Today's Paper

NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT · WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015 · VOL. CXXXVII, NO. 76 · yaledailynews.com

CROSS CAMPUS To (their) editor. In response

to a New York Times piece published by columnist Charles Blow, father of Tahj Blow ’16, several readers penned letters to the newspaper’s editor to express their reactions. The Times ran four of them yesterday, revealing a spectrum of thought on issues ranging from police accountability to unconscious human psychology.

Say it again? Needless to

say, much of the Elm City shuttered its doors during yesterday’s blizzard, despite its underwhelming snow totals. Two institutions that did stay up and running, however: Jojo’s Coffee and Tea and Lulu’s Coffee. Funny how things shake out.

Of broad interest. Yale Summer Session will be hosting an informational meeting to discuss the who, what, when, why, how and, most importantly, where for its programs this afternoon in LC 101. If you’re looking to experience Yale away from Yale, we recommend checking it out.

All are “welcome.” On Tuesday

evening, the musical directors and business managers for the Whiffenpoofs and Whim ’n Rhythm emailed the entire junior class soliciting interest for Yale’s most elite singing groups. “You do not need to have any prior experience singing … to audition,” the message read. Yeah, okay.

Make it work. Why should the finance and consulting people have all the fun this month? Tonight, in the CEID, OCS is teaming up with the School of Engineering to host the Engineering Student Networking Night, which will be geared toward advising young engineers on how to properly design their careers.

Oh, what fun. In a story involving two vehicles of varying engineering complexity, a Plainfield, Connecticut, man was arrested yesterday for driving his Dodge Ram pickup truck through the snow yesterday, dragging a group of children behind him on a sled. That’s certainly one way to spend your snow day.

The News’ favorite. Regular

News food trade partner Tikkaway Grill was profiled in a Hartford Courant article this week that called the (Chipotlestyle) Indian restaurant “Tikkalicious!”

THIS DAY IN YALE HISTORY

1878 The first-ever issue of the News is printed on campus, and Yale is never the same for it. “The innovation which we begin by this morning’s issue is justified by the dullness of the times, and the demand for news among us,” an editor’s note in the paper read. And though the times have grown less dull, our innovation continues, justifiably. It’s been a wild 136. On to 137!

Follow the News on Twitter.

@yaledailynews

ONLINE y MORE goydn.com/xcampus

INSIDE THE NEWS MORNING EVENING

CLOUDY CLOUDY

26 5

Wang ’17 remembered as brilliant, selfless Frantic search “Someone with such a pure love” ends with grave news L U C H A N G WA N G 1 9 9 4 - 2 0 1 5

BY FINNEGAN SCHICK AND VIVIAN WANG STAFF REPORTERS

As news spread of the death of Luchang Wang ’17 Tuesday evening, classmates, friends and mentors remembered a young woman whose intellect was matched only by her compassion, whose care for her academic work ran as deep as her concern for the injustices she observed in the world around her. Wang died in an apparent suicide on Tuesday.

“Luchang was the kind of person that all people are supposed to be,” said Leigh Vila ’17, Wang’s suitemate.

“There was absolute perfection in the way that she loved other people — and showed that she loved them.”

Vila added that Wang was constantly doing “small, beautiful things” to show her suitemates she cared. Wang would often decorate their door handles with tiny toys or pick flowers for them on her runs to East Rock, Vila said.

A mathematics major in Silliman College, Wang distinguished herself through her involvement with the Yale Political Union’s Party of the Left, Yale Effective Altruists and the Yale Record.

Wang, who was 20 years old, attended high school in West Des Moines, Iowa, where she ran crosscountry and won recognition for her academic excellence. In 2010, she led her high school to victory in the Ames Laboratory/Iowa State University Regional High School Science Bowl.

That same year, she tied for 18th place nationwide in the Math Prize for Girls contest and was one of 98 students nationwide to win the prestigious Siemens Award for Advanced Placement. She was also a candidate for the United States Department of Education’s Presidential Scholars program.

Students who knew her at Yale described her as a selfless and giving classmate who cared deeply about doing good for other people.

“Her motivation in life was to make the world a better place,” said Tammy Pham ’15, Wang’s close friend and fellow Effective Altru-

BY STEPHANIE ADDENBROOKE STAFF REPORTER Luchang Wang ’17 died Tuesday in an apparent suicide. Yale College Dean Jonathan Holloway informed the Yale community of the news in a campus-wide email shortly before 6 p.m. Tuesday evening.

Wang was 20 years old.

Wang died in California, according to Holloway’s email. Comments on a public Facebook thread posted on Tuesday by those who knew Wang indicated that she had recently purchased a ticket to San Francisco, Calif. for a flight that was scheduled to land Tuesday morning.

Friends, classmates and family began to search for Wang Tuesday afternoon after a troubling post appeared on her Facebook page at 1:26 p.m. The effort quickly turned into a campus-wide search.

“We are aware and in touch with the appropriate individuals … so that we can give assistance.”

LUCHANG WANG/FACEBOOK

Luchang Wang ’17, a mathematics major in Silliman College, died in an apparent suicide on Tuesday. She was 20 years old. ists member. “It’s sad to see someone with such a pure love go like this.”

From their very first conversation, Wang demonstrated remarkable openness and intimacy, said Caroline Posner ’17, who met Wang through the Party of the Left. She was softspoken and modest, Posner added.

“When she spoke at party debates, it was out of a sense of duty to engage the room, never a desire to hear herself speak, as it often is for many of us,” Posner wrote in an email. “She was so ridiculously grateful for a life that was never easy or fair to her.”

Wang’s sense of civic duty extended beyond Yale’s campus.

She cared deeply about social justice, traveling to New York City and marching in honor of Michael Brown with people she had never met, said Carlee Jensen ’15, who also befriended Wang through the YPU. Jensen added that Wang never hesitated to push her intellectually, challenging her whenever she said something flippant or tried to avoid a serious question.

At 2 p.m., a public Facebook status authored by Tammy Pham ’15 told Yale students in New Haven to search highrise buildings, school buildings and public areas for signs of Wang. Students began to comment, adding locations that they had searched, some even venturing to East Rock to look for their friend.

Silliman College Master Judith Krauss sent an email to the Silliman community shortly after 3 p.m. noting that both she and Silliman Dean Jessie Hill were aware of what she described as a “troubling Facebook message.” Krauss asked students with additional information to contact her directly. The email did not name Wang or

SEE OBITUARY PAGE 4

SEE WANG PAGE 4

YCC, admins discuss financial aid proposals

BY TYLER FOGGATT AND VIVIAN WANG STAFF REPORTERS The Yale College Council has taken the first step toward turning its recommendations for financial aid reform into reality.

[The] YCC report did a nice job laying out ways that Yale can be more transparent in communicating our financial aid policies.

JEREMIAH QUINLAN Dean of Undergraduate Admissions On Jan. 26, YCC president Michael Herbert ’16, vice president Maia Eliscovich Sigal ’16 and YCC representative Tyler Blackmon ’16 met with Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Jeremiah Quinlan and Director of Financial Aid Caesar Storlazzi to discuss the suggestions outlined in the YCC’s January report on financial aid policy. The report — which recommended greater clarity in financial aid award letters and a shortterm freeze on the student effort

JUDITH KRAUSS Master, Silliman College

portion of aid — was the focus of a “productive” and “positive” conversation, Quinlan said.

“I think it was a great starting conversation, and we’re already looking to schedule another meeting for next week,” Quinlan said. “I think the authors of the YCC report did a nice job laying out ways that Yale can be more transparent in communicating our financial aid policies.”

Sigal said that during the hourlong meeting, the administrators focused on the first half of the YCC report, which calls for greater clarity of information about financial aid resources at Yale. According to the report, topics of student complaints have ranged from the dearth of information about outside scholarships to confusing terminology in financial aid policies.

Quinlan said Herbert is currently assembling a YCC working group that will collaborate with administrators to improve the accessibility of the University’s financial aid website, along with creating an online database to help students learn more about outside scholarships and evaluating the current composition financial aid award letters.

The goal of the working group, Herbert said, is to put in place some SEE FINANCIAL AID PAGE 4

Juno shifts east, leaving only a foot

KEN YANAGISAWA/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

Although only about a foot of snow fell in New Haven as a product of superstorm Juno, city officials were prepared to handle as much as 24 to 36 inches.

BY DANIELA BRIGHENTI AND MICHELLE LIU STAFF REPORTERS Although Winter Storm Juno swept through New Haven with far less snow than forecasted, city officials maintained on Tuesday that their precautions were necessary and yielded a successful emergency operation.

The National Weather Service predicted that 24 to 36 inches of snow

PAINTING AWAY ART SCHOOL EXHIBITS THESES

LOVE AND SOLACE

OPEN DATA

The News mourns the loss of Luchang Wang, who died yesterday.

“YODA” MAKES CLINICAL TRIAL DATA ACCESSIBLE

PAGES 11–12 CULTURE

PAGE 2 OPINION

PAGE 3 SCI-TECH

would fall on the Elm City, and both the city and the state undertook preemptive measures in order to prepare for the blizzard. However, only approximately a foot of snow blanketed the city, Deputy Director of Operations at the city’s Emergency Operations Center Rick Fontana said at a noon briefing on Tuesday. TuesSEE SNOW UPDATE PAGE 6

FIND YOUR FRIENDS With Huddlr, an app that helps you locate your friends in dining halls.

PAGE 5 UNIVERSITY

PAGE 2

YALE DAILY NEWS · WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015 · yaledailynews.com

OPINION

.COMMENT “The world is watching you Yale University” yaledailynews.com/opinion

'TIM BOOTH' ON 'TAHJ BLOW '16

FORCED TO GROUND AT GUNPOINT BY YPD'

NEWS’

VIEW You are not alone Yale is blanketed in white, glistening snow, but our campus is in darkness.

We are mourning the loss of Luchang Wang ’17, a mathematics major in Silliman College who took her life yesterday. For those who knew and loved her, the loss cannot be expressed. We, too, struggle to find words that fully capture the death of our classmate.

Wang was an altruist in every sense of the word. As a member of Yale Effective Altruists, she took a broad perspective, considering the problem of global poverty. But she also spent time doing good deeds for those near her, decorating her suitemates’ doorknobs with toys and retrieving flowers for them from East Rock.

She was articulate and open-minded. She cared deeply about racial justice, traveling to New York to join protests condemning the no-indictment after the shooting of an unarmed black teen in Ferguson.

“She saw rich worlds of thought and experience inside every person who crossed her path,” one friend said.

This campus is a smaller place without her.

Tuesday night, Silliman Master Judith Krauss opened her home to the community grappling with the shocking news. Wang’s suitemates and friends — spanning Silliman, the Party of the Left, the Asian American Cultural Center and the Record — joined University President Peter Salovey, Yale College Dean Jonathan Holloway, University Chaplain Sharon Kugler and the masters and deans of several residential colleges to grieve. They wiped their eyes. In murmurs, some asked how this had happened. All struggled to

understand what had gone wrong. Silence prevailed.

There is no pattern to tragedy that cuts this deep.

Yet we cannot help but remark on the sequence of troubling news this campus has faced over the past week: from reports of sexual assault to an armed encounter between a Yale Police officer and a student just trying to leave the library on a Saturday evening.

And then, just shy of 6 p.m. on Tuesday, an email in our inboxes from Holloway: “Very sad news.”

Indeed, shocking news that reminds us that ivied gates, spires and stained glass do not protect us from pain.

Yale is not a place that lends itself to recognitions of vulnerability. We’re fine, we insist, as we balance coursework, extracurriculars, student jobs and social pressures — all without hardship and even without effort.

Yet we know this is not the case. We know there are people here who struggle, sometimes for days and weeks, and sometimes without relief.

