elected leader, to run for president, highlighting the yearning for a strongman to take charge after nearly three years of turmoil.

The campaign for Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi is propped up by a pervasive personality cult, based on his success in uprooting an Islamist ruling elite. Still, there has been a faint pushback from new political groups calling for a civilian leader for the nascent democracy -despite little public tolerance for criticism of the military and a deepening sense of nationalism.

In his one major political speech after removing Islamist President Mohammed Morsi on July 3, el-Sissi said he had no political aspirations. Soon after, a military spokesman denied reports the general would run for office. But the spokesman added that nothing would stop el-Sissi from doing so if he retired.

The clamor for him to run in presidential elections expected in early 2014 has only grown, demonstrating the dramatic seesawing Egypt has undergone since the 2011 revolution toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak, a former military man. In part the calls are fueled by a powerful anti-Islamist fervor after Morsi’s one year in office, when bitterness grew over what many saw as attempts by his Muslim Brotherhood to monopolize power and take the country in a more extremist direction.

State media and sympathetic television stations have helped fan the el-Sissi sentiment. Pop songs praising him and the military flood the airwaves. Posters of el-Sissi in his dark glasses and military cap are plastered around the streets.

Videos of him addressing troops or training with them have become a staple on TV. In the upscale Cairo district of Garden City, sweets shop owner Bahira Galal says she has been doing a brisk business with her new chocolates bearing el-Sissi’s picture.

“I support el-Sissi in my own way, especially after millions went out in the streets, everyone in their own way, supporting him,” she said.

Millions turned out for protests that began June 30 demanding Morsi’s removal, prompting el-Sissi to oust the Islamist leader. Morsi’s supporters have continued protests demanding his reinstatement, even as a security crackdown has jailed thousands of Islamists.

Detained since his ouster, Morsi faces trial on charges of inciting the killing of protesters, and prosecutors are preparing other charges, including insulting

the judiciary.

El-Sissi has said he was only acting in response to the people’s demands, dismissing charges of orchestrating a coup.

El-Sissi installed an interim, civilian government that is paving the way for elections.

El-Sissi has cultivated a popular image for himself - that of a strongman who acted to save the nation and, at the same time, a soft-spoken figure with the interests of the people at heart.

That has helped restore the prestige of the military after the much criticized period when generals held direct power for more than a year and a half after Mubarak’s fall. Those generals came from an older generation than el-Sissi and have since been shunted aside.

Don’t forget that you [el-Sissi] told the Egyptian people to ask and you will respond. Here we are asking you to be president of Egypt.

RIFAI NASRALLAH Organizer, petition campaign for el-Sissi to run for president The new petition campaign announced Monday brands itself “complete your good deed” — urging el-Sissi to take the next step and run. Organizer Rifai Nasrallah, a judge, said the goal was to collect 30 million signatures to convince the general to give in to “popular will.”

“Don’t forget that you told the Egyptian people to ask and you will respond.

Here we are asking you to be president of Egypt,” Nasrallah said at the launch gathering at a Cairo hotel, addressing elSissi.

The campaign is modeled after Tamarod, or Rebel, which spearheaded antiMorsi protests after claiming to have gathered 22 million signatures demanding his ouster.

Younan Gerges, who is running the campaign in Cairo, denied it is funded by security agencies or the military, or even major businessmen.

Prime-time talk shows constantly discuss the prospect of el-Sissi running — almost always favorably. The three main candidates who lost to Morsi in last year’s presidential election — Amr Moussa, Ahmed Shafiq and Hamdeen Sabahi, a favorite with revolutionary youth groups — have publically supported the idea.

Even the ousted Mubarak, who is now on trial on charges of killing protesters, gave an unexpected word of praise.

US ambassador Ayalde arrives in Brazil amid tensions ASSOCIATED PRESS BRASILIA, Brazil — The new U.S. ambassador to Brazil landed in the capital Monday amid increasing tensions over a U.S. spy program that aggressively targets Latin America’s biggest nation, reportedly including the personal communications of its president.

Ambassador Liliana Ayalde is a career diplomat with three decades of experience and a former ambassador to Paraguay.

