NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT · FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2015 · VOL. CXXXVII, NO. 88 · yaledailynews.com
INSIDE THE NEWS MORNING EVENING
COLD CLOUDY
15 4
CROSS CAMPUS
SURVIVING, LIVING YALE AFTER SEXUAL VIOLENCE
NOT GOOD ENOUGH
SCAN-CASTLE
INADEQUATE MENTAL HEALTH RESOURCES FAIL STUDENTS
PATIENTS, PARENTS EMBRACE NEW PEDIATRIC MRI.
PAGE B3 WEEKEND
PAGE 2 OPINION
PAGE 5 SCI-TECH
Profs spar on Charlie Hebdo, free speech
Luck ’n love. You’ll need the
former today (Friday the 13th) and the latter tomorrow (Valentine’s Day/Iraqi Communist Martyrs’ Day) — and if you have enough charm for both, well, congratulations.
PARTY EMERITUS Alumni celebrate Feb Club in over 115 cities around the world. PAGE 7 UNIVERSITY
Sandy Hook Commission draft emphasizes mental health
And then there’s Monday.
Perhaps the most important of the next three days, President’s Day is a federal holiday, i.e., grounds to have no classes. But Yale insists on pressing on, so press on we shall (unless we get hit by a lot of snow for the third Monday in a row — keep your fingers crossed, folks).
BY SKYLER INMAN STAFF REPORTER
Muhammad in satirical publications can be construed as racism. Unlike Pope Francis, who is also often the subject of satire but who can be identified easily with such visual elements like the tiara and crosier, Muhammad is not easily identifiable due to the lack of visual representation in the Islam tradition. As a result, Muhammad is often drawn as some “stupid-looking Middle Easterner, with one or two or five wives around him,” Griffel said. Such representation is racist, Griffel argued, and shows the oppressed con-
Two years and two months after the fatal shooting of 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., the 16-person Sandy Hook Advisory Commission has released a draft of its final report suggesting changes to school security and mental health policies across the state. The 256-page report, which the commission expects to present to Gov. Dannel Malloy in March, offers recommendations to revise current legislation on school safety, mental health and gun violence prevention. Since Malloy created the commission in January 2013, the group has heard testimonies from over 100 experts. In its current form, the draft lists its final recommendations to the governor, including 12 recommendations for improving school safety, 30 for reducing gun violence and 53 for improvements to mental health care in the state. “This report cannot bring back their loved ones who died, nor can it heal the wounds of the living,” the report said. “But the commission hopes that this report will provide some solace by proposing recommendations that may help other children, parents, teachers and communities avoid
SEE CHARLIE HEBDO PAGE 6
SEE SANDY HOOK PAGE 6
For the last-second planners.
Naturally, Yalies everywhere will be trying to show off how cultural they are on Saturday. And fortunately for them, there will be no shortage of opportunities to do so: YSO, Yale Ballroom and Shades are all staging Valentine’s events. Even more Shades. And if
you’re not necessarily trying for sophisticated, there’s the “50 Shades of Grey” movie and Sigma Chi’s parties this weekend. Sorry for throwing shade. Romantic ritual. Yesterday, YaleNews took a crack at answering “Why we embrace the ritual of Valentine’s Day” by sitting down with sociology professor Jeffrey Alexander for a Q&A. “It’s a way to liven up a dark winter,” Alexander says. That’s one way to put it. “Love Actually” in actuality.
Apparently, the 2003 rom-com took place in London, which is also where the Yale in London 2015 summer program will take place, believe it or not. If you end up bored enough on Saturday night, could be worth trying your luck across the pond. Deadline is Sunday. Enough is enough. Yesterday, Ashton Carter ’76 was confirmed by the United States Senate as the next Defense Secretary, a little more than two months after being nominated for the post by President Barack Obama. Don’t worry, we’re not even going to try to spin this one into a Valentine’s Day thing. It begins. Today marks
the start of Harvard’s inevitable colonization of Yale’s Computer Science Department. Information sessions about CS50 staffing opportunities will take place at 1 p.m. and 4 p.m.
An alternative. Fortunately,
there’s another place to be at 4 p.m.: the Yale Economic Review’s event with economist Jeffrey Sachs, who will be speaking on climate change. Stop by if you would rather not feed the Harvard machine/ need material for your PLSC 214 policy memo.
THIS DAY IN YALE HISTORY
1948 The Whiffenpoofs and Pundits announce “Whoosh!” a collaborative musicomedy. Follow the News to get the news.
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ELIZABETH MILES/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Roughly 50 students and professors gathered to discuss the satire of Charlie Hebdo, especially with regard to Islam.