If you are struggling, know that you are not alone. As a member of this community, indeed as a fellow human being, you will find empathy. Beyond the phone lines and professional resources — as vital as they are — this is a moment to remember what we owe one another.

When a student takes her life, there are surely questions about mental health and the pressures of life at Yale. These questions are for tomorrow. Today is about Luchang. It’s about finding time in the hustle and bustle to consider what truly matters.

Be of solace and comfort to another person.

YALE DAILY NEWS PUBLISHING CO., INC. 202 York Street, New Haven, CT 06511 (203) 432-2400 Editorial: (203) 432-2418 editor@yaledailynews.com Business: (203) 432-2424 business@yaledailynews.com

EDITOR IN CHIEF Isaac Stanley-Becker

SPORTS Grant Bronsdon Ashton Wackym

MANAGING EDITORS Matthew Lloyd-Thomas Wesley Yiin

WEEKEND Jane Balkoski Andrew Koenig David Whipple

ONLINE EDITOR Marek Ramilo

YTV Michael Leopold Isabel McCullough Steffi Yuli

OPINION Rishabh Bhandari Diana Rosen NEWS Lavinia Borzi Adrian Rodrigues CITY J. R. Reed Pooja Salhotra

MAGAZINE Jennifer Gersten Oliver Preston COPY Eva Landsberg Adam Mahler Isabel Sperry Sarah Sutphin

CULTURE Eric Xiao

PRODUCTION & DESIGN Sammy Bensinger Alex Cruz Olivia Hamel Jilly Horowitz Carter Levin Marisa Lowe Aparna Nathan Amra Saric PHOTOGRAPHY Wa Liu Elena Malloy Alexandra Schmeling Ken Yanagisawa

PUBLISHER Abdullah Hanif DIR. FINANCE Yuanling Yuan DIR. ADVERTISING Gonzalo Gallardo ONL. BUSINESS MANAGER Steven Hee MARKETING & SALES MANAGER Eva Landsberg

PUBLIC RELATIONS MANAGER Misael Cabrera ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE MANAGER Joanna Jin ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE MANAGER Christopher Chute

ILLUSTRATIONS Thao Do WEB DEVELOPMENT Annie Cook Aaron Lewis Christopher Wan

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY Hannah Schwarz

THIS ISSUE COPY STAFF: Zoe Dobuler, Andrew Thavichith PRODUCTION STAFF: Maya Sweedler, Selcen Yuksel PRODUCTION ASSISTANTS: Finnegan Schick EDITORIALS & ADS

The News’ View represents the opinion of the majority of the members of the Yale Daily News Managing Board of 2016. Other content on this page with bylines represents the opinions of those authors and not necessarily those of the Managing Board. Opinions set forth in ads do not necessarily reflect the views of the Managing Board. We reserve the right to refuse any ad for any reason and to delete or change any copy we consider objectionable, false or in poor taste. We do not verify the contents of any ad. The Yale Daily News Publishing Co., Inc. and its officers, employees and agents disclaim any responsibility for all liabilities, injuries or damages arising from any ad. The Yale Daily News Publishing Co. ISSN 0890-2240

NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT

SUBMISSIONS

All letters submitted for publication must include the author’s name, phone number and description of Yale University affiliation. Please limit letters to 250 words and guest columns to 750. The Yale Daily News reserves the right to edit letters and columns before publication. E-mail is the preferred method of submission.

Direct all letters, columns, artwork and inquiries to: Rishabh Bhandari and Diana Rosen Opinion Editors Yale Daily News opinion@yaledailynews.com

COPYRIGHT 2015 — VOL. CXXXVII, NO. 76

THAO DO/ILLUSTRATIONS EDITOR

POINT

O

COUNTER-POINT GUEST COLUMNIST M I CA H J O N E S

GUEST COLUMNIST YUME HOSHIJIMA

Is Yale Ferguson?

Don't jump to conclusions

n Saturday evening, the Yale Police Department came a trigger pull away from seriously injuring, if not outright murdering, a member of the student body. Yale administrators responded by telling students that “What happened on Cross Campus on Saturday is not a replay of what happened in Ferguson; Staten Island; Cleveland; or so many other places…”

Though the email offhandedly dismissed the notion, it is a question worth exploring: Is Yale Ferguson?

In terms of police procedure, what happened to Tahj Blow '16 is similarly egregious to the proceedings in Ferguson. None of the reports available to the public so far have indicated that the thief was armed or dangerous.

Thus, that the officer chose to begin the encounter by pointing his gun at Tahj has disturbing implications.

By drawing his weapon, the officer indicated that he considered Tahj’s death to be a viable solution to the problem of the alleged thefts. What we now know is that not only was the young man before him unarmed, but he was also uninvolved in the thefts. Yet the officer’s actions in this case did not grant either of these possibilities. If either Tahj or the officer had panicked, the outcome of this incident could have been very different. It could have been very similar to Ferguson indeed.

For many students, this incident is not a reassuring sign of the professionalism of the YPD, as University President Peter Salovey and other Yale officials indicated in the email. Rather it is one more in a string of frightening reminders of our vulnerability as people of color. That this incident occurred in what is our home for four years violates our sense of security in what should be a safe space.

The University's official responses to the incident have done little to ease our fears. In them, the administration seems less concerned with investigating why the officer’s first instinct was to pull his gun, and more concerned with minimizing the significance of the event. This raises the question: Must we wait until a student has been shot for our anger and criticism of policing on this campus to be justified?

For instance, why did administrators feel the need to emphasize that the officer was black?

Stressing the officer’s race narrows the discussion of racism to questions of interpersonal bigotry. It obscures a larger narrative of systemic racism, in which

black and white officers are equally capable of participating.

Tahj’s experience is representative of the increasing militarization of the police. This phenomenon often refers to the availability of military grade weapons to law enforcement.

However, it also refers to the way that police departments have come to view the communities they police as battle zones full of enemy combatants.

It is no accident that these communities are often poor, urban and filled with black and brown people, just as the average New Haven resident is blacker, browner and less wealthy than the average Yale student. The primary narrative of the relationship between the University and the city is one in which the city’s residents are predators and Yale students their helpless prey. The burglaries in Trumbull clearly evoke that narrative. A New Haven native was piercing the carefully patrolled Yale bubble in order to engage in an unlawful activity that violated students’ property. The actions and attitudes of the YPD reflect that they consider it their sole responsibility to thwart these violations.

Most Yale students can depend on the color of their skin to signal the legitimacy of their place within the bubble. White or white-passing individuals on campus are assumed to be Yale students until proven otherwise. Black Yalies are perceived and treated as New Haven residents until proven otherwise.

When that police officer drew his gun on Tahj, he did not see Tahj as a Yale student. He saw him as a part of the dangerous community from which the YPD strive to protect Yale students.

To return to the question posed by the email: Is Yale Ferguson? No, Yale is not Ferguson.

In this analogy, the broader city of New Haven is Ferguson. It is a majority black and brown urban space that is policed in order to protect the interests of a majority white elite. The YPD acted like Darren Wilson. They were all too ready to use violence against an individual whom they perceived to be outside of the Yale bubble.

Had Tahj not been a student and the son of a New York Times columnist, would the University still have seen this moment as an opportunity to “reflect, learn, and grow?” Would we even be talking about how the University’s policies impact people of color on and off campus? Would we even know that it happened?

MICAH JONES is a junior in Timothy Dwight College. Contact her at micah.jones@yale.edu .

M

embers of the Yale community are rightfully concerned about the treatment of Tahj Blow ’16, a black male student forced to the ground at gunpoint by a Yale Police officer. Many commentators, including Charles Blow – Tahj Blow’s father and a columnist for the New York Times who often writes about race relations in America — believe that this incident is part of a larger trend of police brutality against blacks. However, allegations of excessive force and racial bias in Tahj Blow’s case are premature.

If the YPD officer had simply asked Blow for his identification card, the incident would have been completely lawful. The student was on private property, YPD officers were investigating a felony in progress and Blow “closely matched the physical description” of the suspect, according to a Monday email signed

by University President Peter Salovey, Yale College Dean Jonathan Holloway and YPD Chief Ronnell Higgins. However, the YPD officer did not simply stop Blow for questioning. Rather, he restrained Blow with the threat of lethal force. These facts raise the question of whether the circumstances justified the threat of lethal force.

Police officers in the United States are trained to follow procedures relating to the use and escalation of coercive force. These policies vary from department to department, but according to the National Institute of Justice, officers in most law enforcement agencies should only use lethal force or the threat thereof in situations where "a suspect poses a serious threat to the officer or another individual." At the very least, officers should probably follow the dictum, "don't point a gun at anything you do not want to shoot." From what little we know about Blow’s case, the YPD officer’s actions appear to violate both proper police procedure and common-sense gun handling practices.

From preliminary accounts published by Blow's father in a Times column on Monday and a Sunday story in the News, Saturday’s events appear to be clear-cut: This was yet another case of excessive police force against a young black man. However, on Monday, Salovey, Holloway and Higgins announced that an internal investigation into the incident would begin. Until the results of this ongoing investigation are published or firsthand accounts

by witnesses or the police officer in question emerge, the Yale community should not jump to conclusions. There is a shortage of information for observers to make well-reasoned judgments about Blow’s detainment, and attempts to jump to conclusions about the YPD officer’s actions are indefensible.

The use of force is always highly dependent on context.

We don't know what was going through the officer's head or what he thought he saw when he decided to pull out a firearm.

Allegations of racial bias are even more premature. Racial bias in police departments is difficult to prove with individual events. Rather, bias is best proved by a clear and persistent pattern of differential treatment between racial groups.

In Blow’s case, it is unclear whether race played a part in the officer’s use of force. There is no evidence — at least not public — that suggests the YPD has a history of racially motivated policing. In fact, the YPD is a relatively diverse and well-trained police department.

The discourse surrounding Blow’s detention highlights a larger problem in the contemporary civil rights movement. Advocates rely too often on individual cases to demonstrate racially motivated police discrimination. But individual cases — even those as wellpublicized as the deaths of Eric Garner or Michael Brown — are murky and uncertain, ultimately failing to prove the extent of racism in police forces.

Instead, advocates should rely on data-driven approaches to prove racially motivated policing, which likely do exist. Analysis grounded in numbers can reveal patterns with a degree of certainty not mired in the "what ifs" associated with individual cases.

I understand the frustrations of those who believe the police officer's seemingly disproportionate use of force arose from racism. Yet it's too easy to assume without question that Blow's case is a manifestation of widespread police discrimination, and dismiss skeptical observers as apologists for institutionalized racism. Instead of lambasting the YPD without hearing the officer's account, I challenge Yalies to both exercise restrain and accept — for now at least — the uncertainty that surrounds Saturday's events.

YUME HOSHIJIMA is a senior in Berkeley College. Contact him at yumehiko.hoshijima@yale.edu .

YALE DAILY NEWS · WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE 3

NEWS

“O, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive!” WALTER SCOTT SCOTTISH POET

B R I E F LY

After Blow ’16 detained at gunpoint, YPD to conduct internal investigation Two days after a Yale Police officer forced Tahj Blow ’16, an AfricanAmerican student, to the ground at gunpoint — sparking allegations of racial profiling — senior University officials announced that the YPD will conduct an internal investigation into the incident.

While recognizing the “personal pain” many may have felt upon reading about Saturday’s events, the announcement — sent on behalf of University President Peter Salovey, Yale College Dean Jonathan Holloway and Yale Police Department Chief Ronnell Higgins — argued that it differed in substance from other incidents that have drawn national attention.

“What happened on Cross Campus on Saturday is not a replay of what happened in Ferguson; Staten Island; Cleveland; or so many other places in our time and over time in the United States,” said the email.