She most recently served as the deputy assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, covering Cuba, Central America and the Caribbean.

“This is a very important moment for our relations, full of opportunities and possibilities,” Ayalde told reporters at Brasilia’s airport, speaking in Portuguese.

“I’m sure that together, we can expand and deepen the ties that exist between our two important nations.”

The new ambassador didn’t respond to Brazilian journalists’ questions about the National Security Agency’s spying program.

Ayalde arrives just as Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff is expected to make a decision on whether she’ll cancel a trip to Washington next month in protest over the NSA program. She is scheduled to be honored with a state dinner, the only one scheduled so far this year in the U.S. for a visit meant to show Brazil’s growing economic and strategic importance.

Several reports on Brazil’s Globo television and in the

Globo newspaper have been based on NSA documents leaked

by Edward Snowden.

In addition to indicating that Rousseff’s communications with her top aides were intercepted, reports say that the NSA targeted the private computer network of state-run oil company Petrobras and that the NSA has collected data on billions of emails and telephone calls that flow through Brazil.

I’m sure that together, we can expand and deepen the ties that exist between our two important nations.

LILIANA AYALDE U.S. ambassador to Brazil Ayalde is also arriving in a nation shocked by huge antigovernment protests in June.

Demonstrations continue to linger and could be sparked again by a number of factors, including a slowed economy, next year’s presidential election year and the World Cup. Many Brazilians are outraged at the billions of public funds being spent to refurbish or build stadiums while hospitals, schools and infrastructure widely remain in a woeful state.

Ayalde succeeds Thomas Shannon, who is now a counselor to Secretary of State John Kerry.

MARCELLO CASAL JR./ASSOCIATED PRESS

U.S. ambassador to Brazil Liliana Ayalde arrives at the Brasilia International Airport on Monday.

YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2013 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE 11

AROUND THE IVIES

“The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled.”

PLUTARCH GREEK HISTORIAN, BIOGRAPHER AND ESSAYIST

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

THE DARTMOUTH

Ithacans protest US action in Syria

Police probe fraternity fire

BY LAURA WEISS STAFF WRITER The Hanover Police Department is investigating a suspected arson at Chi Gamma Epsilon fraternity that occurred early Friday morning.

At approximately 3 a.m., cardboard boxes caught fire in the basement, which triggered the house’s alarm and sprinkler system. The sprinklers extinguished the blaze, and Safety and Security, the Hanover Fire Department and Hanover Police responded to the alarm.

The house suspects arson because the cardboard boxes were soaked in a flammable liquid, suggesting premeditation, said Chi Gam President Nick Allen, who was not present at the scene.

We’re just going to be more vigilant … and always keep an eye out.

SHAILEE SHAH/THE CORNELL DAILY SUN

Ithacans opposed U.S. military action in Syria through a Friday march down Cayuga Street.

BY TYLER ALICEA STAFF WRITER Carrying various signs bearing phrases such as “Let’s stop killing one another” and “Bombing Syria aids al-Qaeda,” approximately 50 Ithacans marched down Cayuga Street Friday protesting the possibility of the United States using military action against Syria.

The U.S. threatened to take part in a military strike against Syria after Syrian President Bashar al-Assad allegedly authorized a chemical attack Aug. 21 that resulted in the death of 1,400 civilians, according to The Associated Press. President Barack Obama said he was sending troops to Syria, but decided to defer seeking congressional approval for a strike to consider a Russian proposal to destroy Syria’s chemical weapons, the AP reported.

“This delay will allow warmongerers and defense contractors more time to organize for war just as it will allow more time for defenders of peace and amnesty to organize against it,” said Shakti Moksha, the event’s organizer, on the rally’s Facebook page.

The protesters met in Dewitt Park before walking to the public library.

Chanting, “we are unstoppable, another world is possible,” protesters marched down Cayuga Street, attracting the attention of passers-by. Some residents yelled agreement for the cause, while drivers gave their endorsements by honking their horns as they drove down the street.

Once the protesters arrived at the library, they stood on the corner of Green and Cayuga streets, where they gave short speeches, read poetry, and CORNELL sang songs to other protesters and those walking past them.

