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, JANUARY 21, 2014 · VOL. CXXXVI, NO. 70 · yaledailynews.com
INSIDE THE NEWS MORNING EVENING
SNOWY SNOW
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CROSS CAMPUS
ALTRUISM STUDY PROBES BENEVOLENCE
OLYMPIADS
CRIME
First annual science olympiad competition held at Yale
HILLHOUSE HIGH SHOOTER ARRESTED BY NHPD
PAGES 10-11 SCITECH
PAGE 3 SCITECH
PAGE 3 CITY
Min. wage law impacts NH
BY MATTHEW LLOYD-THOMAS AND WESLEY YIIN STAFF REPORTERS
Brooks just picked his students for the GLBL 345 “Humility” course and said in an email to accepted applicants: “It violates the spirit of the course to say, Congratulations, but I can say I’m excited about this group and what lies ahead.” Successful applicants include one Rhodes scholar, one former YCC president and other members of the campus’ most “humble.” “Congratulations.” And I can’t change, even if I tried, even if I wanted to.
Long Wharf Theater is a play called “The Consultant” about a young consultant at the firm Sutton, Feingold and McGrath. The production takes an “intimate look at how money and work shape the human heart.”
Cujo? According to NBC
Connecticut, two graduate students were attacked this weekend by an injured dog they had tried to help. The dog had been struck by a car near campus on Saturday afternoon. Students were left with minor injuries.
‘Kingdom of ice-olation’
could describe Arendelle as well as Yale in the winter. A recent post by the Yale Alumni Magazine pointed out that the Oscar contender “Let It Go” from Disney’s Frozen was written by a Yalie, Robert Lopez ’97, and his wife. Fitting, as “cold never bothered me anyway” was probably his mantra as a Yale student. Science vs. Magic: Round Infinite. The proportion of
Americans who do not believe in global warming has risen to 23 percent in the past year, according to researchers at the Yale Project on Climate Change Communications. If Al Gore were dead, he would be rolling over in his grave.
THIS DAY IN YALE HISTORY
1879 Students begin a laundry room prank war involving raiding and messing up each other’s locker contents. The crew team is close to threatening physical violence against perpetrators. Submit tips to Cross Campus
ONLINE y MORE goydn.com/xcampus
PAGE 5 CITY
QUESTIONS OVER INSURANCE COVERAGE PLAY CENTRAL ROLE
Twenty-Four Most Humble Students on Campus. David
Does a consultant have a soul? Currently showing at the
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service brings students to community
Accounts clash in SigEp suit
A splash of orange. Davenport held their annual Sean Fenton ’04 Memorial Orange Juice Festival this Sunday. Students enjoyed fresh-squeezed orange juice and brunch as part of the annual event commemorating Fenton, a Florida native who died in a car accident with three other students in 2003. As a Yale student, Fenton had ordered a crate of his favorite oranges from Florida to be shipped to campus for friends to enjoy.
Brooks also asked students to sign up for office hours ahead of time: “I will say that the highest demand for attendance last year was during the Macklemore concert. I don’t judge; I only observe.”
SERVICE
J.R. REED/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
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n June 2013, Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy signed into law one of the nation’s highest minimum wages, increasing the state’s wage floor from $8.25 per hour to $9.00 by Jan. 1, 2015. This three-part series looks at the impact this law will have on workers, local businesses and politicians. SEBASTIAN MEDINA-TAYAC, ISAAC STANLEYBECKER and J.R. REED report.