The email, which did not name Blow, went on to note that the officer who had drawn his weapon is himself African-American.—Stephanie Addenbrooke

Changes to TF policies bring wage decreases for some In an attempt to streamline its TF allocation policy, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences is simplifying TF titles and modifying their compensation schemes. Instead of the former system — which included over 100 different types of teaching positions — student appointments will “most likely” fall into one of four categories: grader, discussion section leader, lab section leader or PTAI, Director of the Teaching Fellow Program Judith Hackman announced in a Thursday email to graduate and professional students.

Previously, teaching fellows’ time commitments were evaluated and paid in increments of five hours. Now, the time commitments will be divided in just two categories: six to 10 hours or 15 to 20 hours each week. While this simplification will not affect all graduate students, they will result in pay cuts for some students.—Emma Platoff

Against the odds, Yale improves access to data

BY AMAKA UCHEGBU STAFF REPORTER The Yale University Open Data Access Project made clinical trial data for medical devices and diagnostics publicly available for the first time on Jan. 14.

YODA’s partnership with pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson, which began with an agreement to share pharmaceutical trial data on Jan. 6, will allow medical researchers to access the company’s clinical trial results for medical devices and diagnostics, providing those researchers with troves of medical data they had not been able to access until now. YODA, acting as an independent intermediary, will review proposals from investigators to view anonymous patient data and grant or deny access.

Although this new step is meant to address the fact that only around a third of experiments involving human subjects are openly published, it faced significant opposition during its development.

“People told us no one would ever want to work with us,” said Director of the Center for Outcomes Research & Evaluation at Yale-New Haven Hospital Harlan Krumholz ’80, who directs YODA. “Now we have Johnson & Johnson.”

The YODA team was developed out of a concern for what they viewed to be a prevailing culture of exclusivity among medical industry researchers.

Joseph Ross MED ’06 professor of medicine and public health and YODA co-principal investigator, said there is an expectation that when researchers conduct a trial, the results belong to them and not the public.

Both researchers said they first got directly involved in YODA after reviewing data for the Vioxx case, a suit bringing charges against Merck & Company for distributing a painkiller that was found to be harmful.

Krumholz said that as he analyzed the data for the Vioxx case, he noticed that the risks associated with the product could have been identified sooner if unbiased investigators had been able to review Merck’s data without depending on the company for access.

“I learned about how a lot of science is openly conducted but not shared. In many cases, it gets buried,” Krumholz said, adding that people at Merck knew Vioxx was harmful before it was taken off the market, but were able to withhold that information due to the opaque nature of medical industry research.

Nihar Desai, assistant professor of cardiology and member of YODA leadership, said concerns about the efficacy and safety of drugs and devices can only be understood if relevant data are made public.

But Ross said that despite the clear advantages of transparent clinical data, opposition to the YODA project came from many angles. He noted that regula-

tors, clinical trialists and pharmaceutical companies have not always been supportive of their mission.

According to Krumholz, those who were more hesitant were academic researchers, who have incentives to keep the data they uncover private. In a study of National Institute of Health funded trials, Krumholz saw that investigators are not even required to share their findings with the NIH if they are not published.

While a junior faculty member, Krumholz approached a number of investigators who owned data he wanted to work with. He either got no response or a resounding “No.” “The culture is that it’s rude to ask,” Krumholz said.

Desai agreed that it must be frustrating to know that the data one needs to answer a question exists but is unavailable. He noted that overcoming the prevailing culture of secrecy has been one of the most significant hurdles in forming YODA. Desai noted that the YODA project has focused on striking the right balance between keeping science transparent and being respectful of the diligence required by investigators to design and execute large clinical trials.

Ross emphasized that sharing company data will improve future science research. Only around a third of research on human subjects is published — the other two thirds, he said, are

not being used to inform science.

Publishing negative results is as important as publishing positive ones, as it prevents other researchers from duplicating studies that have already been conducted, he said.

For Desai, the service YODA does for patients who participate in trials is especially important. Patients take part in trials despite the risks because they want to help future patients, he said. Making trial data publicly available does justice to them — they have a right to know the outcome of a study in which they participated, he said.

“These patients are doing society’s work by participating [in clinical trials],” he said. “We should celebrate the sacrifices that patients make.”

Currently, the YODA project only discloses results to investigators, but Desai said that it would be good if, eventually, a mechanism was created for patients to also be able to see such data.

While the current landscape of “territoriality in medicine” has made the YODA project an uphill battle, Desai said it is important to remember that scientific research is a public good.

Currently, there are 90 clinical trials listed for request on the YODA Project website, based on collaborations with Medtronic and Janssen, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson.

Contact AMAKA UCHEGBU at amaka.uchegbu@yale.edu .

University’s online presence to see facelift

BY LARRY MILSTEIN AND VICTOR WANG STAFF REPORTERS

JULIA HENRY/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences has made plans to streamline its TF allocation policy through modifications to compensation schemes.

Malloy highlights transportation improvements in New Haven Gov. Dannel Malloy visited New Haven last week to outline his transportation plans for both the city and the state.

In Malloy’s inaugural address on Jan. 7, the governor highlighted the importance of transportation for economic development across the state. Since that address, Malloy has toured the state, introducing small parts of his plan at different cities along the way. While the full extent of the plan has not been unveiled, Malloy and his administration have pegged the timetable to complete this transportation revitalization plan at 30 years or longer.

In New Haven, specifically, the governor stressed promoting bicyclist and pedestrian safety as key in helping improve transportation across the city — a priority that echoes current goals being pursued by Mayor Toni Harp and her administration. He held his press conference at the intersection of Route 34 and Orange Street, a critical bike lane in the region.—Daniela Brighenti

Grad students assess housing plans With significant changes coming to graduate housing, many students are discussing the kinds of spaces that should be available for graduate students, on- and off-campus.

The need for collaborative and social spaces has been the primary concern of graduate students since Provost Benjamin Polak announced the potential transformation of the Hall of Graduate Studies from a housing facility to a center for the humanities, composed of office and classroom spaces, on Jan. 15. Speaking through organizations like the Graduate Student Assembly, the Graduate and Professional Student Senate and a housing committee, students have expressed their desire to have a center for student life that serves the same function as HGS. “The major concern graduate students face as a result of the new HGS renovation announcement is graduate student life and community,” said GSA Chair Joori Park GRD ’17. “HGS isn’t just a building with department offices and rooms for graduate students to sleep. It is the place where graduate students build a community.”

To address these concerns, the University has promised to build such a space — though no concrete plans have been presented yet, GPSS President Gregg Castellucci GRD ’17 said.—Finnegan Schick

r e c y c l e y o u r y d n d a i l y r e c y c l e y o u r y d n d a i l y r e c y c l e y o u r y d n d a i l y r e c y c l e y o u r y d n d a i l y

Come September 2015, visitors to Yale’s official web page will be greeted by a revamped site.

In an announcement earlier this month, Yale Information and Technology Services unveiled a series of efforts aimed to modernize and improve its web functions across all University platforms. The changes include a massive migration of all yale.edu websites to an updated server and a complete redesign of the University’s main website, which is slated for completion in September 2015. Still, faculty and site owners interviewed said they were largely unaware of the initiatives and felt their input had not been taken into account in implementing the new changes.

“The technologies that support Yale’s online environments, especially websites and search technologies, had grown organically over the years, and maintenance and planning for these environments had largely been deferred,” Associate CIO for Campus Community Technologies Jane Livingston said in an email. “These changes are what you are now seeing come to fruition.”

She added that, in 2012, faculty, students and staff expressed concerns about the modernity of available tools and services. As a result, ITS put together a working group to recommend a series of changes that are currently being implemented.

Most visibly, Yale’s homepage is in the process of becoming redesigned in a joint effort with the Office of Public Affairs and Communications and a third party vendor.

Chief Communications Officer and Special Assistant to the President Elizabeth Stauderman ’83 LAW ’04 said the University will not know about specific design components of the new yale.edu until the University completes the “information architecture phase of the project,” which entails organizing and labeling websites. However, she said the committee, which is overseeing the website overhaul, recently completed the initial step of reviewing and approving the creative brief presented by the website design firm.

“Yale.edu is the University’s most prominent institutional website, so it is high priority,” University Spokesperson Tom Conroy said in an email. “Yale is looking forward to receiving preliminary information architecture recommendations from the firm shortly, but it’s too soon

to point to specific design or content direction yet.”

He added that the firm has done focus groups with current students and alumni in addition to meeting with faculty and administrators.

In addition to the homepage, University administrators also announced plans to revamp other major administrative sites.

“We are currently investigating the possibility of replacing the existing web sites for [Finance & Business Operations] and [Human Resources],” Livingston said. “If we decide to go forward with that plan, we will create a single ‘University services’ site where all Yale community members can go to find services such as: how to pay a bill, buy something, change your beneficiaries, etc.”

Finally, the announcement detailed that all sites beginning with yale.edu are being reviewed and will migrate from the current “static HTML” server to a new web content management platform called Drupal 7.

The move will help modernize and improve Yale’s web presence because the Drupal server is a more powerful management platform.

Livingston said that these websites will be retired over the course of the coming year once all sites have been moved, and ITS is reaching out to affected

web site owners to provide support in helping them choose where to place their site.

Still, two site owners interviewed said they had yet to learn about ITS’s plans for their website migration, while professors and students interviewed were also largely unaware of the larger changes being made to Yale’s online interface. Of the five professors interviewed, three said they were in the dark about the plans and none of the 12 students interviewed had been notified of the project.

Philosophy professor Aaron Norby GRD ’13, who manages his personal academic website, said he has yet to receive contact from the ITS about the changes being made, and that he is unsure about what will happen to his website.

“I’m not sure yet if I’ll need help [to transition], or if my website will just stay up if I do nothing,” he said. He also noted that he would prefer if the revamped system continues to host his customized website.

Computer science professor Holly Rushmeier said she had learned about the ITS project from an email sent by the department that asked for inputs. However, she said she did not have any specific requests for the website revamps, and merely wants a reliable and easy-to-use inter-

face.

Although computer science professor David Gerlernter ’76 knew that changes were being implemented, he said he is unaware of the designs of the new interface. He said he does not think ITS is not interested in incorporating ideas proposed by himself or his colleagues.

“There are loads and loads of things we could tell the University,” he said. “But my experience suggests that the University couldn’t care less.”

He also said the University had previously rejected his user interface design, which would feature live streaming of events on campus, in the late 1990s.

Students interviewed said that they were unaware of the changes, and some saw no pressing need for an overhaul of the system.

“I had no idea about the changes being made to the online servers,” Lucas Janetos ’18 said. “ I personally do not see any need for a major overhaul, everything seems to be functional and pretty user-friendly.”

ITS will host information sessions on campus detailing the site migration process in the coming months.

Contact LARRY MILSTEIN at larry.milstein@yale.edu and VICTOR WANG at v.wang@yale.edu .

YALE UNIVERSITY

Yale Information and Technology Services announced plans to revamp the official page by September, 2015.

PAGE 4

YALE DAILY NEWS · WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015 · yaledailynews.com

FROM THE FRONT Wang ’17 remembered “A brilliant and talented young woman” WANG FROM PAGE 1 the details of the investigation.

“I’m writing to let you know that we are aware and in touch with the appropriate individuals in an attempt to gather more information so that we can give assistance,” Krauss said in the email.

During this time, Yale Police officers went door-to-door in Silliman asking students if they had seen a woman fitting Wang’s description.

At 3:06 p.m., according to Facebook updates, students close to the investigation were informed that she last used her Yale ID to swipe into Silliman two days ago. At 3:17 p.m., the Yale Police Department told the same students that they could stop their searches in New Haven.