World leaders who initially supported an airstrike — such as Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry and French Secretary of State Laurent Fabius — said the strike was needed to enforce international laws against the use of chemical weapons, The New York Times reported.

Dropping bombs is a bad way of getting involved. Dropping bombs is always bad because you kill people.

ADAM LEVINE Protester Protesters, however, disagreed.

One of the protesters, James Ricks, described the situation in Syria as being “convoluted” and expressed his disappointment with Obama. He added that he was originally proud of the president when he was first elected in 2008.

Claire Grady, another protester, said this is not the first time people have had to respond to the threat of killing of people “by our government in our name with our money.”

“I’m 54 years old, and I’ve seen this happen again and again and again,” Grady said.

Protester Adam Levine expressed his concerns about using bombs in any context and said he believes the case has not been made as to why bombing would be the solution to the alleged use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government.

“Dropping bombs is a bad way of getting involved. Dropping bombs is always bad because you kill people,” Levine said in an interview with The Sun. Furthermore, he said a peaceful solution is the correct way to handle the situation.

“If people are willing to give up chemical weapons, that’s a good thing,” Levine said.

Christopher Church said he does not think that it is the U.S.’s role to police the world.

“We really should stay away from foreign entanglements and be wary of the military-industrial complex,” he said.

Many of the protesters said they believe their protest will help spread their antiwar message.

“In Ithaca, we’re pretty hip, so some of it is just preaching to the choir. Still, if we get any publicity whatsoever, we’ll gain attention for the whole thing,” Church said.

NICK ALLEN President, Chi Gamma Epsilon at Dartmouth The liquid is suspected to be paint thinner, but Allen said fraternity members are unsure. The fraternity is not involved with the ongoing investigation.

There was no major damage as a result of the fire, and only some makeshift furniture in the basement was damaged.

The fraternity plans to be more careful about keeping their house secure.

“ We ’ r e just going to be more vigilant, change the door code, make sure DARTMOUTH windows are locked and just always keep an eye out,” Allen said.

This is the third suspected arson at the fraternity’s house in the past 14 years.

In November 2008, an unidentified perpetrator lit an empty Keystone Light box soaked in lighter fluid underneath a pong table in the basement, resulting in minimal damage. While police told The Dartmouth at the time that the fire was purposely started, no suspects or arrests were announced.

In December 1999, four members of Phi Delta Alpha fraternity broke into Chi Gam’s house, used citronella oil to ignite a table and curtains, and caused damage to the basement. Phi Delt took no internal actions against the members responsible, which contributed to its derecognition the following March.

Chi Gam has four evacuation fire drills each academic year, which is on par with most student housing, according to the College’s 2012 Annual Security and Fire Safety Report.

In an email to the College, Safety and Security Director Harry Kinne said that anyone with information should contact Hanover Police Captain Frank Moran.

Kinne and Moran could not be reached for comment by press time.

ZONIA MOORE / THE DARTMOUTH

In a suspected arson, cardboard boxes soaked in a flammable liquid caught fire in the Chi Gamma Epsilon fraternity house on Friday.

IF YOU MISSED IT SCORES

SOCCER Liverpool 2 Swansea 2

NFL Seattle 29 San Francisco 3

SPORTS QUICK HITS

CRAIG BESLOW ’02 FORMER ELI NOMINATED FOR ROBERTO CLEMENTE AWARD The former Yale captain and current Boston Red Sox left-hander is one of 30 finalists for the award, which is given to the MLB player who best represents the sport through sportsmanship and community engagement.

NFL Oakland 19 Jacksonville 9

y

NFL Denver 41 NY Giants 23

NFL Arizona 25 Detroit 21

FOR MORE SPORTS CONTENT, VISIT OUR WEB SITE yaledailynews.com/sports

MELISSA GAVIN ’15 ELI NAMED TO IVY HONOR ROLL A week after earning Ivy League Player of the Week honors for her six points in games against Stony Brook and UMassLowell, the Yale forward was again recognized after scoring two goals in the Elis’ 4–3 overtime win over Towson on Sunday.

“No matter what team we’re playing…we’ll battle until the game is over.”

