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NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT · TUESDAY, MARCH 25, 2014 · VOL. CXXXVI, NO. 104 · yaledailynews.com

INSIDE THE NEWS MORNING EVENING

SNOW SNOW

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CROSS CAMPUS Bye-bye Brooks Brothers!

University administrators have confirmed that 1 Broadway Ave., which has been unoccupied since the closing of Au Bon Pain last year, will not be leased to Brooks Brothers. Fans of highend men’s clothing will sadly have to resign themselves to shopping for Nantucket reds at J. Press, Jack Willis, or some other preppy local purveyor.

Spilling secrets. A private

visit to campus from former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger was leaked to the press on Monday. An invitation sent out yesterday morning to a panlist consisting mostly of Yale graduate students in history stated, “Dr. Kissinger’s visit to campus will not be publicized, so we appreciate your confidentiality.” Despite the request to keep the meeting hush-hush, the email invite was subsequently forwarded to Salon.

The lineup. Almost as exciting

as the Spring Fling lineup, student speakers for Class Day 2014 have been announced.

The serious reflection will be delivered by Lauren Harris ’14, the comic reflection by Ariel Kirshenbaum ’14 and the Ivy ode by Ifeanyi Awachie ’14, according to a Monday email from Class Day organizers.

The usual suspects. Brown

University has announced its Spring Weekend lineup, and it includes two repeats from Yale’s Spring Fling lineup: Diplo and Chance the Rapper. Brown will also have performances from Andrew Bird and Lauryn Hill.

COGNITION MONKEYS NOT FOUND CURIOUS

CORPORATION

TENNIS

Yale Corporation names Dervan and Kennard as new trustees

BULLDOGS KICK OFF SPRING SEASON WITH SUCCESS

PAGES 10-11 SCITECH

PAGE 3 NEWS

PAGE 12 SPORTS

of speakers of TEDxYale 2014 has been announced. Included on the list are Branford Master Elizabeth Bradley, professor Robert Shiller, former Yale College Council President John Gonzalez ’14 and magician Jen Kramer ’14.

THIS DAY IN YALE HISTORY

1933 The Yale College Council votes to fund a Spring Fling where student and professional bands will perform.

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PAGE 3 CITY

BY YUVAL BEN-DAVID STAFF REPORTER Less than a year after stepping down from the Yale presidency, Richard Levin has been named the next chief executive officer of the online education outfit Coursera.

Levin’s appointment to lead Coursera — an online platform for Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) used by 108 schools including Yale, Princeton, Columbia, Stanford and the University of Pennsylvania — was announced Monday on the company’s blog. Noting Levin’s business acumen and enthusiasm for online education, Coursera co-founders Daphne Koller and Andrew Ng said on the website that Levin would help their company achieve its ultimate goal: “to change the world through education.”

In recent years, Coursera has shot to the forefront of the online education trend, popularizing the idea of MOOCs, which allow for global online participation in courses through a video platform.

Levin told the News that the job offer rolled out of a converSEE COURSERA PAGE6

HENRY EHRENBERG/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

Former Yale University President Richard Levin will continue to shape education as the new CEO of Coursera.

Van Gogh suit dismissed

BY MATTHEW LLOYD-THOMAS STAFF REPORTER A Vincent Van Gogh masterpiece whose rightful ownership has generated international controversy will remain on the walls of the Yale University Art Gallery for the foreseeable future.

On Thursday, U.S. District Judge for Connecticut Alvin Thompson dismissed a claim by French citizen Pierre Konowaloff that he is the rightful owner of “The Night Café” — valued at $200 million — and that Yale should return the painting and pay damages of $75,000.

Konowaloff is the great-grandson of

a Russian aristocrat who owned the painting before it was confiscated by Bolsheviks during the Russian Revolution in 1918.

The painting arrived in 1961 at the YUAG, where it is currently on display in the European art wing.

SEE VAN GOGH PAGE 4

Yale partners with Chinese university

BY MATTHEW LLOYD-THOMAS STAFF REPORTER Yale moved globalization efforts forward last week, announcing a joint venture with leading Chinese research institution Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU).