Around this time, students discovered that Wang had booked a flight to San Francisco, Calif.

After the YPD closed the search, a collection of students thanked others for their support.

“Thank you to everyone who went out searching today,” Pham wrote on Facebook at

3:56 p.m. “It is at least comforting to know that we can rally such a strong force when the time comes. Crossing fingers, praying, waiting for better news.”

However, in a 5:52 p.m. email, Holloway delivered the “saddening news” of Wang’s death.

“It is my very sad duty to tell you that Luchang Wang, Silliman ’17, is presumed to have died earlier today in California,” Holloway wrote. “The California Highway Patrol has been in touch with the Yale Police and reports no evidence of foul play nor any indication of an accident. It appears that Luchang may have taken her own life.”

Karen Peart, deputy press secretary for the Office of Public Affairs and Communication, said in an email to the News that University administrators were informed by officials in California of the “apparent suicide” of a sophomore female.

The California Highway Patrol and the San Francisco Police Department could not be reached for comment.

The YPD referred requests for comment to the Office of

Public Affairs and Communications.

Later Tuesday evening, students from all residential colleges were invited to Krauss’s house for a gathering, where both Holloway and University President Peter Salovey were present.

In his email, Holloway also informed students that Yale Mental Health and Counseling Services would have professional counselors available at 55 Lock St., the Yale Health Center, until 11 p.m. After that, there would be a counselor on call at 203-432-0123. Holloway also pointed to the Chaplain’s Office in Bingham Hall as a resource for students.

Finally, Holloway pointed to other students and members of the community as a resource for those affected by the news.

“This is a very difficult time for those who knew Luchang, and our thoughts and prayers are with her family and friends,” Holloway wrote. “I ask you to focus on one another and offer support at this sad time.”

Contact STEPHANIE ADDENBROOKE at stephanie.addenbrooke@yale.edu .

YCC, admins talk aid FINANCIAL AID FROM PAGE 1 of the YCC’s recommendations, especially clearing up terminology, by the next admissions cycle.

Issues of clarity and presentation are easier to address than the recommendations presented in the second half of the report, Herbert added, as these call for a temporary freeze on the student effort portion of financial aid and its eventual elimination. “[Quinlan and Storlazzi] seemed very willing to engage with us on clarity issues, but we haven’t yet had discussions about the student contribution levels,” said Blackmon, who is also a staff columnist for the News.

That conversation will take place next week, Herbert said.

But he added that while recommendations on clarity may be simpler to implement, they are just as important as more dramatic changes. He added that,

in fact, many student complaints about financial aid stem from issues of presentation.

Whether or not the University will freeze or reduce student contribution requirements goes beyond just the financial aid and admissions offices, Herbert said.

“The bigger parts there will work their way up through the administration over time,” he said. “That’s not something that Dean Quinlan or Mr. Storlazzi can just square away. That’s going to involve a lot more people at all levels of the University, [including] the [Yale] Corporation when they come to visit in March or April.”

Five out of seven students interviewed said they think full elimination of the student effort contribution is a reasonable request to make of Yale.

“Yale should eliminate the student job requirement portion of financial aid packages,” Nickolas Brooks ’17 said.

“Working a job on campus

should not be something that a student is required to do, but instead something that a student can do if he or she wishes.

That same time could be spent studying or participating in the various student organizations on campus.”

While she acknowledged the work ahead and the lack of a decisive timeline for change, Eliscovich Sigal said she was pleased with the initial conversation. Both Quinlan and Storlazzi had taken pages of notes on the report, she said, and seemed excited to hear what the YCC had to say.

“It’s great to see them respond to what we wrote and see them so keen to talk to us,” she said.

Over 50 percent of undergraduates received financial aid in the 2014–15 school year.

Contact TYLER FOGGATT at tyler.foggatt@yale.edu and VIVIAN WANG vivian.y.wang@yale.edu

Join the conversation.

Join the Yale Daily News.

ADVANTAGE TESTING FOUNDATION

According to friend Tammy Pham ’15, “[Luchang’s] motivation in life was to make the world a better place.”

OBITUARY FROM PAGE 1 Wang’s mental acuity also extended to her satirical work.

Wang demonstrated an “original comedic mind,” said Aaron Gertler ’15, chairman of the Yale Record. From his encounters with Wang, both on the Record and in the Effective Altruists, Gertler said her input was always “kind, necessary and relevant.”

David McGinnis, Wang’s high school debate coach, remembered her as a “brilliant and talented young woman.” She was one of the best public forum debaters in the country, he said. During her junior year of high school, she and her partner qualified for the national Tournament of Champions after just two rounds of competition — the fastest that anyone can

qualify.

“I don’t know what else to say,” McGinnis wrote in an email. “I want very badly for this not to have happened. She should have long outlived me.”

Astronomy professor Priyamvada Natarajan, a longtime supporter of the Math Prize for Girls, presented Wang with her award in 2010. She said Wang was a gifted young woman.

Natarajan described Wang’s passing as a “devastating loss to our community and for the future of mathematics.”

Silliman College Master Judith Krauss held a gathering in her house Tuesday evening for all Yale students to come together and offer each other support. Krauss told the News she believed Wang loved Yale and the “hope she found here, especially through her friends

and classmates.”

Krauss added that the Silliman community, the YPU and many others are trying to make sense of this painful loss.

Posner said her memories of Wang will always be of her smiling.

“It reminds me of that Roald Dahl quote: ‘If you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely,’” Posner wrote. “Luchang — who was stunning regardless — looked like she had sunbeams shining out of her whole being.”

Wang is survived by her mother, father and a younger sister.

Contact FINNEGAN SCHICK at christopher.schick@yale.edu and VIVIAN WANG at vivian.y.wang@yale.edu

YALE DAILY NEWS · WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE 5

NEWS

“Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you who you are.” JEAN ANTHELME BRILLAT-SAVARIN FRENCH GASTRONOME

Student designed app to give dining data

KAREN YANG/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

Huddlr, a networking iPhone application created by Yale students, has partnered with Yale Dining to expand its locations to include dining halls and retail locations on campus such as Durfee’s and Thain Family Café.

BY VICTOR WANG STAFF REPORTER A group of students has devised a way for Yalies to always know where their friends are eating.

Huddlr, which was launched as a Yale-targeted, party-networking iPhone application on Nov. 1, has expanded its services by collaborating with Yale Dining on Jan. 12. Users of the application will now be able to see where their friends are eating. Locations include all dining halls as well as retail locations such as Durfee’s and Thain Family Café. This collaboration aims to not only enhance the social dining experience of Yalies, but to also provide feedback and data for Yale Dining.

“We have gotten into a partnership with Yale Dining, collaborating to help Yalies coordinate meals better,” said Ivan Fan ’14,

creator and cofounder of Huddlr. “We want to help students to be able to grab meals with people they care about.”

Huddlr’s service relies on electronically tracking the location of its users and their friends, drawn from the users’ Facebook accounts. Whenever users enter Yale dining establishments, the app will notify these selected friends about their location. By building up a network of Huddlr friends, students are now able to tap on different location icons to see where their friends are currently dining. Huddlr also offers messaging and event-creating services that aim to facilitate group gatherings at Yale dining locations.

Huddlr’s collaboration with Yale Dining will help add to the social aspect at on-campus dining locations, according to Michael van Emmenes, director of business intelligence and opti-

mization at Yale Dining.

“The collaboration is one of a growing nature,” he said. “We envision this to be a great tool to connect friends and assist with the community feel in our dining locations.”

Besides servicing its student users, Huddlr will also aid Yale Dining by providing population flow data for each dining location. This information can help Yale Dining distribute raw material more proportionately and lower food waste, according to Fan. According to Nemo Blackburn ’15, Huddlr will provide more nuanced data than the current Yale Dining application, since it provides information on the amount of time people spend in each dining hall, in addition to how many swiped in.

Alejandro Rojas ’18 said that the idea to incorporate a social network application with Yale

Yalies to defend blood drive trophy

BY HANNAH YANG STAFF REPORTER This week, Yale will defend its four-year winning streak in the annual Harvard-Yale blood drive.

This year’s drive is taking place in the Parish House at 311 Temple St. The event, hosted by the American Red Cross at Yale, encourages participation from students, faculty and staff, as well as people from the New Haven community. Yale is taking donations throughout the week, and Harvard’s drive is scheduled to take place in early February.

“This is the 11th year we’ve had this Harvard-Yale competition,” said James Mandilk LAW ’17, one of the blood drive’s head organizers. “I think the rivalry is a really good method to motivate students, and it’s our largest drive of the year by a significant margin.”

Yale has won seven of the 10 competitions so far, including the past four. Each year, the college with the most successful blood drive gets its name inscribed on a traveling trophy, which resides in the respective dean’s office.

Katherine Bollag ’16, co-president of the American Red Cross at Yale, said an estimated 300 donors are expected to give blood at Yale this year. She added that the final number may be higher because, in addition to scheduling appointments, the drive also receives a significant number of walk-ins.

Mandilk said winter weather often decreases the number of people willing to donate blood, especially for those who have to drive to a donation center. Unfortunately, he added, more blood is needed in the winter than in any other season because severe weather conditions can cause accidents that require emergency blood transfusions. Each blood donation could save up to three lives, he said.

Though this year’s blood drive was originally scheduled to take place over four days, dona-

tions had to be canceled on Tuesday due to the inclement weather. Mandilk said the same situation occurred in 2011, when a blizzard forced the blood drive to cancel one day.

“After the blizzard, though, students came out in force,” he said. “[Former Yale College Dean Mary] Miller sent out an email encouraging people to donate, and we rescheduled a lot of the canceled appointments.”

The drive is still scheduled to continue as normal on Wednesday and Thursday and is currently being advertised through flyers around campus and sign-up tables set up in residential colleges.

“I think that our organization has really seen beneficial changes within the past few years,” said Angela Chen ’16, the other co-president of the American Red Cross at Yale. “We have a consistent core of dedicated members who are all passionate about giving back to the community, and we are constantly welcoming new members.”

She added that the Connecticut American Red Cross has also been extremely supportive and accessible, making Yale’s organization better equipped to take on large-scale endeavors.

Christine Xu ’18 said she would like to receive more information on the process before deciding to donate.

Kai DeBus ’18, who could not attend his Tuesday appointment because of the snow, said he may reschedule to donate later this week.

Blood transfusions are most commonly needed for accidents, surgeries and organ transplants. All blood donated at the HarvardYale blood drive will be sent to an American Red Cross facility, where it will be separated into red cells, white cells, plasma and platelets before being shipped to local hospitals.

Contact HANNAH YANG at hannah.yang@yale.edu .

Dining is a great idea, but may also take away from some social opportunities.

“We envision this to be a great tool to … assist with the community feel in our dining halls” MICHAEL VAN EMMENES Yale Dining “It is a great way for people to not feel lonely when they are eating,” he said. “One possible downside is that it may take away opportunities to meet new people and expand your network.”

At the same time, the application will pass along qualitative information to Yale Dining, such as student comments and sug-

gestions, which so far have overwhelmingly included a call for more Greek yogurt in dining halls.

However, van Emmenes stressed that, as a user-focused application, Huddlr will concentrate more on connecting students with each other and will thus ultimately serve a different function from the Yale Dining application.

So far, the application has increased its user population from the members of two fraternities to a few hundred Yalies.

However, 14 out of 20 students interviewed said that they were not aware of Huddlr’s existence.

In order for Huddlr to provide truly accurate population data, the application must saturate the market, Fan said, acknowledging that the service has not yet reached all corners of campus. But he also said expansion is certainly on the minds of the team developing Huddlr. While

the application has been advertised on posters around campus as well as on napkin holders in dining halls, Fan said that most of the users have learned about Huddlr through word of mouth and he promised further advertising campaigns.

