NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT · FRIDAY, APRIL 4, 2014 · VOL. CXXXVI, NO. 112 · yaledailynews.com
INSIDE THE NEWS MORNING EVENING
RAIN RAIN
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CROSS CAMPUS Yale Law School Musical.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Zac Efron has been cast as a Yale Law School graduate in the upcoming film adaptation of John Grisham’s 2009 novel “The Associate.” The film follows the YLS graduate as he is blackmailed by a criminal group into taking a job at the world’s largest law firm where he serves as a spy on a dispute between two multi-billion dollar defense contractors. Let the hunger games begin.
Sunday marks the start of New Haven restaurant week, offering you six days of alternatives to the Yale Dining diet. Participating restaurants are offering three-course, prix fixe menus at $18 for lunch and $32 for dinner
The Storming of Toad’s.
Members of the Yale Precision Marching Band took to Toad’s this Wednesday in “attack bands.” Marching band members of Team Y stormed the premises and played “I Love It” by Icona Pop. Tea time.The Green Teahouse
at 1008 Chapel St. is hosting its grand opening today. The affair will feature a traditional Chinese Lion Dance as well as a tea pouring ceremony for Mayor Toni Harp. The Teahouse offers traditional Chinese loose leaf teas as well as tea pots and cups. The Zen atmosphere comes free.
Battle of the bars. A cocktail
competition is being held tonight at 45 Church St., hosted by On9. Local mixologists will be pitted against each other to see who can create the best alcoholic beverage, competing for the titles of “Signature Cocktail for 2014” and “People’s Choice” cocktail. The winning cocktail is to be featured at On9 events for 2014.
Tea Time again. The annual Edible Book Tea is being hosted by Creative Arts Workshop this weekend. An edible book is defined as “something you can eat and it looks like a book and/ or makes reference to a book title, content, or structure.” Entries from last year included Slaughterhouse Five — a meat and cheese platter, Madeline — madeline cookies, Grapes of Wrath — decorated bowl of grapes, and more. The only entry fee is “bring some tea!” Shoot for the moon, if you
miss you’ll land in an unpaid internship. The Harvard Crimson recently published a feature on unpaid internships. The piece concludes that an unpaid internship “is experience that you pay for.” THIS DAY IN YALE HISTORY
1966 Three senior society members announce in an open letter they plan to help in the formation of new societies for juniors who are not tapped or who rejected taps on Tap Day. Four existing societies endorsed this initiative. Submit tips to Cross Campus
crosscampus@yaledailynews.com
ONLINE y MORE goydn.com/xcampus
M. BASKETBALL TEAM FALLS IN CIT TITLE GAME
GOING GREEN
URBAN AGRICULTURE
Branford College leads campus sustainability efforts
ELM CITY FARM NONPROFIT TO TRIPLE OUTPUT
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Beloved French professor dies BY PHOEBE KIMMELMAN AND MATTHEW LLOYD-THOMAS STAFF REPORTERS Pierre Capretz, a former French professor at Yale and a worldrenowned leader in French language teaching, died in Aix-en-Provence, France on Tuesday. He was 89. Best known as the creator of “French in Action,” a languagelearning program composed of textbooks and a widely-broadcast television series, Capretz taught at Yale for nearly half a century. During his time at the University, Capretz emphasized improving pedagogy in the French Department through immersing students in everyday French conversations, according to his colleagues. “If you look at what he created, it still ranks among the best [teaching materials] in terms of learning languages,” French professor Ruth Koizim said. Born in 1925, Capretz grew up in France and attended the University of Paris. Four years after the end of the Second World War, Capretz arrived in Gainesville, Fla. on an army boat. The next morning, he began teaching Latin at the University of Florida, Capretz told the News in 2010. When Capretz moved on to teaching French, he said he found that the subject was taught using dull textbooks. Creating “French in Action” was an attempt to rectify that problem, he said. “I thought we had to change the way we were doing it, and that a better way to teach French would be to
BUDGET CUTS People’s Caucus budget plan comes under criticism at meeting PAGE 7 CITY
Penalty sought for animal violations BY HANNAH SCHWARZ STAFF REPORTER
“He did an enormous job at trying to make the French department a language-teaching department,” said French emeritus professor Chuck Porter GRD ’58. “In general it was the one that would have gotten the least help from the older members of the department, who were all literature people.” Capretz was catapulted to national attention in 1987 with the airing of the “French in Action” television series on PBS. Produced by the Bos-
In a complaint filed with the United States Department of Agriculture on Monday, the animal rights organization Stop Animal Exploitation NOW! (SAEN) urged the USDA to impose a $60,000 fine on Yale for multiple self-reported animal welfare violations. In February and August 2012, associate vice president for research administration Andrew Rudczynski informed the National Institutes of Health of the three violations, as required by NIH funding regulations. SAEN obtained the reports through a filing with the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). While the names of the researchers and locations of the labs are not included in the self-reports, as required by FOIA regulations, the filings detail a series of human errors that led to 33 animal deaths in Yale laboratories between August 2011 and June 2012. “Yale has clearly demonstrated incompetence that has killed multiple animals,” said SAEN executive director Michael Budkie in an April 1 press release. “This bungling laboratory deserves the maximum penalty allowable under the law.” University Spokesperson Tom Conroy said in a Thursday afternoon email that Yale has not been notified of the complaint, but will be fully cooperative if notified. According to the University reports, on Aug. 1, 2011, a dog died after an oxygen tank malfunctioned. Seventeen hamsters died on June 28, 2012, the same day a laboratory staff member
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Capretz was known for his audiovisual innovations in the teaching of French. put the students in front of what I call reach French — that is, French that is used in real contexts,” Capretz said. “So that’s where the idea came from.” Capretz moved to Yale in 1956, where he began developing “French in Action” with recordings and visual aids for his students. Attempting to immerse students in the language, Capretz took some 10,000 photographs around France. In his early years at the University, Capretz’s colleagues said he played a major role in refocusing the French Department on teaching.