University President Peter Salovey and SJTU President Zhang Jie signed the centerinto existence during Salovey’s trip to Shanghai last week. Salovey and other administrators said they hope the center, which will focus on biostatistics, will lead to richer research opportunities than either institution could create on its own.

“An ultimate goal is to identify and facilitate research collaborations not just with biostatisticians at Yale, but colleagues at Yale School of Medicine interested in clinical issues that are a priority at SJTU, such as lung cancer and diabetes,” said School of Public Health Dean Paul Cleary, one of the leading administrators in the push to create

Spring break forever.

One more lineup. The lineup

Yale Undergraduate Prison Project tutors incorporate rap

Levin named CEO of Coursera

Cornell + Cornell = Yale. MIT students have created a new version of the viral online game 2048, one that allows players to combine colleges instead of numbers until they reach “MIT.” In the game, two Cornells combine to make a Yale, two Yales combine to make a Harvard, and two Harvards make an MIT. Eleven schools are featured in the game.

Professor Akhil Amar arrived at his Constitutional Law class around 20 minutes late on Monday. He apologized with the excuse “Sorry guys, it’s been a long spring break.”

Amar then realized he had forgotten his casebook and had to leave again to retrieve it.

TUTORING

YALE UNIVERSITY ART GALLERY

Pierre Konowaloff’s claim to Vincent Van Gogh’s “The Night Cafe” was dismissed last week.

SEE SHANGHAI PAGE 6

Salovey talks town-gown relations

BY ISAAC STANLEY-BECKER STAFF REPORTER A meet-and-greet, not a negotiation.

That was the intent of a dialogue on Monday evening between Yale President Peter Salovey and the Board of Alders, the legislative arm of New Haven government.

On the heels of major transitions in University and city leadership — Salovey’s rise to the presidency last summer and the election of Mayor Toni Harp last fall — town and gown came together to underscore their mutual interests and shared commitments.

First, though, Salovey challenged the very idea of there being a discrete town and gown.

“This is my home. I think of myself as of New Haven as much as a I think of myself as of Yale,” Salovey told roughly 20 members of the Board gathered in a second-floor City Hall meeting room. “I’m very much not one of these people who thinks in terms of town and gown. It’s all the same to me. This is where I’ve lived my whole adult life. This is my hometown.”

Salovey, who first came to Yale as a graduate student when he was 23, dwelled extensively on his personal investment in New Haven. He said he decided to remain within city limits out of an appreciation for urban life — but also as a “political” choice to ensure SEE SALOVEY PAGE 4

ISAAC STANLEY-BECKER/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

Salovey focused on his personal relationship with and strong dedication to the city in his speech.

PAGE 2

YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, MARCH 25, 2014 · yaledailynews.com

OPINION

.COMMENT “The nominal cost doesn't matter; it's all about the effective (i.e. actual out-ofyaledailynews.com/opinion

A letter from Kiev W

A LOOK AT UKRAINE'S CRISIS FROM MAIDAN A new type of tranquility pervades Maidan. The blockades made up of cobblestones, trash and street signs still scar this recently violent scene, but now flowers dwarf these military mementos. Over the last few weeks, citizens and foreign visitors have arranged thousands of flowers, covering nearly the entire square in a wash of color that seems eerily out of place with the gray skies and buildings, and the even grayer “big brother” to the north. Although visitors to Maidan have exchanged cobblestones for cameras, the peace that has emerged in Maidan is not a passive one.

Instead, this peace still fights for Ukraine.

As is so important not only in the Bible, but also in the legitimization of states, names are evolving to accommodate this new Ukraine.

Instytutska Street, home to the Ukraine Hotel that functioned as a pockmarked hospital and morgue, now has a new name: “Street of the Unforgotten Hundred,” a homage to the nearly 100 Ukrainians killed during the fighting.

The “Unforgotten Hundred” is the true reason why protestors still remain at Maidan — to ensure that those killed here died for a reason: a less corrupt and more democratic Ukraine.