The Huddlr team has also been working on expanding the application’s usage locations, with plans to collaborate with Yale Athletics and New Haven restaurants set in motion, Fan said.

However, the team is also focused on perfecting the service so that it will be able to service Yalies adequately in all social activities on campus.

“The goal is to make Huddlr a real-time social coordination tool that is quicker than Facebook events and more focused than group texting,” Blackburn said.

Contact VICTOR WANG at v.wang@yale.edu .

Justice project receives grant

BY SKYLER INMAN STAFF REPORTER After being named one of this year’s Creative Capital Artists earlier this month, New York and New Haven-based painter Titus Kaphar ART ’06 has garnered financial and critical support for his newest undertaking: The Jerome Project.

Chosen together with 45 other awardees — including fellow Yale alumnus Abigail DeVille ’11 — out of a pool of more than 3,700 proposals, Kaphar will receive up to $50,000 to pursue his work. The Jerome Project, which is still in progress, will focus on the American criminal justice system and its effects on the African-American community through the lens of many men who share the traditionally African-American name Jerome.

According to Kaphar, the project, which at times uses portraits of his subjects partially dipped in tar, began as an attempt to visually communicate the impact of the criminal justice system on those who are imprisoned. For a time, the portraits were submerged into tar in proportion to the amount of time the individuals had spent in prison, though his process has changed some over time.

“The tar became symbolic in communicating the varied impact [that] jail, prison, probation or parole has on millions of people in this country,” Kaphar said.

Creative Capital — a New York City-based art philanthropy

organization — invested more than $4.3 million in this year’s award winners, with recipient artists ranging in age from 28 to 80 years old and coming from a wide variety of geographic, ethnic and cultural backgrounds.

Associate Dean of the School of Art Samuel Messer ART ’81, who knows Kaphar from his time in the MFA program, underlined the importance of awards like Creative Capital within the art community.

“Creative Capital in my mind is one of the most beneficial grants a young artist can receive because it also provides [them] workshops in financial management,” Messer said. “Their focus is not only short term infusion of cash but helping artists understand ways to structure their life to support a long term artistic practice.”

In addition to the direct funding artists receive, Creative Capital also provides additional resources and advisory services to each artist valued at $45,000.

Elle Perez ART ’15 emphasized the importance of awards like Creative Capital for more than just financial and logistical reasons.

“Awards are also about validation,” Perez said. “These milestones are often nods to the fact that yes, the work one makes is important and meaningful.”

Perez said work like The Jerome Project is important to support because it addresses societal issues often avoided in the fine arts due to the artist’s fear of being branded as too political.

Rianna Johnson-Levy ’17, who has visited Kaphar’s studio, also praised the artist’s work for the way it challenges representation in art, as well as its interplay with issues of social justice.

[Marginalized people] have always been worth of art and portraits, although they are rarely depicted.

RIANNA JOHNSON-LEVY ’17 “In order for people to stop treating black and brown lives like they don’t matter, we have to remember that marginalized people have lived important lives throughout all of history.

They’ve always been worthy of art and portraits, although they are rarely depicted,” JohnsonLevy said. “[Kaphar’s] work has always challenged representations of black bodies and histories, and I think it’s remarkably powerful.”

Following the award, Kaphar will use interviews with men named Jerome and local high school students to create a body of work based on their lives and experiences. In its final form, the project will be a collection of paintings and sculptures, a documentary and a discussion panel on American mass incarceration.

Contact SKYLER INMAN at skyler.inman@yale.edu .

PAGE 6

YALE DAILY NEWS · WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015 · yaledailynews.com

FROM THE FRONT

“A snow day literally and figuratively falls from the sky, unbidden, and seems like a thing of wonder.” SUSAN ORLEAN AMERICAN JOURNALIST

New Haven officials defend emergency operations

KEN YANAGISAWA/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

Mayor Toni Harp and other city officials expressed that the storm response operations were successful and well-implemented in the wake of the snowstorm that affected New Haven Monday and Tuesday. added that there would not be another update on the storm unless necessary.

“We remain in the midst of a successful storm response operation,” Mayor Toni Harp said during the briefing.

In a state press conference at noon on Tuesday, Gov. Dannel Malloy also defended the decision to impose a travel ban, saying that hundreds of accidents had been avoided. Malloy stressed that the parts of the state with less snow than expected should work to get state commerce “back on its feet.”

City officials praised residents’ cooperation with the travel and parking bans as well as the collaboration between various city

You Watch Them.

You Cheer For Them.

Why Not Write About Them?

Join Sports, and write about your favorite Yale teams.

JOIN@YALEDAILYNEWS.COM

500,000

VISITS TO YALEDAILYNEWS.COM EACH MONTH

PROGRAMMERS & DESIGNERS WANTED

departments. Fontana noted that the city used Winter Storm Nemo, which brought 34 inches of snow in 24 hours to New Haven in February 2013, as a benchmark for this year’s preparations.

Crews, including those of subcontractors, focused on clearing snow from main streets on Monday night, according to Director of Public Works Jeff Pescosolido. He said these crews would focus on widening main streets and clearing residential streets on Tuesday.

City officials hosted a demonstration of a newly acquired, 10-foot-wide snow blower on Tuesday afternoon in front of City Hall. New Haven recently

acquired new snow clearing equipment in light of an aging fleet, Harp told the New Haven Independent. City Hall Director of Communications Laurence Grotheer said this new equipment would clear streets more efficiently than the old equipment.

Director of Transportation Doug Hausladen ’04 said that he expected residents to be able to return to work starting Wednesday, given that Metro North began running Tuesday afternoon and CT Transit is set to be fully operational by Wednesday morning.

Yale Emergency Management Director Maria Bouffard agreed with the precautionary mea-

NEW HAVEN Yale University President’s Public Service Fellowship The President’s Public Service Fellowship seeks outstanding undergraduate, graduate and professional students to work with organizations that promote economic growth, human development, and neighborhood vitality in New Haven.

Fellowship awards range from $4,400 to $7,800 based on experience, degree pending and weeks worked. Fellowship placements range from 8–11 weeks from the end of May through August. Students may apply for placements proposed by local non-profit and public sector organizations posted on the PPSF website.

For more information and application materials, log on to the Fellowship website, or contact ppsf@yale.edu

Quick Facts • Work in New Haven on exciting projects with city government, non-profits, the arts, and economic development • 30 students selected from across the university and its graduate and professional schools • Earn $550–$650 per week stipend • Serve 8–11 weeks • Weekly Fellowship dinners • And so much more . . .

Application Deadline: February 6, 2015

www.yale.edu/ppsf

yale institute of sacred music presents

The Thirteen

Immortal Legacy: Tudor Giants

webmaster@yaledailynews.com

Contact DANIELA BRIGHENTI at daniela.brighenti@yale.edu and MICHELLE LIU at michelle.liu@yale.edu .

SUMMER

matthew robertson, conductor

202 YORK ST.

sures taken by the city and state, explaining that the University, like the state, would rather overprepare than face the possible consequences of a severe storm.

“We made the right decision [to cancel classes] based on the National Weather Service forecast,” Bouffard said. “They’re the professionals and our job is to react.”

In the state, Eastern Connecticut was hardest hit by the storm, with over two feet of snowfall.

Saturday, January 31 · 5 pm · Christ Church Episcopal 84 Broadway at Elm, New Haven Free; no tickets required. ism.yale.edu

Send submissions to opinion@yaledailynews.com

day afternoon both the city and state lifted the travel ban that had been in place since Monday night, although a parking ban on emergency routes and one side of neighborhood streets is still in effect in New Haven until noon Thursday.

“We wanted to ensure that we were prepared for 36 inches of snow,” Fontana said. “It was easier to ramp up than to scale back.”

Fontana said the city’s homeless shelters, which increased their capacity for the storm, were fully occupied on Monday night.

Battalion Chief Matthew Marcarelli said that for the duration

of the storm, the fire department increased personnel and worked with the private medical transport company American Medical Response to ensure that there were paramedic ambulances stationed at firehouses.

Fontana said that New Haven public safety officials had a relatively slow night on Monday, with only approximately 25 calls made to the fire department and EMS. No power outages occurred during the storm, according to a United Illuminating official at the briefing.

Fontana said that officials would not announce a definitive time for when the city would resume normal operations. He

OPINION.

SNOW UPDATE FROM PAGE 1

NEWS >HU[ [V JOHUNL [OL ^VYSK& 7PJR H JV\U[Y` YALE DAILY NEWS · WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE 7

,HJO Z\TTLY SLHKPUN \UP]LYZP[PLZ HYV\UK [OL ^VYSK L_JOHUNL H ZLSLJ[ NYV\W VM Z[\KLU[Z [V M\Y[OLY PU[LYUH[PVUHS SLHKLYZOPW HUK \UKLYZ[HUKPUN [OYV\NO [OL 0U[LYUH[PVUHS (SSPHUJL VM 9LZLHYJO <UP]LYZP[PLZ .SVIHS :\TTLY 7YVNYHT -\[\YL SLHKLYZ ULLK HWWS`

0(9< .36)(3 :<44,9 796.9(4 *6<9:,:! ;OL (\Z[YHSPHU 5H[PVUHS <UP]LYZP[` Â&#x2039; 4VIPSPaPUN 9LZLHYJO ,;/ A\YPJO Â&#x2039; >VYSK -VVK :`Z[LT :\TTLY :JOVVS 5H[PVUHS <UP]LYZP[` VM :PUNHWVYL Â&#x2039; :V\[OLHZ[ (ZPH PU *VU[L_[ Â&#x2039; (ZPH 5V^ ;OL (YJOHLVSVN` VM [OL -\[\YL *P[` 7LRPUN <UP]LYZP[` Â&#x2039; 4HQVY 0ZZ\LZ *VUJLYUPUN [OL 9PZL VM *OPUH Â&#x2039; *VTWHYH[P]L 7OPSVZVWO` ¶ *OPUH HUK [OL >LZ[ Â&#x2039; :WLJPHS ;VWPJZ PU *OPULZL ,JVUVT` Â&#x2039; :PSR 9VHK! ( /PZ[VY` VM *\S[\YHS HUK 4H[LYPHS ,_JOHUNLZ <UP]LYZP[` VM *HSPMVYUPH )LYRLSL` Â&#x2039; ,U]PYVUTLU[HS 3LHKLYZOPW 7YVNYHT Â&#x2039; 4LKPH HUK .SVIHS 7YV[LZ[ 4V]LTLU[Z <UP]LYZP[` VM *HTIYPKNL Â&#x2039; 6\Y *OHUNPUN >VYSK <UP]LYZP[` VM *VWLUOHNLU Â&#x2039; 2PLYRLNHHYK! ;OL 0UKP]PK\HS PU [OL .SVIHS :VJPL[` Â&#x2039; 0U[LYKPZJPWSPUHY` (ZWLJ[Z VM /LHS[O` (NPUN Â&#x2039; <YIHU *\S[\YL PU ;OLVY` HUK (J[PVU <UP]LYZP[` VM 6_MVYK Â&#x2039; .SVIHS *OHSSLUNLZ VM [OL Z[ *LU[\Y` ¶ ,U]PYVUTLU[HS ;LJOUVSVNPJHS HUK <YIHU :\Z[HPUHIPSP[` ;OL <UP]LYZP[` VM ;VR`V Â&#x2039; 0U[YVK\J[PVU [V [OL 1HWHULZL 3HUN\HNL Â&#x2039; :\Z[HPUHISL <YIHU 4HUHNLTLU[ Â&#x2039; 1HWHU PU ;VKH` Z >VYSK Â&#x2039; 5HUVZJPLUJL @HSL <UP]LYZP[` Â&#x2039; 4VYHS -V\UKH[PVUZ VM 7VSP[PJZ (KTPZZPVU PZ HKTPUPZ[LYLK [OYV\NO [OL @HSL :\TTLY :LZZPVU VMMPJL /HSM [\P[PVU ZJOVSHYZOPWZ VMMLYLK MVY [OL JV\YZL H[ @HSL 0:( M\UKPUN PZ H]HPSHISL MVY ZVTL JV\YZLZ HIYVHK )HUJV :HU[HUKLY ZJOVSHYZOPWZ H]HPSHISL

-VY TVYL JV\YZL PUMVYTH[PVU HUK HWWSPJH[PVU!