KENDALL POLAN ’14 CAPTAIN, VOLLEYBALL YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2013 · yaledailynews.com

Yale falls to Harvard in 100th meeting CROSS COUNTRY

BY ALEX EPPLER STAFF REPORTER The storied athletic rivalry between Yale and Harvard gained another milestone this weekend, as the Yale men’s cross country runners faced their Crimson opponents for the 100th time at the annual Yale-Harvard duel meet.

CROSS COUNTRY

ANNA-SOPHIE HARLING/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

Liana Epstein ‘14 set the pace for Yale against Harvard, cruising to a second-place finish overall in 17:57.

In the meet, which also marked the opening race of the season for both the men’s and women’s cross country teams, neither squad proved able of rising to the occasion before them.

The women’s team kept the event close, falling 39–20 to Harvard, while the Crimson men swept the top five positions to dominate the Elis by a score of 42-15.

“We were frustrated with our performance against Harvard because we knew it did not reflect our preparation,” team captain Ryan Laemel ’14 said.

“We left Franklin Park with a pit in our stomachs, a feeling we will recall and use as motivation when we race Harvard in the future. However, it is early in the season, and we have a lot of work left to do.”

The women’s team put forth a game effort in the five-kilometer course. The meet was held in Boston’s Franklin Park for the first time since 2011. The route is relatively flat, although runners can often struggle on a slope midway through the race called

the “Bear Cage Hill.”

But the hill did not seem to slow down Liana Epstein ’14.

The Eli set the pace for Yale at the season-opening meet, cruising to a second-place finish overall in 17:57. She just missed the overall title by a second, beaten to the line by the Crimson’s Viviana Hanley.

I was happy with my race overall, but there is always room for improvement.

LIANA EPSTEIN ’14 “I was happy with my race overall, but there is always room for improvement,” Epstein said.

“It’s important to analyze each performance to identify your strengths and weaknesses so that you can become a better competitor moving forward.”

While Epstein’s finish marked the only Yale top-five finish for either the men or the women, a number of other Eli competitors impressed on the women’s side.

Freshman standout Chandler Olson ’17 finished second for the Elis and sixth overall in 18:20.

Rounding out Yale’s top five were veterans Millie Chapman ’14, Kira Garry ’15 and Hannah Alpert ’15, who finished ninth, 10th and 13th, respectively.

“Putting your uniform on for the first time for the year is always a bit scary. You for-

get what it is like to race, what it is like to toe the line and push yourself that much,” Chapman said. “There was no time to question our training, or see where we were at. We had to just go out there with confidence and run as hard as we could.”

The men’s race did not turn out any better for Eli fans. Unable to muster a single top-five finish, the squad was swept by its archrival.

But the leading Bulldog finishers provided fodder for future hope. Alex Connor ’17 crossed the line of the eight-kilometer course in 25:01, good for sixth place overall. Fellow freshman James Randon ’17 and junior John McGowan ’15 placed directly behind Connor in seventh and eighth overall, respectively, while Isa Qasim ’15 and Andre Ivankovic ’17 filled the remaining spots in Yale’s top five.

“Racing our rival, Harvard, makes for an exciting, highpressure first competition,” Laemel said. “Because we value our sport’s history, we take YaleHarvard as seriously as a postseason race.”

Bulldog fans must hope that when the actual postseason rolls around, the squad will be ready to prevail in its now century-old rivalry.

The Bulldogs will next compete at the Iona Meet of Champions at the Bronx’s Van Cortlandt Park on Sept. 21.

Contact ALEX EPPLER at alexander.eppler@yale.edu .

Polan ’14 leads Bulldogs to new heights

BY CAROLINE WRAY CONTRIBUTING REPORTER “Core.” This is the first word that comes to mind for libero Tori Shepherd ’17 when describing her volleyball teammate, captain Kendall Polan ’14.

VOLLEYBALL “She puts in more time than is required … everybody trusts her,” Shepherd said. “She does a really good job of connecting the team in the middle of every play.”

As the starting setter for the past four years, Polan has been at the core of the Bulldogs’ success in each of the past three seasons, all of which culminated in Ivy League titles.