BY ANDI WANG CONTRIBUTING REPORTER “Compared to Charlie Hebdo, I much prefer Charlie Chaplin, who never mocked the poor, the suffering and the suppressed,” professor of Hebrew language and literature Hannan Hever said Thursday evening. Hever was part of a discussion with five other experts in political theory, religious studies and international relations on the January massacre of 12 people at the Charlie Hebdo magazine. The discussion in Linsly-Chit-
tenden Hall drew roughly 50 students and professors to address the magazine’s depiction of the prophet Muhammad and the massacre at its office on Jan. 7. While Hever claimed that satire is sometimes used as a form of political oppression from the privileged, panelist and diplomat in residence Charles Hill said freedom of all speech, with the exception of hate speech, is essential to modern societies. Professor of religious studies and international and area studies Frank Griffel, another panelist, echoed Hever and said the visual depiction of
Yale Health to push MyChart patient portal BY AMAKA UCHEGBU STAFF REPORTER While Yale Health patients have been able to schedule appointments online since the beginning of 2014, this semester, Yale Health plans to make a renewed push to convince students to use the service. MyChart is a part of Yale Health’s year-old Electronic Medical Record system, Epic, which facilitates information sharing between physicians and hospitals, as well as
allowing more departments to move away from paper records. Through MyChart, patients can see their medical records and lab results, book appointments and securely message their clinicians, all online. While MyChart has been functional since Jan. 27, 2014, in two months, Yale Health plans to send a campus-wide email, which will include a link that allows students to easily activate their MyChart accounts, to encourage more people to use it.
Pushback stalls grad housing plan BY NOAH DAPONTE-SMITH STAFF REPORTER In a move that may complicate Yale’s plans to move graduate student housing around the corner from the Hall of Graduate Studies on York Street to a lot on Elm Street, the Board of Zoning Appeals postponed a hearing scheduled for Tuesday after a city zoning official raised concerns about Yale’s request. The graduate housing — expected to rise six stories, with the first two devoted to commercial space — would contravene current zoning regulations for the parking lot, neighboring Tyco Printing, where Yale plans to the build the dormitory. Yale has applied for a variance from the board, which would allow the University to proceed with the construction in spite of the zoning violations. Before Tuesday’s hearing, Deputy Director of Zoning Thomas Talbot submitted a report arguing against
“[MyChart] offers an electronic solution to an electronically savvy population,” said Chief of Student Health and Athletic Medicine at Yale Health Andrew Gotlin, explaining that the ability to navigate health services online would be particularly convenient for college students. According to Yale Health Medical Director Michael Rigsby MED ’88, only 30 percent of Yale Health patients have activated their MyChart accounts. While every stu-
dent has an account created for them automatically, only those who have activatived their accounts can use them. Activation is simple — users follow an online link and enter a user name and password when prompted. Of the 30 percent of those who have activated accounts, only 40 percent are students, meaning that only 20 percent of Yale’s student population uses MyChart. According to Rigsby, the age range that typically takes advantage of
MyChart “defies assumptions.” “I get an awful amount of patients in their 60s and 70s that use MyChart,” said Rigsby. Rigsby said the low usage of MyChart among Yale students is disappointing, given the striking advantages it offers. Having greater access to individual health information empowers patients to make decisions for themselves, he said. Joel Bervell ’17, who had SEE MYCHART PAGE 4
FFY postpones Global Divestment Day action
Yale’s request for a variance. Yale’s attorneys subsequently asked the board to postpone the hearing to next month’s meeting. University spokesman Tom Conroy said the University requested the hearing be postponed so that it could “work to address comments made by city staff.” Conroy did not explicitly mention Talbot’s report. At issue in the zoning dispute is the question of whether the board should grant a variance, an exception from the rules governing municipal land use, or Yale should be required to petition for wholesale changes to the regulations for the lot. Talbot argued that Yale should do the latter, according to the New Haven Independent. Yale, meanwhile, has argued that the irregular shape of the parking lot where it plans to build the housing creates a par-
With the first-ever Global Divestment Day scheduled for this weekend, Fossil Free Yale is looksing to revive the campus push for divestment. But it remains unclear if, and when, their efforts will come to fruition. In fact, the event, which was meant to be held on Saturday, has been postponed indefinitely. FFY Project Manager Mitch Barrows ’16 said the delay is due to unfavorable weather conditions and other logistical issues, including some cancellations from speakers and performance groups. The postponement was made final as of Thursday evening. Meanwhile, on Thursday morning, 40 students from Divest Harvard, Harvard’s own
SEE GRAD HOUSING PAGE 4
SEE DIVESTMENT PAGE 4
BY JED FINLEY AND LARRY MILSTEIN STAFF REPORTERS
WILLIAM FREEDBERG/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
An action in honor of Global Divestment Day, originally scheduled for Saturday, has been postponed indefinitely.