2015

www.iaruni.org/gsp email: kathy.trputec@yale.edu 203-432-2430

PAGE 8

YALE DAILY NEWS · WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015 · yaledailynews.com

SPORTS

“I’m just here so I won’t get fined.”

MARSHAWN LYNCH FIVE-TIME PRO BOWLER

The revival of Yale polo CLUB POLO FROM PAGE 12 about the future of the program.”

The Yale Polo and Equestrian Center, which is a standalone 501(c)(3) organization unaffiliated to the University, purchased the new property for $1.35 million this past December. Though fundraising is still going on, approximately 20 alumni donations and a large matching gift from the Orthwein family helped raise enough money for the purchase.

Liz Brayboy ’84, vice president of the YPEC board and former Yale polo player, said that alumni donations and operating revenues have been the Yale Polo Club’s only source of income for the past five years, making members of the organization grateful for the alumni support.

“It is impossible to thank these alumni and all the other volunteers enough,” men’s player Charles Horner ’16 said. “They are the reason the program still exists today.”

In addition to the advantages given by indoor practices and unlimited time, the Yale Polo Club will benefit from a larger arena designed specifically for polo, unlike its former facility, the C&S Ranch. The new arena will also feature walls, which are important to the strategy of indoor polo, according to men’s captain Manuel Valle ’15.

The new barn belongs solely to the YPEC, whereas the club formerly rented two hours of arena time per day from the C&S Ranch. In order to manage the property and its horses, the organization hired former US Polo Association administrator Ed Armstrong to be coach and manager of the program.

Armstrong will oversee every program the YPEC offers, including programs for graduate students, high school students and adults in the Connecticut community, as well as three levels of training for undergraduates.

All of these programs, though small, provide revenues that will help finance Armstrong’s salary, Brayboy said.

“I’m from Massachusetts, so I was familiar with the [Yale] program, and I’ve played

Frosh hooper making an impact SIMPSON FROM PAGE 12

there before,” Armstrong said. “I’m looking forward to the competition, and seeing how the kids handle it.”

Armstrong and Brayboy both said that Yale’s intercollegiate teams, which compete in a division of the US Polo Association, will have a new competitive advantage because of the barn.

Brayboy noted that many teams, including Harvard, do not have an indoor arena. Armstrong said that nicer facilities may improve the selection of players who choose to play polo at Yale. “[The new barn] will help tremendously, because some of the schools that have good facilities have been able to get people to go to school there and consider it because of the polo program,” Armstrong said.

Armstrong, who previously lived in Virginia, added that a similar situation happened at the University of Virginia many years ago, and many students with polo experience now consider the Virginia polo program as a reason for enrolling there. At Yale, he said, most players enter the program with either only riding experience or no experience at all.

Horner added that the new arena will also add benefits unrelated to the team’s skill level, such as a heated equipment room and a viewing area above the playing arena. He also said that with more space, the team’s 16 horses will be kept more comfortable yearround.

“All the horses have large stalls with their own water access and lights,” Horner said.

“There is a pasture for them to go out during the day, which keeps them happy.”

In addition to Brown and Skidmore, Yale’s teams plan to play Princeton and Harvard before their preliminary regional tournament at the end of February.

The new barn is located at 79 Rainbow Road in Bethany, Conn.

players in the league down the road.”

That growth has picked up in earnest lately. After starting just one of Yale’s first 10 games, Simpson has made an appearance in the starting lineup in each of the last six contests.

In the Elis’ conference opener

against Brown, Simpson was named Ivy League Rookie of the Week after scoring 19 points on 8–12 shooting, both career bests.

Simpson also currently leads the team in both steals and field goals in conference play, as well as all freshmen on the squad in points per game at 9.0.

“I think she’s going to be a

Contact DANIELA BRIGHENTI at daniela.brighenti@yale.edu .

Contact GREG CAMERON at greg.cameron@yale.edu .

LIZ BRAYBOY/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

The University of Virginia has seen a growth in polo activity since a similar expansion was made years ago.

SAM RUBIN/YALE SPORTS PUBLICITY

Simpson was a McDonald’s All-America nominee out of the Portledge School, where she scored over 2,000 career points.

Yale, the team to beat?

BASKETBALL FROM PAGE 12 home losses from Columbia and Cornell.

Yale (13–6, 2–0 Ivy) and Princeton (8–9, 1–0 Ivy) remain the only two undefeated teams.

Much of Yale’s success is due to its offense, which averages 70 points per contest and ranks as the highest scoring unit in the conference — though this number is a bit skewed due to two blowout wins over non-Division I schools.

Thanks to stout defense against some very good opposition, Yale surrenders just 62.9 points per game. Its +7.1 scoring margin is the biggest differential in the conference. The Bulldogs have been dangerous from long-range, as guard Jack Montague ’16, likely most renowned for his game-winning shot over UConn, has led the way at nearly 45 percent from beyond the arc. Forward Matt Townsend ’15 has been quietly effective in scoring 8.2 points per game on 53 percent shooting.

The Bulldogs also boast two of the Ivy League’s top scorers, with point guard Javier Duren ’15 and forward Justin Sears ’16 in the top 10 in scoring at 13.9 and 13.7 points per game, respectively. Duren has stepped up his game since last year, improving his field goal percentage by five percentage points and averaging 1.2 more assists per game while keeping his turnover rate at an identical clip. Both players dominated against Brown, with Duren going for 21.5 points and seven rebounds per contest and Sears averaging 21.0 points, 10.0 rebounds and 3.0 blocks.

Sears, who scorched the Ivies with 16.9 points per game on nearly 52 percent shooting a year ago, has been doing a great job of drawing fouls and getting to the free throw line, but he can improve his game by converting more consistently. Against Brown, he went a collective 18–35 from the line, a surprisingly poor performance for a player who hit nearly 70 percent from

huge part of Yale basketball going forward,” Fitzpatrick said.

“She’s going to be a huge leader for us as she gets older and learns more, and what she’s been able to accomplish as a freshman is impressive. The future is very bright for her.”

Media Day madness ONORATO FROM PAGE 12

JAMES BADAS/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

Armani Cotton ’15 is shooting an impressive 38.5 percent from behind the arc this season. the charity stripe as a sophomore. He has been able to get to the line in part due to his prowess on the offensive glass, as he has crashed the boards for nearly three offensive rebounds per game, good for 66th nationally.

On the defensive side of the ball, Yale needs to improve. Opponents are converting over 42 percent of their field goals against the Elis, which leaves them sixth in the Ivy League. With no contributor taller than a listed 6–9, Yale lacks a legitimate center, which can be an issue against teams with solid big men. Sears has done his best to clog the paint, and his 2.56 blocked shots per game ranks 28th in the nation.

Another key is swingman Armani Cotton ’15, who has been a defensive stalwart for this squad, although his impact is not easily quantifiable. His contributions, such as in Yale’s win over UConn when Cotton helped to hold star guard Ryan Boatright 10 points below his season aver-

age, often get overlooked when looking at box scores. His 5.3 rebounds per game, in just 25.7 minutes per game, rank second on the team behind Sears’ 7.6.

Cotton and Sears’s individual contributions have been major factors in Yale’s rebounding dominance this season. The Bulldogs are tops in the Ivy League with a +6.8 rebounding margin, more than double the margin of second-place Penn, and they also rank 22nd in the nation, tied with Big 12 powerhouse Kansas.

Yale hopes to take advantage of the unusual trend thus far in the Ivy League — of the seven conference games, five have been won by road teams — when they travel to New York this weekend to face Columbia and Cornell.

Friday’s game against the Lions tips off at 8 p.m.

Contact ROBERT HESS at robert.hess@yale.edu .

the spotlight for itself as well, and ironically so. The idea of Media Day is to hear from the main characters involved in the drama to be played out on Sunday. Fans could even buy tickets to watch the Media Day madness unfold in Phoenix. It’s a spectacle within a spectacle, yet another element of the Super Bowl that has little to do with football.

As fans get swept away in the media storm, it’s worth considering what it is that we get out of the Super Bowl. It certainly seems to be something more than just football. There is an incredible narrative that goes with the entire event that, although obvious, might be worth a second look.

As with any great story, there must be great characters, and those characters must fit a role.

Tom Brady, the aged hero set out to rise to greatness once more.

Coach Pete Carroll, the man rejected by the Patriots seeking redemption and proof of greatness. Bill Belichick, the quiet but potentially evil mastermind out to deny Carroll’s efforts.

As with any great story, there is a conflict. Beyond the inherent conflict that comes with two teams vying for victory, there has been the addition of the “Deflategate” scandal. The controversy has brought into question the character of sev-

eral leading characters, has perhaps exposed a weakness and has certainly heightened the level of drama.

Media Day is, at its core, a celebration of the story whose climax is the Super Bowl. And this story, perhaps because it is important to the fans, is important to the League as well. It is the reason they have threatened, and in some cases actually fined Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch for refusing to talk to the media.

The NFL knows people want the story and to hear from its main actors.

There are consequences that come along with the Super Bowl as a story. Players and coaches have become larger-than-life celebrities. The conflicts that have arisen imbue the game with moral implications about what’s right and wrong and people getting what perhaps others think they deserve. It has become so much more than what started as a simple game between an AFL and NFL team nearly fifty years ago.

The stage has been set. The place is Phoenix, Arizona. The time is Sunday, Feb. 1, 2015. The main characters are the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots. The rest of the story remains to be written.

SARAH ONORATO is a senior in Silliman College. Contact her at sarah.onorato@yale.edu .

YALE DAILY NEWS · WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE 9

BULLETIN BOARD

TODAY’S FORECAST

Mostly cloudy, then gradually becoming sunny, with a high near 26. Wind chill values between zero and 10.

TOMORROW

FRIDAY

High of 31, low of 24.

High of 34, low of 2.

XKCD BY RANDALL MUNROE

ON CAMPUS WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28 2:00 PM Copyright and Unpublished Works: Overview and Update. Peter Hirtle is a research fellow in the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. He also serves as the senior policy advisor in the Cornell University Library with a special mandate to address intellectual property issues. Sterling Memorial Library (120 High St.), Lecture Hall & Memorabilia Room 4:00 PM Angélique Kidjo: Perspectives on Music and Activism. Angélique Kidjo is a Grammy Award-winning singersongwriter and contributor to the New York Times. In an expansive career, Kidjo has found many ways to celebrate the rich, enlightening truth about Africa’s women beyond the media spotlight. Ezra Stiles College (19 Tower Pkwy.).

XKCD BY RANDALL MUNROE

THURSDAY, JANUARY 29 4:00 PM Pierson College Master’s Tea with Jack Hedin. As a part of the Yale Sustainable Food Program’s 2014-2015 Chewing the Fat speaker series, Pierson College welcomes Jack Hedin to a Master’s Tea. Pierson College (261 York St.).

5:30 PM Performance, Musical Arrangements that Inspired Whistler. James Abbot McNeill Whistler believed that painting and music were interwoven, each with its basic elements composed into “glorious harmonies.” Student musicians play a selection of musical arrangements that inspired Whistler and his art. Yale University Art Gallery (1111 Chapel St.).