Free speech examined
A week after details surrounding lawsuits against 86 Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity members revolving around the 2011 Harvard-Yale tailgate crash emerged, the national fraternity has declared that it is in the process of procuring insurance coverage for the defendants. Conflicting accounts of events over the two-year timeline have surfaced, with the national SigEp organization maintaining that it began making efforts to secure coverage for its fraternity members immediately following the accident in 2011. However, the plaintiffs’ lawyers claim that the national fraternity disavowed responsibility — by way of its insurance policy — for the injury of Sarah Short SOM ’13 and death of Nancy Barry at the tailgate, leading the plaintiffs to file suit against the 86 individual members, in addition to the national organization. Central to the differing accounts of events around the multiple lawsuits is the question of whether the national fraternity’s insurance policy will cover the actions of the local chapter and its members. “The [insurance] policy clearly states that chapter members and the chapter are covered in the policy,” Brian Warren, national Sigma Phi Epsilon chief executive officer, told the News Monday. Warren echoed a Thursday press release from SigEp, asserting that the national fraternity will work to provide insurance SEE SIGEP LAWSUIT PAGE 6
Ivies face deficits WITHERING IVY BUDGET DEFICITS IN THE IVY LEAGUE
REPORT FINDS YALE HAS “RELATIVELY HIGH” LEVEL OF FREE SPEECH BY MATTHEW LLOYD-THOMAS STAFF REPORTER According to a recent national report, Yale’s student body enjoys a relatively high level of free speech — though the issue is complicated by vague wording in University policies. In its annual report this month, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), an organization dedicated to defending freedom of speech on college campuses, suggested that the University generally encourages free speech but nevertheless maintains some policies that could be used to infringe upon students’ freedom of expression. However, the University compares favorably with many of its peers, as Harvard and Columbia — along with 59 percent of the 427 surveyed campuses — were found to have policies that seem to substantially violate freedom of speech on campus. “While we think Yale could do better, and we would love to work with students to work for greater free speech rights on campus, they are ahead of the curve already,” said FIRE Director of Policy Research Samantha Harris. The FIRE report comes at the heels of recent controversy surrounding the administration’s blocking of Yale Bluebook+, a student-generated course catalogue that used University material to rank courses by numerical ratings and was shut down
due to administrators’ concerns about improper usage of licensed material. Harris said FIRE has been closely following the developments around the issue. University spokesman Tom Conroy, in a statement to the News, rebuffed the report’s suggestion that the University places any impositions on free speech or expression, saying that he “would disagree with any critique of Yale that claimed the University had anything but the fullest protection of free speech.” University Vice President and General Counsel Dorothy Robinson echoed a similar sentiment, describing Yale’s respect for free expression as “deep-seated and robust.” The methodology of the FIRE report is based on publicly available written policy, Harris said. In the case of Yale, the organization relied heavily upon information contained in the Yale Undergraduate Regulations. After reviewing its regulations, FIRE gave Yale a “yellow light” ranking out of a possible red, yellow or green. Harris said the “yellow light” rating results from several University regulations that either constitute a restriction of free speech or could be applied to restrict speech by way of their vagueness. Specifically, Harris pointed to the general conduct and discipline portion of the Yale College Undergraduate Regulations, SEE FREE SPEECH PAGE 6
Yale Harvard $39.2m $33.7m
Cornell
$31.0m The others
Columbia
$1.8m BY ADRIAN RODRIGUES STAFF REPORTER Faced with increasing financial pressure, half of the Ivy League was in the red last year. Yale University, Harvard University, Dartmouth College and Cornell University all posted budget deficits for the fiscal year that ended Jun. 30. Yale had the highest gap between revenue and operating costs at $39.2 million, compared to Harvard’s $33.7 million deficit, Cornell’s $31 million and Dartmouth’s $1.8 million. According to financial experts interviewed, some of the world’s wealthiest universities faced budgetary gaps during fiscal 2013 because of rising operating costs, cuts to federal
research funding and ambitious financial aid programs. “I don’t think we’re about to see the clouds part — I think a lot of these issues are structural,” said David Strauss, a principal at Art and Science Group LLC, a firm that advises colleges and nonprofits. “Are there going to be some tight times? I don’t think that’s a one year phenomenon, I think it’s a multi-year phenomenon.” Eighty percent of colleges ran deficits last year, according to Richard Hesel, another principal at Art and Science Group LLC. Though schools are faring better than they did in the immediate aftermath of the 2008-’09 financial crisis, many are still struggling to cover costs.
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After the financial downturn reduced the size of the Yale endowment by 25 percent, the University faced a projected $350 million deficit in 2009. Since then, Yale has worked to reduce the deficit and has covered the gap each year using reserve funds. But a deficit of $39.2 million still remained in fiscal 2013. Harvard’s deficit grew from $7.9 million in fiscal 2012 to nearly $34 million in fiscal 2013. Even some schools that posted budget surpluses for fiscal 2013, such as Brown University, had faced deficits for the year before they closed the gap with reserve funds. According to Bloomberg SEE BUDGET DEFICIT PAGE 6