Every morning at 7 o’clock, an Orthodox priest climbs onto

the makeshift stage anchoring the center of Maidan and leads in prayer everyone that the loudspeakers reach — the entirety of the square, along with the neighboring apartment buildings. The city awakes to prayers honoring the fallen as well as reminders that they died for the good of all Ukrainians.

Unfortunately, Russia’s incursion into Crimea following the overthrow of Yanukovych has made the future of Ukraine less certain and threatens to tear apart a country only 23 years after its independence from the USSR. But as it did in the past few months, Maidan again offers the possibility of saving Ukraine. The true struggle of Ukrainians — past, present and future — is the task of creating a national myth, a history that binds together people into a nation. The protest in Kiev over the last three months might serve as that foundation. I spoke to a high-level official in the interim government who said, “Maidan can unite our nation, from those in the east with those in the west.”

But in order for this to occur, the memorials, flowers and prayers at Maidan would have to grow. They could no longer be for only the unforgotten hundreds who died at Maidan.

Instead, the entire unforgotten nation would all have to be included — the Ukrainian soldiers on the Crimean peninsula now being recalled north, the protestors in the eastern cities of Donetsk and Kharkiv, the Crimean Tatars and the Russian-speaking voters in Crimea.

Maidan, in the view of many Ukrainians I spoke to, offers a place and opportunity to begin to stitch together the country. A bond crafted in solidarity from western Ukraine with those in eastern Ukraine would, in this view, send a resounding message not only to Russia, but also to the rest of the world that there is a real meaning and country behind that once-empty word.

This desire, while admirable, seems everyday to be more forlorn. It has been famously said that in dreams lie responsibility. It may also be that some dreams are doomed to be stillborn.

In Kiev, as in much of Ukraine, the moment to rally a fractured nation is slipping away.

PAUL WASSERMAN is a senior in Silliman College. He just returned from a week in Kiev. Contact him at paul.wasserman@yale.edu .

'SAYNOTOFALSELOGIC' ON 'COST OF ATTENDING YALE TO INCREASE 4 PERCENT'

The Flappy Bird Test

GUEST COLUMNIST PA U L WA S S E R M A N

hen you walk through Independence Square, smoke still simmers in the air. The acrid scent of burning tires lingers; despite bonfires now burning wood instead of wheels after the fleeing of the president, the smell of burning rubber nonetheless seems baked into crevasses, both seen and unseen.

Even three weeks after protestors at Maidan overthrew Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, many people still occupy this central Kievan square. Their purpose, as well as the ethos of the square and the events it now symbolizes, is different, however.

Gone is the call to overthrow a corrupt government. Gone is the violence that resulted in nearly 100 deaths. Gone is the revolution. Instead, Maidan has evolved from its forwardlooking protests to a memorial to its recent past.

pocket) cost.”

MICHAEL MCHUGH/STAFF ILLUSTRATOR

L

ast year, a little-known game quietly entered the mobile app market. Its premise was relatively simple: Users would try to fly a small bird through gaps in a series of pipes, earning one point for each pipe. Despite its simplicity, the game gradually developed a cult following, and by February of this year, over 50 million smart phone users across the world had latched onto the addicting game to make it the No. 1 app on the market. Both procrastinators and those looking for an excuse to be anti-social rejoiced; Flappy Bird had officially gone viral.

On the production side, this basic game looked like any developer’s dream. At its peak, Flappy Bird was generating over $50,000 every day from ad sales, raking in more cash by the hour and making creator Dong Nguyen wealthy nearly overnight.

But just when it seemed no other app could match Flappy Bird’s success, Nguyen suddenly decided to pull the game from the market, tweeting out to his followers, “I cannot take this anymore. It is not anything related to legal issues. I just cannot keep it anymore.” Only after stunned gamers demanded answers did Nguyen explain he was concerned about the unintended effects of his app — he was afraid users were becoming addicted.

Nguyen had, in his eyes, created a monster. A monster he had no intention of letting loose on humanity.