FRIDAY, JANUARY 30 1:30 PM Lecture, Jan Steen’s “Card Players” and Dutch Genre Painting. John Walsh, B.A. 1961 and Director Emeritus of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, and specialist in Dutch painting, offers a series of lectures that explores the art of the Dutch Republic during its extraordinary flowering in the 17th century. This picture from the Rose-Marie and Eijk Otterloo Collection shows an overdressed soldier being gulled by a girl in an elegant looking house of ill repute. Yale University Art Gallery (1111 Chapel St.).

DA WEEKLY COMIC BY JOHN MCNELLY

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

2-2400 (after 5 p.m.)

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

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

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

To visit us in person 202 York St. New Haven, Conn. (Opposite JE) FOR RELEASE JANUARY 29, 2014

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

CLASSIFIEDS

CROSSWORD Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Lewis ACROSS 1 Fly-by-nighter?

4 Hartford market checker’s action?

10 To be, to Brutus 14 Pod resident 15 La Quinta rival 16 Mocked, in a way 17 Boise jewelry?

19 Radius neighbor 20 Huffington Post piece 21 Catches on, with “up” 23 Helen Reddy’s “__ Woman” 24 Signs of approval 26 Seek, as a fugitive 28 Like Mont Blanc 31 Harrisburg loudspeaker network?

35 China’s Chou En-__ 36 “My Fair Lady” composer 38 Piddling 39 Best of Hollywood 41 Jackson hair styles?

42 Pull an all-nighter, perhaps 43 “The Ides of March” actor Gosling 44 Grind to __ 45 Environmental prefix 46 Tulsa bull pen?

48 Lyric poems 51 New Rochelle campus 52 Agenda unit 53 Every little bit 54 Like Richard Burton, by birth 58 First name on a 1945 bomber 62 Commotion 64 Richmond medical center?

66 Start from scratch 67 Pass by 68 Spleen 69 Evangelist Roberts 70 Baton Rouge equipment?

71 Doo-wop horn

1/29/14

By C.C. Burnikel

DOWN 1 Mayberry kid 2 Unites 3 Physical exam tests 4 Coloring stick 5 “Tic __ Dough”: old TV game show 6 Small diving ducks 7 City SW of Bogot· 8 Lemony drinks 9 Cager Archibald 10 Evian water 11 Broke into small, sharp pieces 12 Contest for a seat 13 Cheese in a red coat 18 Delhi royal 22 Hardly outgoing 25 Beach town NW of San Diego 27 “Semper Fi” org.

28 Last Olds model 29 Playboy 30 Rum-andcoconut drink 31 Organ part 32 Illegally off base, briefly 33 Six-line sonnet section

Tuesday’s Puzzle Solved

SUDOKU HURRICANE JUNO

7 2 1 5 (c)2014 Tribune Content Agency, LLC

34 Bulletin board postings 37 Workplace protection agcy.

40 Like most Internet trolls: Abbr.

47 Unpolished 49 Eye 50 Upscale hotel chain 52 “Fingers crossed” 53 Curly hairdo

1/29/14

55 Stunt legend Knievel 56 Singer’s syllables 57 Chase, as flies 59 Elevator man 60 “60 Minutes” correspondent Logan 61 “Jeopardy!” fixture, to contestants 63 Capitol Hill fig.

65 Fed. benefits agency

4 2

9 3 5 9 6 2 4 1 6

4 2

5 2 8 1 5 7 8 1 9 6 8 2 1

PAGE 10

YALE DAILY NEWS · WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015 · yaledailynews.com

ARTS & CULTURE Long Wharf show brings boy into outer space

BY JOEY YE STAFF REPORTER The Next Stage Residents, a group of resident artists at New Haven’s Long Wharf Theatre are producing “The Boy on the Edge of Everything” by Tasmanian playwright Finnegan Kruckemeyer. The group successfully completed a Kickstarter campaign last Friday to fund the show, which opens on May 12.

Emily Breeze, the show’s director, said the play offers a generous mixture of comedic and serious themes.

“It’s an amazing play about finding balance in a person’s life,” Breeze said. “Besides it being

very modern and funny, it also reminds us to never take things for granted.”

The play centers on a 12-yearold boy named Simon Ives who accidentally gets sent to the edge of the universe by a “spaceship” made out of a meditation tank.

There, he meets the title character who lives a lonely and boring life by himself. The two then forge a friendship through learning about each other’s upbringings.

Breeze said that while the play is tailored to young viewers, it also conveys mature themes that reached a broader range of audience members. Breeze highlighted a specific scene in the

play that focuses on the emotional effects of Simon’s departure on his family, noting that the message is more profound than what is usually seen in children’s shows.

“Many of the kids’ plays that I had read beforehand were really watered down,” Breeze said. “I think kids are much better at putting things together than a lot of what the current plays designed for them allow.”

Every year, the Next Stage Residents put on a “Theatre for Young Audiences” show. Breeze said that the artistic residents’ decided to stage the play after the theater’s educational department discovered it from a past perfor-

mance by the Seattle Children’s Theater.

Jonathan Chapman, who directed the world premiere of the play at the Seattle Children’s Theater, commissioned Kruckemeyer to write the play through the theater company Trusty Sidekick. After the script was read at the Kennedy Center, the first production of the play was set to be done by the Seattle Children’s Theater. Linda Hartzell, artistic director of the theater, noted that Chapman enlisted the help of several Seattle-based designers for the premiere.

All funds for Long Wharf’s production were raised through online global crowdfunding plat-

form Kickstarter. Although the initial goal had been set for $700, the group was able to raise a total of $1,225 from 18 backers. Breeze noted that they received a significant matching donation of $350.

According to the website, donors who pledged $200 or more will receive a dinner with the creative team, backstage passes, limited edition poster, tickets to the show and a special thanks in the program.

Artistic Director Emelia Zuckerman, who directed “The Impossible Adventures of Supernova Jones” — another play funded through Kickstarter — said that one of the biggest difficulties faced by small theater

productions is finding a stable source of donations. She added that many theaters have to find various donors in order to be able to fund their plays.

“In the past we’ve done crowdfunding through Indiegogo,” Zuckerman said. “This time we chose Kickstarter because it’s a more familiar brand that more people have heard of, especially in the older generation.”

The Long Wharf Theatre is currently staging “Forever” by Dael Orlandersmith, performances of which run through Feb. 1.

Contact JOEY YE at shuaijiang.ye@yale.edu .

ZISHI LI/STAFF IILLUSTRATOR

School of Art exhibit showcases painting thesis projects

BY ROHAN NAIK STAFF REPORTER

YALE DAILY NEWS

The Yale School of Art will display the works of 21 second-year students at the Green Hall Gallery on Chapel Street.

The latest exhibition at the Yale School of Art will give outgoing students a final chance to display the fruits of their labors to the public.

The show, entitled “2,015 But Who’s Counting: Yale MFA Painting/Printmaking Thesis Exhibition” will showcase the works of the 21 second-year students in the department at the school’s Green Hall Gallery on Chapel Street. The show will take place in two parts as students in the department have been divided into two groups.

The first part of the exhibition will open this Saturday.

The exhibition is the first of several departments’ thesis shows that will take place this semester. Director of Graduate Studies in Painting and Printmaking Rochelle Feinstein said that the timing of the exhibition allows students to pursue new projects later in the semester after receiving critiques from a panel of faculty and artists. “[The students] like being first in the spring and get a few months to work and get feedback and concentration in studio before they go out into the real world,” Feinstein said.

Students and faculty members interviewed noted that while all of the featured works belong to the same department, they encompass a wide variety of styles. The group shows often do not have a singular motif and are instead representations of individuals, said Feinstein.

Henry Chapman ART ’15, who has contributed five paintings and several wooden furniture displays to the show, said his works deal with themes of reconciliation, collaboration and negotiation. He noted that he thinks the themes are especially relevant to this show, as he is sharing his portion of the exhibition space with another student.

“We aren’t trying to make our [exhibits] similar, but we aren’t trying to divide the space either,” he said. “The wooden stands will hold one of my paintings back to back with one of his.”

Patrick Groth ART ’15 said his paintings contain a substantial amount of historical content and appropriation from historical source books from as early as 15th-century Europe, including the Nuremberg Chronicle, which is an account of human history as told by the Bible.

Feinstein explained that the show is

divided into two groups largely for spatial reasons, as the Hall cannot adequately fit all the work of all 21 students at once. The students select their own groups in the fall based on what they think their work will look like and how much space they will need.

In addition to forming the groups, students are in charge of dividing gallery space amongst each other. Chapman noted that he was surprised that the students in his year were easily able to negotiate space distribution, adding that the process involved a large level of diplomacy and compromise.

Though the displays go on for over a week, the actual panel critique is a oneday process. Composed of seven critics, the panel includes both faculty and artists who are completely unfamiliar with the students’ work.

The panel evaluates the entire group’s work, with each individual evaluation taking approximately 40 minutes. The discussions are open to the public, though only students and faculty are allowed to speak.

The first panel will be held on Feb. 5. Feinstein said she thinks the small number of students in each exhibition allows for more intense and concentrated dialogue between students and panelists.

“The critique to my recollection never sounds instructional,” Feinstein said. “It’s really a conversation.”

Students and faculty members said that though the thesis show does display some of the students’ finest works, it is hardly a culmination of their efforts. The event serves as a point for improvement and inspiration for students, who can use the feedback to better their portfolios and prepare for their final reviews, which will take place at the end of the semester.

Associate Dean of the School of Art Samuel Messer said the thesis provides students the opportunity to “pull together all the ideas they thought about in the last few years.” He added that the thesis show is not an end, but rather a pause in the semester for students, many of whom will create new pieces for their final reviews.

“The thesis is another place to test and experiment with how we put ourselves out there,” Chapman said. “We still make more work after. It’s not like I’ve done my time.”

The second part of the exhibition will open on Feb. 13 and will run through Feb. 25.

Contact ROHAN NAIK at rohan.naik@yale.edu .

YALE DAILY NEWS · WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE 11

“If there’s one thing I’m good at, it’s gathering people together to do something fun.”

DAVE GROHL AMERICAN MUSICIAN

Shubert to host storied local arts gathering

BY MARTHA LONGLEY STAFF REPORTER New Haven residents will soon have the opportunity to experience a union between the city’s cuttingedge artists and its most established venue.

Next Wednesday, the Arts Council of Greater New Haven will host a local tradition called Artspot! at the newly renovated Shubert Theater.

The event, which takes place once per season, is a happy hour gathering meant to bring together a range of community members — including artists themselves — to mingle in artistically inspired locations.

The event was created in 2001 but was ended in 2008 because the Arts Council felt it had accomplished its goal of creating a vibrant local arts network. After the council received a number of requests from local residents to revive the event, however, Artspot! was brought back last year.

“It’s a great way for the community to come together to inspire professional and artistic collaborations ... in a different place every time, which gives people the opportunity to see a place that they might not otherwise go,” said Denise Santisteban, events and advertising coordinator for the Arts Council of Greater New Haven.

Past locations for the event have included Edgerton Park, Lighthouse Point, Arte, Firehouse 12 and the Institute Library.

Next week’s event will be at the Shubert Theater’s new gallery and lounge, which was created this year for the theater’s 100th anniversary.

The gallery was a creative spin on an otherwise empty tunnel connecting the lounge to the theater, said the theater’s Director of Marketing and Public Relations Anthony Lupinacci.

He added that he thinks the tunnel helps to bridge the newer parts of the theater to the historic parts, both literally and through a visual narrative

of the theater’s development. The wall houses images of the building through its lifetime, as well as playbills of the world premieres that have taken place at the theater and photographs of the famous actors and actresses who have performed there.