Mysterious graffiti artist returns to Yale BY GEORGE SAUSSY CONTRIBUTING REPORTER Believe in People has left his mark on another Yale building. The graffiti artist known as BiP, left a plaque outside of the Yale Art Gallery’s Kahn Building facing York St on Monday night. The plaque was made of wood treated to imitate bronze and was mounted using caulk,
and claimed to be a part of the National Register of Historic places. It purported to mark the place on the wall where fictional graffiti writer Sam Dilvan, whose name is an anagram for “vandalism,” had written the word “BOOBZ.” The full text of the plaque reads, “National Register of Historic Places” followed by “This plaque marks the site
on which Sam Dilvan use a felt marker to scrawl the minimalist yet emotionally complex tag “BOOBZ,” preceding such works of artistic genius as “ASS BUTT” and “GILF MAGNET.” This occurred during his oft-celebrated ‘BALLZ’ period. Although the original is no longer visible, Dilvan’s penchant for using words carelessly throughout his environment
remains a guiding force in modern society and culture.” The plaque was taken down by gallery workers almost as soon as BiP posted on his Twitter account, taking credit for the piece. However, the Gallery decided to put the plaque on display outside the museum’s main entrance from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. yesterday. The idea to display the plaque
came from Jock Reynolds, the director of the Yale Art Gallery. He said in a Gallery press release that the plaque should remain available for the public to consider. The Gallery has also extended an invitation for BiP to claim the piece, stating that if the piece remains unclaimed it will be auctioned off and the SEE BELIEVE IN PEOPLE PAGE 6
Faculty defend new Profs weigh evaluations college expenses BY YUVAL BEN-DAVID STAFF REPORTER
BY ADRIAN RODRIGUES STAFF REPORTER In 2007, the price tag of the two new residential colleges was projected to be nearly $600 million. Six years later, cost projections have fallen by almost $100 million. Although the University has curbed construction costs for the project since the recession, the residential colleges remain more expensive than most residential college construction projects at Yale’s peer institutions in recent years. And with a price tag of approximately $500 million, the new colleges are also among the most expensive capital projects on any single site in Connecticut. Though 10 faculty members interviewed declined to comment on the cost of the new colleges, 10 other professors said the importance of expanding Yale College through the establishment of two new residential colleges justifies the planned expenditure. “I think one has to take a holistic and a longer term view of any capital project,” School of Management professor Ravi
Dhar said in an email. “I trust the [University’s] overall strategy and commitment to ensure capital projects are built for the long term.” Morse College Master Amy Hungerford — who serves on the Ad Hoc Committee of the Yale College Expansion and the Budget Committee — said the original plans for the new residential colleges were made before the financial recession, at a time of budget surpluses. She said the University reconsidered those plans once a $250-million gift from Charles Johnson this fall made it possible to begin moving forward again on the colleges, which will be funded entirely using donations rather than the University’s budget. As work had already been done to prepare the building site for the original plans, Hungerford said the options to change cost structures were somewhat limited. Despite these constraints, she said she believes the University has made good attempts to rein in costs. SEE CAPITAL PROJECTS PAGE 4
Two months after the controversy surrounding Yale Bluebook Plus raised questions about Yale’s online course evaluations, faculty members have begun to discuss potential tweaks to the course evaluation process. At Thursday’s Yale College faculty meeting, approximately 60 faculty members spoke in general terms about potential changes to the content and wording of the course evaluation system, according to Yale College Dean Mary Miller. Rather than debating specifics, professors used the meeting as an opportunity to “think out loud” on the issues, Miller said. Prior to the meeting, the Teaching, Learning and Advising Committee had already met with the directors of undergraduate studies and department chairs in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences to solicit ideas about the evaluations, Miller said, adding that the committee will now convene to make specific recommendations for changes. The University shut down Yale Bluebook Plus — a student-created website that let
BRIANNA LOO/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
Faculty members have begun to discuss possible alterations to the online course evaluation system. students easily sort classes by course and instructor evaluations — on the premise that the website had violated Yale’s online acceptable use policy. At the time, Miller told the News that the website also violated the spirit of the University’s long-standing agreement with the faculty to not let the quantitative component of instructor evaluations get in the way of a holistic assessment. Still, Miller said faculty
members at the Thursday faculty meeting voiced both support and opposition to the practice of using quantitative data in course evaluations. “There are members of the faculty who would like to see more quantitative data assembled, and there are some who would like less,” Miller said. Miller said it was hard to gauge whether more faculty SEE FACULTY MTG PAGE 4