TYLER o w BLACKMON a N month removed from Back to the Flappy Bird saga, Blackmon we should take time to appreciate Nguyen’s logic and its application to the decisions so many of us are forced to make every spring. In making plans for summer internships, research, or even long-term employment, students often face the same dilemma Nguyen faced with his viral app in balancing finances with social impact when choosing between offers.

These choices only become more difficult every year and eventually build up to the dreaded question we have all learned to avoid: What do you want to do with your life?

Learning to answer that single question lies at the heart of our education here, and no matter what field we enter, most of us will eventually have to deal with some kind of trade-off between wealth and noble purpose. But one way to frame that debate is to ask yourself a simple question: Do your plans pass the

Flappy Bird Test? At the end of the day, is your life work going to improve the lives of other people or merely pad your wallet?

Of course, it may very well do both. Noble purpose does not preclude wealth generation. In fact, plenty of successful leaders — from Steve Jobs to the Wright Brothers to Tina Fey — have aligned their financial incentives with the good of society by choosing to devote their lives to work that became both profitable and beneficial to their fellow citizens. And as an unabashed capitalist, I usually believe in the market’s ability to account for the wants and needs of society as a whole by allowing individuals to pursue their own economic self-interest.

But markets also fail. And when we knowingly spend our lives in a career that brings either harm or no benefit to the people around us, we have failed to tap into Nguyen’s wisdom about the nature of work. Nguyen’s genius was in showing that occasionally capitalism fails to accomplish its central goal: to establish a system best able to benefit society.

Rather, true success in business comes not just from producing more wealth, but from creating a greater good for society.

Therefore, though it is not shameful to pursue wealth, if that pursuit comes at the expense of pushing society forward, we have a moral obligation to discontinue that pursuit.

And, in fact, this test Nguyen subconsciously developed with Flappy Bird extends much further than business. A reporter who passes over a story on corruption in favor of clickbait journalism has failed the Flappy Bird Test. An engineer who chooses to build missiles rather than bridges has failed the Flappy Bird Test. An attorney who covers up environmental degradation rather than defend the innocent has failed the Flappy Bird Test.

Given the springboard of an elite education, any one of us has the power to cash in our diploma for a six-figure salary that will ensure financial security for both our children and ourselves.

But if doing so comes at the expense of our social responsibility to improve the world around us, we are neither successful nor admirable. We have failed.

Ultimately, however, the beauty of Nguyen’s decision is that he came to his conclusion of his own volition. Rewiring the brain to consider your impact when evaluating your goals requires you to ask yourself the same question over and over again: Does this pass the Flappy Bird Test?

TYLER BLACKMON is a sophomore in Jonathan Edwards College.

His columns run on alternate Tuesdays. Contact him at tyler.blackmon@yale.edu .

G U E ST C O LU M N I ST V I V E CA M O R R I S

To be tapped, or not to be tapped

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COPYRIGHT 2014 — VOL. CXXXVI, NO. 104

“T

ell us about your best friend.” “Tell us about your favorite Yale memory.” “Tell us about something you don’t care about.”

I spent the Saturday afternoon before spring break in Woodland Café on Chapel Street multitasking — studying while unintentionally eavesdropping on a secret society interview being conducted by two seniors at the table next to me. The junior being interviewed was so earnest, speaking quickly and a little nervously. He so plainly wanted his interviewers to like him. Based on the somewhat dismissive comments the two seniors made to each other after he left, I doubt that junior will receive a tap offer.

I’ve been thinking about secret societies a lot since I left Woodland Café that day.

Senior societies have the potential to offer many genuinely good things to their members. The privilege of spending two evenings per week learning about and getting to

know a diverse group of Yalies, whom you otherwise may never have met, can engender closeness, camaraderie and new and meaningful friendships. Societies can offer the sense of belonging in a new community, good conversations and group text messages, free drinks and meals, the chance to have a uniquely “Yale” experience and an opportunity for introspection through the weekly “bios.”

Sometimes they provide a tomb, a prestigious alumni network and fancy events.