“While we really only did [the gallery] in a short period of time to address the problem of an empty hallway, it seems to mean a lot to the audience members, some of whom were at the theater in the 1950s and onward,” Lupinacci said.

Loosey LaDuca, a local drag artist who will perform at the event, said she plans to bridge a gap between history and modernity by singing traditional show tunes in her performance. LaDuca explained that live show tune performances are rare in drag, adding that she hopes the novel performance will encourage other artists to take risks with their work because her own performance suggests that there is no set formula for what art should be.

LaDuca added that she would like to see Artspot! grow to incorporate more local performance artists and a wider range of audience members, noting that the event primarily targets young adults in its current form.

“The more people that are there, the more new ideas and personalities will be able to mingle,” LaDuca said.

“A lot of people forget about Connecticut because it’s so close to New York City, but it’s a booming state — there’s just a lot going on in terms of art.”

The event was originally scheduled for Jan. 28, but was postponed to Feb. 4 from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. due to weather concerns. The fee for the event is $10 for Arts Council members and $15 for the public.

The next Artspot! will be held in April.

Contact MARTHA LONGLEY at martha.longley@yale.edu .

ALEXANDRA SCHMELING/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR AND KATHRYN CRANDALL/SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

The newly renovated Shubert Theater will host Artspot!, a gathering intended to bring together artists and other members of the New Haven community.

English colloquia inspire discourse through diversity

BY CAROLINE WRAY STAFF REPORTER In the coming semester, graduate students in the English Department will aim to bring the most unique and innovative researchers in the discipline to Yale.

Each of the 63 graduate English students aligns him or herself with one of the department’s six colloquia, which cover the subfields of Medieval, Early Modern, 18th and 19th Century, 20th and 21st Century, Theory and Media Studies, and Americanist Study.

For each colloquium, an academic chosen by Yale graduate students and professors in that field comes to Yale to share unpublished research in a small, group setting with students and faculty.

In addition to these principal groups, the English Department

is also affiliated with five interdisciplinary colloquia across the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Students and professors interviewed said that the colloquia are essential to fostering academic discourse in part because of the isolating nature of professional academic work in the humanities.

“In the sciences, in a lab, you’re working with other people on a daily basis,” said Dean of Strategic Initiatives for Yale College, the Graduate School and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Pamela Schirmeister. “Bouncing ideas off other people, hearing what other people have to say — particularly if it’s not entirely in line with your own thoughts — produces much, much more creative work.”

Angus Ledingham GRD ’18, the co-organizer for the 18th and

19th Century Colloquium, said that the visiting academics featured in colloquia often present novel material, adding that they grant attendees direct access to research that is currently trending in the discipline at large.

Ian Cornelius, an English professor and a faculty organizer for the Medieval Colloquium, said colloquia allow academics to talk about the direction of literary criticism in their fields and also help to prepare graduate students for professional life by giving them more familiarity with the “semiformal modes of give and take at conferences.”

Although many of Yale’s graduate departments host colloquia, the English Department is unique in the frequency of its events, which take place roughly once per week. Several professors and students interviewed attributed the

number of events to the relatively large size of the English graduate department.

Palmer Rampell GRD ’17, a co-organizer for the Americanist Colloquium, added that the English Department’s propensity towards hosting multiple colloquia might also be due in part to shifts in the field over recent years. He explained that the field was more “monolithic” in the past, adding that the types of methodologies scholars employ in studying literature are more diverse than they have ever been.

Ledingham, Cornelius and Rampell all pointed to the Race, Gender and Sexuality Studies Colloquium, currently in its first year and co-founded by Anusha Alles GRD ’18 and Julia Chan GRD ’18, as a marker of another trend in the changing landscape of literary study. Cornelius said that

this colloquium came together because a group of graduate students felt that specific issues of race, gender and sexuality needed to be explored in a way that transcended the “geographic and chronological boundaries within the existing structure.”

Students and faculty interviewed said that the colloquia often collaborate to co-sponsor events, which allows those who present work at these seminars to receive feedback from experts in their specific area of research as well as from scholars in other fields. For example, Cornelius hosted an event on Jan. 15 entitled “Gower’s Ethics: Interior, Exterior, Outside” through the Theory and Media Studies Colloquium. He noted that discussing his specific, medieval-era topic with non-medievalists ultimately influenced the final edits

he has made to his forthcoming paper on the subject.

Schirmeister highlighted that these events are essential to fostering an intellectual community of graduate students, which she says undergraduates at Yale have more access to through classes and programs such as master’s teas.

“I’m not sure that students at the outset necessarily understand how important it is to go to these things, and you also need faculty support,” she said.

The next event co-sponsored by an English Department colloquium will take place next Wednesday and will feature the medievalist David McCann from the University of Oxford, St. Anne’s.

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

IF YOU MISSED IT SCORES

NCAAM West Virginia 65 Kansas St. 59

NCAAM Xavier 66 Georgetown 53

SPORTS QUICK HITS

NBA Toronto 104 Indiana 91

NHL Columbus 4 Washington 3

y

KELSEY NOLAN ’17 PLAYER OF THE YEAR Nolan was among four players to receive field hockey team honors at the postseason banquet on Sunday. Megan Kirkham ’15 won the Coaches’ Award, Jessie Accurso ’15 earned the Amanda Walton Award and Tess Thompson ’18 was awarded the Senior Award.

MATT TOWNSEND ’15 STARRING OFF THE COURT On Friday, Townsend was announced as one of 30 finalists for the Senior CLASS Award, given to a studentathlete who makes a positive impact in his/her community. On the court, Townsend has made 16 starts this season, averaging 8.2 points per contest.

NHL Pittsburgh 5 Winnipeg 3

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

“[Tamara Simpson ’18] is going to be a huge part of Yale basketball going forward … [Her] future is very bright.”

CLARE FITZPATRICK WOMEN’S BASKETBALL YALE DAILY NEWS · WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2015 · yaledailynews.com

Simpson steps up for Elis

BY DANIELA BRIGHENTI STAFF REPORTER When Yale women’s basketball captain Sarah Halejian ’15 tore her ACL, putting her out of competition for the season, the Bulldogs despaired — but little did they know that guard Tamara Simpson ’18 would step up to the plate and help the Elis secure wins in their first two Ivy games.

The young guard came through in the clutch for Yale in its first game without Halejian, hitting the game-winning layup with 10 seconds left to beat Maine 57–55, and she has remained a fixture in the Bulldogs’ attack all season long.

“We knew right as she walked on campus that she had tremendous ability,” assistant coach Clare Fitzpatrick said. “She has a knack for the game and great basketball IQ.” Simpson knew she wanted to play basketball at the collegiate level as early as elementary school. In high school at Portledge School in Locust Valley, New York, she accumulated over 2,000 career points and led the school to a championship win in her senior year.

Simpson credited much of her success in high school and at Yale to the great influences she had growing up, such as her siblings and teammates. At Portledge, several older classmates were on their way to the college level, and she saw herself following in their footsteps. Simpson said she was always focused on getting to the next level, taking advantage of

opportunities and doing what she needed to do to succeed.

Looking back, Simpson says her three siblings were also fundamental to her basketball career.

“I always wanted to beat my older siblings when playing with them, and they encouraged me to work harder and be better,” Simpson said.

Although the Bulldog said she has always loved basketball since a very young age, one of the biggest reasons she chose Yale was due to her passion for learning.

Simpson explained that she wanted to go to an Ivy League school because she thought it would provide her with a nice balance between academics and basketball.

“I wanted to keep my options open since I wasn’t sure if I wanted to pursue basketball after college,” Simpson said.

Both Simpson and her teammates are happy that she chose to come to Yale. Halejian said that although at first Simpson was quiet and the team could not get a read on her, she has now come out of her shell and is a pleasure to be around.

The captain added that Simpson has proved crucial to the program this year.

“Tamara is a fierce competitor and always wants to win, which is a very important quality to have in the Ivy League,” Halejian said.

“She has grown to be one of the main contributors to the team this year … [She] has the potential to develop into one of the best SEE SIMPSON PAGE 8

SARAH ONORATO

BASKETBALL

The holiday of hype

SAM RUBIN/YALE SPORTS PUBLICITY

Guard Tamara Simpson ’18 is third on the women’s basketball team in scoring average with 8.8 points per game.

Alumni fund new polo arena

While the northeast braved a blizzard on Tuesday, Phoenix, Arizona braved a storm of its own. Tuesday was the National Football League’s Super Bowl Media Day, a chance for media outlets from around the world to interview players and coaches leading up to Sunday’s big game.

The Super Bowl has become one of perhaps the most ritualized spectacles in all of sports, and Media Day is an important component of the event. While Super Bowl Sunday is the main attraction, the buildup to the big day is now just as important.

The Super Bowl has become a sports fan’s Christmas, and the two weeks between the conference championships and the game have become their holiday season.

This year’s lead up to the Super Bowl has been particularly turbulent and unavoidable. The onslaught of media coverage of “Deflategate” or Marshawn Lynch’s crude gesture has been overwhelming and hard to ignore. These stories have been woven into the Super Bowl narrative, have been the topics of endless debate, and have, at times, stolen the spotlight away from the actual game to be played on Sunday.

The Official Media Day takes some of SEE ONORATO PAGE 8

Yale hoops, by the numbers

BY ROBERT HESS II CONTRIBUTING REPORTER With the non-conference season in the rearview mirror for the Yale men’s basketball team, and with a pair of Ivy contests under its belt, the sample size is large enough that statistics begin to paint a more complete picture of the Bulldogs. And the numbers corroborate the standings: The Elis is the team to beat in the Ancient Eight.

MEN’S BASKETBALL Heading into the 2014–15 season, the consensus among major sports outlets was that Harvard would repeat as Ivy League champion, while Yale would once again finish second. This, of course, was far from a bold prediction, considering that Crimson coach Tommy Amaker brings in strong recruiting classes. In addition, reigning Ivy League Player of the Year Wesley Saun-

ders was returning to a team that made some noise in the NCAA Tournament for a second straight year. However, after just two conference games, the Crimson has faltered, losing 70–61 to Dartmouth at home and falling out of first place in the conference.

That position currently belongs to the Yale Bulldogs. The Elis sit atop the Ivy League thanks to a sweep of Brown coupled with SEE BASKETBALL PAGE 8

JULIAN CHERNYK/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

The Yale Polo and Equestrian Center purchased the new facility for $1.35 million in December.

BY GREG CAMERON STAFF REPORTER The intercollegiate teams of the Yale Polo Club started off 2015 with mixed results this past weekend, as the men’s squad rode to an easy victory over Brown, but the women’s team faltered on its home arena against Skidmore. For members of the Yale teams, though, the opening games were not nearly as important as the venue the matches were played in.

CLUB POLO Five years after the University closed down the stables portion of the Yale Armory and forced the Yale Polo Club to a temporary loca-

tion off campus, the organization has finally secured enough alumni funding to find a new home. The new facility in Bethany, Conn., which opened two weeks ago and hosted its first competitions this weekend, will give the program unlimited arena time as well as the ability to train indoors — and to many members on the team, it signals the rejuvenation of the Yale polo program.

“Already in the two weeks since we moved into the new barn, I feel as though the team dynamic has changed,” women’s player Lucinda Denney ’17 said. “Having an official home base that is ours, and one that is so amazing, has made everyone really excited SEE CLUB POLO PAGE 8

STAT OF THE DAY 3

JAMES BADAS/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

Forward Justin Sears ’16 scored 27 points in the Elis’ 69–65 win over Brown.

NUMBER OF STEALS BY TAMARA SIMPSON ’18 IN EACH OF HER PREVIOUS THREE GAMES. The freshman guard is averaging 1.9 steals per game on the season, a team best.