Polan’s individual talent has been recognized across the conference since her first year at Yale. As a freshman, she was named the Ivy League Rookie of the year, and she followed that performance with Ivy League Player of the Year awards her sophomore and junior seasons.

Last year, Polan played in all 84 sets of the regular season and averaged a team-leading 7.43 assists per set. In addition to her dominant performance as a setter, Polan excelled across the court last year with 313 digs and 186 kills, placing her third on the team in both categories.

Despite her shining record, Polan avoids talking about her personal accolades. She glows, however, when discussing her team.

“I’ve always had really good passers and really good hitters,” she said, “so they make

me look good. Honestly, anyone on our team could have gotten [Ivy League Player of the Year]. I don’t necessarily think I deserved it both years. We have so many, so many strong players, and I wouldn’t have been surprised if anyone on our team had gotten it.”

In spite of her many honors, Polan believes she still has a lot of room for improvement Her teammates are quick to praise her humble nature.

“Kendall’s just really enthusiastic and funny and nice,” middle blocker Claire Feeley ’17 said.

“There are a lot of captains you can encounter in volleyball who … are overly authoritative and bossy, but Kendall acts like a fellow teammate who happens to be a little more knowledgeable.”

Shepherd added that she is impressed by Polan’s quiet confidence and the way that she fosters “family-style relationships” among her teammates.

Having led Yale to three titles thus far, Polan’s primary goal is to seize one more before graduating.

“We’re capable of winning; We just have to set our minds to it,” she said.

Last season, the Elis defeated Dartmouth in the final match of the Ivy League season to complete a perfect 14–0 league campaign, only the second team to do so since the Ancient Eight switched to a 14-game schedule in 2001.

Polan said that achievement was her most prized accomplishment on the volleyball court. “[Going undefeated] wasn’t

easy, and we all put a lot of hard work in,” she said. “It felt really good to come out on top like that.”

As captain this year, Polan has already rallied the team in moments of crisis.

After losing the first set 25–23 against more highly ranked Missouri on Sept. 6, she gathered the team together during a time out.

by game, and to overcome a height disadvantage that has already frustrated the team against taller Missouri and Stanford, the only two teams to best the Bulldogs thus far.

To make up for this disadvantage, “We fight,” she said.

“We don’t give up. No matter what team we’re playing, we’ll put our hearts and heads into it, and we’ll battle until the game is

over.”

Polan hopes not to retire after graduation but continue her volleyball career at a professional level overseas.

“Nothing is set in stone, but I’m interested,” she said. “It would just be an opportunity to travel, and if I could get paid to play volleyball, that would be an opportunity I couldn’t refuse.”

Alternatively, “Beach vol-

leyball’s really big in the NCAA right now, too, so it would be cool to go play for a year and go to grad school somewhere.”

Polan and the Bulldogs return to the court on Friday against Eastern Kentucky at the Penn State Tournament.

Contact CAROLINE WRAY at caroline.wray@yale.edu .

She does a really good job of connecting the team in the middle of every play.

TORI SHEPHERD ’17 Libero, volleyball “Essentially we had to get angry to do well,” Feeley said. “A lot of volleyball is fueled through emotion, so she gave a speech that really encouraged us to keep fighting,” Although the Bulldogs ultimately fell to the Tigers, 3–1, they dominated the next set in a 25-15 win.

S h e p h e rd re m e m b e re d another moment, after a disappointing loss to No. 8 Stanford at the Service Academy Challenge last weekend. “ O bv i o u s l y, we we re bummed, but Kendall said that she was so proud to be a part of our team because when we give our best and we play well, it’s fun to be a part of, despite the ultimate outcome,” Shepherd said.

Polan’s primary goal is to move through the season game

MARISA LOWE/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

Captain Kendall Polan ’14 is looking to lead the Bulldogs to their fourth straight Ivy League title this season.

TOP ’DOG PETER JACOBSON ’14

THE MEN’S SOCCER SENIOR FORWARD WAS NAMED THE IVY LEAGUE PLAYER OF THE WEEK ON MONDAY. He recorded a hat trick last Tuesday against the Sacred Heart Pioneers.