ON WHETHER THE TAP PROCESS IS WORTH IT All of these elements are valuable. The emphasis that societies place on forming friendships and having thoughtful discussions is truly unique. At best, I

imagine learning about a diverse group of people could make us more aware of others’ struggles and triumphs, demons and values — in other words, more aware of our shared humanity.

But I do not believe that these elements are the driving forces behind why we care about secret societies. I think we all care — at least I know this is true for me — primarily because being chosen for a selective group confirms our sense of worth. Sure, we may be excited about the friendships that societies could foster. But there are other equally good venues at Yale for that.

The potential for friendship is not the main reason why societies are intriguing and a hot topic of conversation. They’re exciting because being chosen makes us feel flattered, soughtafter, special. We’re human, and so we want to be wanted. Even if some of us receive tap offers and turn them down, it’s hard for me to imagine that any of us would not feel good to know that we were considered “worth getting to know” enough to be selected

in the first place.

But aye, here’s the rub. The too often unspoken secret of secret societies is that they make some of us feel wanted, special and worthy precisely because they make others of us, even if only momentarily, feel unwanted, anxious and lame.

The only point of a society being “secret” is that some of us are in and some are not.

And so, in the spirit of society interviews, I ask myself two questions.

Do I too want to receive waxsealed invitations for secret societies? Yes. But is the excitement that I would get from being selected and part of the whole system worth it to me if the process causes other juniors — even just one other junior — unnecessary pain?

I think about that eager boy in Woodland Café, and I know my answer to that question.

VIVECA MORRIS is a junior in Ezra Stiles College. Contact her at viveca.morris@yale.edu .

YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, MARCH 25, 2014 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE 3

NEWS

“Living in Cuba made me unafraid of whatever could happen to me.”

BRIT MARLING AMERICAN WRITER, DIRECTOR AND ACTRESS

Glee Club tours Cuba despite travel restrictions

BY JILLIAN KRAVATZ CONTRIBUTING REPORTER Just weeks before spring break, some members of the Yale Glee Club worried their planned tour in Cuba would have to be cancelled.

American travel to Cuba has been strictly regulated for decades as a result of U.S. sanctions against Cuba’s communist government. Though Americans with close relatives in Cuba, diplomats and certain professionals can receive general licenses to visit Cuba, others must apply for a specific license from the Office of Foreign Assets Control within the U.S. Department of the Treasury, obtain visas from Cuba and follow a Cuban-approved itinerary while in the country.

Though the Glee Club acquired its specific license in mid-January with assistance of a travel agency and Yale’s General Counsel, negotiations between Cuba and M&T Bank of Buffalo delayed the process of getting visas, according to Rachel Protacio ’15, one of the group’s student tour managers. Still, the group received visas within two weeks of departure and was able to travel to Cuba, perform at various venues in Havana and Matanzas and collaborate with Cuban musicians and students.

“We were confident from the start that if we put in the necessary work, in the end we would be able to go,” said Jeffrey Douma, musical director of the Yale Glee Club.

The Glee Club is not the first Yale group to travel to Cuba in recent years. Douma said he chose Cuba as this year’s destination for the Glee Club tour after visiting the island with the Yale Alumni Chorus in 2010, when he grew to understand the rich presence of choral music in Cuba.

In order to take the necessary steps to apply for a cultural exchange in Cuba, the Glee Club employed Classical Movements, a group experienced in planning international music trips, as well as Faraway Travel, another travel agency.

“It was actually one of the smoothest travel processes I’ve ever seen,” said Ellie Killiam ’15, the other student tour manager for the trip.

Still, Killiam and Protacio said they were concerned that a recent change in Cuba’s policies would cause their visas to be delayed and prevent the group from traveling to Cuba as planned.

KEN YANAGISAWA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Despite Cuba’s recent change in policy about visas for U.S. citizens, Yale Glee Club was still able to travel to the island for spring break.

Last year, M&T Bank of Buffalo — the bank that processes visa fees for U.S. travel to Cuba — announced that it was closing its embassy accounts and would stop processing fees on March 1. Though the U.S. Department of State tried to find a new bank to process the fees, no bank had been found by Feb. 14, when Cuba announced that it would suspend visa distribution to U.S. citizens after March 1. At the time of the announcement, Glee Club members had not yet received their visas for the spring break tour.

Still, Protacio said the Glee Club did not ultimately have a

problem obtaining the visas in time. After a five-month process, the group received its visas between one-and-a-half and two weeks before departure, according to Killiam.

The group had met the deadlines for the relevant forms and fees and was not subject to the suspension that began on March 1, Protacio said.

While in Cuba, the Glee Club followed an itinerary approved by the Cuban government, and was only allowed to visit certain approved cities.

“It was interesting to actually go to a country that seems forbidden,” Protacio said.

New Corporation members named

BY ADRIAN RODRIGUES STAFF REPORTER This July, two new trustees will join the University’s highest governing body.

In a Monday afternoon press release, University President Peter Salovey announced the appointments of Peter Dervan GRD ’72 and William Kennard LAW ’81 as new successor trustees to the Yale Corporation. The Yale Corporation voted to appoint Dervan, a chemistry professor at the California Institute of Technology, and Kennard, former U.S. Ambassador to the European Union, during its February meeting.

The Yale Corporation has 19 total members. Ten successor trustees name their own successors for up to two six-year terms, while six alumni fellows are elected by Yale alumni for staggered six-year terms. Dervan and Kennard will succeed Byron Auguste ’89, deputy director of the National Economic Council, and Indra Nooyi SOM ’80, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of PepsiCo. “[Dervan] brings great wisdom, especially about the University’s scientific mission,” Salovey said, adding that Dervan currently serves as an alumni fellow of the Yale Corporation. “I’ve only gotten to know [Kennard] in the last number of months as he became someone that the University was focusing on becoming a successor trustee.

I’m really impressed by his deep insights about the future of higher education, about the role of Yale and the creation of public servants.”

Salovey added that he is

delighted to work with Dervan and Kennard, both of whom he said bring helpful perspectives to the Corporation. Fourteen Corporation members contacted could not be reached for comment Monday evening.

[Dervan] brings great wisdom, especially about the University’s scientific mission.

PETER SALOVEY President, Yale University Dervan is well-known for his work on the development of small organic molecules that recognize and bind to DNA. In 2006, he was awarded the country’s highest scientific honor, the National Medal of Science, for his “fundamental research contributions at the interface of organic chemistry and biology, and for his influence in education and industrial innovation.”

Kennard served as the U.S. Ambassador to the European Union from 2009 to 2013. Previously, he was the managing director of the Carlyle Group, a private equity firm, and was chairman of the Federal Communications Commision. Kennard is currently a senior advisor to Grain Management, LLC, a private equity firm focused on investments in the media and communications sectors.

Neither Kennard nor Dervan could be reached for comment Monday evening.

Current successor trustee

Douglas Warner III ’68, who is a former chairman of the board of J.P. Morgan, said Kennard is extremely well-qualified to join the Corporation. He said he has also worked closely with Dervan over the past six years on a committee for the Yale School of Medicine, for which Dervan is the chairman.

“The leadership that he provides there and the background that he brings to bear at a time of enormous change and challenge in healthcare is invaluable,” Warner said. “Having him continue for another six years is just very welcome news indeed.”

Secretary and Vice President for Student Life Kimberly GoffCrews LAW ’86 said it is exciting to have Dervan continue to serve on the Corporation and have Kennard join the body. As an alumni fellow, Dervan currently meets with student leaders each year as one of the Corporation’s liaisons to the student body, Goff-Crews said. She added that Kennard also has a clear passion for making a difference that will serve the Corporation well.

Warner said the two departing trustees — Nooyi and Auguste — have proven to be bright and talented members of the Corporation.

“Indra and I have worked together in number of different capacities,” he said. “I hate to see her go. She is one of the most talented people I have ever worked with.”

Salovey is a member of the Corporation, and the Governor of Connecticut and Lieutenant Governor hold ex officio status.

Contact ADRIAN RODRIGUES at adrian.rodrigues@yale.edu .

While this itinerary restricted the group’s activities, students said it did not hinder the group from getting a varied cultural and musical experience.

During its stay, the Glee Club performed with two professional Cuban choirs: Coro de Cámara de Matanzas, directed by José Antonio Méndez, and Coro Entrevoces, conducted by Digna Guerra.

Glee Club members also participated in master classes with the choir directors.

“Master classes with them really helped us get the sensibility they have for their music,” said Marianna Gailus ’17, a Glee Club member who will serve

as student tour manager for the group’s next trip to Ghana.

“There is something so natural and so innate in the rhythm that they have. You have to feel it.”

Although Douma said jazz music is typically associated with Cuban culture, he added that the country is accomplished in all forms of music and that “the level of choral singing in Cuba is very, very high.”

The group performed American folk songs, original pieces and Caribbean works for a range of audiences, including a group of students from the Escuela Nacional de Música, a music conservatory for high schoolers

in Havana.

At one point, Killiam said the high school students began to sing along to some of the Cuban songs they recognized, adding that the audiences were all warm and supportive.

“We had a very eccentric repertory. Some of us were worried with how it would go over with the audiences there,” Gailus said. “[But] they went mad for it.”

The Yale Glee Club has previously performed in every major U.S. city as well as abroad on six continents.

Contact JILLIAN KRAVATZ at jillian.kravatz@yale.edu .

YUPP tutors teach with rap

BY SARAH BRULEY STAFF REPORTER This spring, the Yale Undergraduate Prison Project has adopted innovative tutoring methods to engage inmates pursuing their GEDs. Though YUPP has been holding weekly tutoring sessions in prisons for about six years, this semester tutors have started using creative teaching materials designed to capture inmates’ interest, such as rap music and March madness brackets. The new tutoring methods are primarily being implemented in the New Haven Correctional Center and the Manson Youth Institution.

“I think the best thing we can do is get [the inmates] interested and engaged and get them ready to take an initiative and learn themselves,” said Ezra Ritchin ’15, vice president of YUPP. “They’re not going to do that if they associate learning with boring grammar books.”

YUPP modified their tutoring program when volunteers and inmates realized they shared similar music interests, said Paul Elish ’15, copresident of YUPP. The discussion led to prisoners asking tutors to learn spelling and grammar by analyzing rap lyrics, he said.

Before volunteers modified their lessons, students generally seemed uninterested in the writing that the tutors brought in for English overview, Ritchin said. Under the new curriculum, student inmates are asked to spot grammatical errors and informal language in popular rap lyrics. Tutors have noticed the significant positive impact these new learning materials have had on students’ interest in spelling and English, Ritchin said.

“We don’t have quantifiable improvements that we can see, but there’s been an increase in engagement and excitement on the part of the students,” Ritchin said.

Teaching reading and writing skills with

rap lyrics has not become standard for all YUPP tutors, but is reflective of YUPP’s permanent efforts to tailor lessons to the students’ interests, Elish said.

“Our program is learning how to most effectively tutor towards the GED,” Elish said. “When they express interest in hip-hop music or other things, like entrepreneurship, we try to do something like that.”

While tutors are primarily using rap music to teach basic, pre-GED language skills in the New Haven jail, GED tutors in the Manson Youth Institution have also modified their teaching methods by talking with inmates, said Will Portman ’15, former YUPP copresident and current tutor in Manson.

Tutors primarily work one-on-one with high school and college-aged inmates, which allows tutors to better gauge their students’ interests and tailor the lesson to subjects relevant to their lives, said Aria Thaker ’15, YUPP activism chair.

“We try to work with the same people each week so you can know their strengths and their weaknesses,” Portman said. “We try to do one-to-one so you can chart [their] progress and design a curriculum for them.”

Because many of the inmates have televisions in their cells and keep up with sports and politics, tutors will often engage inmates by finding relevant topics to modify their lessons, Portman said.

Portman said he used Warren Buffet’s $1 billion bracket challenge — which offers to pay anyone $1 billion who picks a perfect college basketball bracket — to teach probability after learning that the inmate he tutored was interested in March Madness.

In addition to its tutoring program, YUPP also runs a mentoring program in the Manson Youth Institution and the York Correctional Institution.

Contact SARAH BRULEY at sarah.bruley@yale.edu .

PAGE 4

YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, MARCH 25, 2014 · yaledailynews.com

FROM THE FRONT Salovey addresses alders

“I put my heart and soul into my work, and I have lost my mind in the process.”

VINCENT VAN GOGH POST-IMPRESSIONIST PAINTER

“Night Cafe” to stay put VAN GOGH FROM PAGE 1 It depicts the interior of a nearly empty cafe at night.

“We are, of course, very pleased with Judge Thompson’s decision,” said University Vice President and General Counsel Dorothy Robinson. “This great work has been cared for over a half century by the Yale Art Gallery where it is on display to the public, and we look forward to having it available here for generations to come.”

In 2009, Yale sued Konowaloff in U.S. District Court, asserting ownership of the painting. Konowaloff filed a response and counterclaim later that year.

Konowaloff claimed that Russia’s seizure of the painting violated international law and that Russia’s failure to pay his greatgrandfather, Russian industrialist Ivan Morozov, upon his death in 1921 meant the painting rightfully belonged to him.

Konowaloff’s attorney, Allan Gerson, said in court documents that Yale’s arguments constituted asking courts to “rubber-stamp good title on any dictator’s plunder.” Gerson said Friday that he is considering appealing Thompson’s ruling.

In its 2010 motion requesting a summary judgment in the case, the University leveled three primary arguments against Konowaloff’s claims: that they were beyond the statute of limitations, that the act of state doctrine prevented Konowaloff from “mounting a legal challenge to the validity of Russia’s decree in a U.S. court” and that a foreign nation’s seizure “of its own national’s property within its own borders does not

ISAAC STANLEY-BECKER/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

Salovey discussed the University’s contributions to the city and collaborations between the two entities with the Board of Alders.

SALOVEY FROM PAGE 1 his property taxes were going to New Haven. But cultivating University-city relations depends on institutional arrangements as well as individual values, Salovey said.

He detailed the ways in which the University contributes to the city: via voluntary financial payments as well as through initiatives such as New Haven Promise, a local scholarship program, and the New Haven Homebuyer Program, which helps support Yale employees who choose to reside in the city.

The University also contributes to the city’s cultural and intellectual life, opening its art galleries and museums to city residents free of charge, Salovey said. Finally, he noted, Yale imbues its students with a sense of obligation to the city.

In introductory remarks, University Vice President for New Haven and State Affairs Bruce Alexander ’65 reflected on the changes in University and city leadership.

“This relationship has been institutionalized over the years so it no longer depends on particular personalities. There’s so much power when we work together … I can’t imagine anyone wanting to go back to the old days,” he said.

Salovey said his commitment to the collaborative projects that have brought the University and the city together over the past two decades is unwavering. In

addition to those efforts, he said the University will look for new ways to encourage Yale students and faculty to grow businesses in New Haven, expanding the city’s tax base and creating new job opportunities for residents.

He pointed to the planned return of Alexion Pharmaceuticals — which fled to Cheshire, Connecticut after first opening in New Haven in 1992 — as one model.

“Students always think they have to go to Palo Alto or Silicon Valley … and that’s where they need to start business,” Salovey said. “This is a great place to do it, between Science Park and downtown.”

I’m ... not one of those people who thinks in terms of town and gown.

PETER SALOVEY President, Yale University Chairigami, a store on Chapel Street that sells elaborate cardboard furniture, was founded by a Yale student, Salovey said. Salovey said one aim of his ongoing fundraising efforts is securing means to incubate new companies and help offset the cost of space and other materials in the city.

During a question-andanswer session following Salovey’s remarks, Ward 6 Alder Dolores Colon ’91 questioned the capacity of

those projects to benefit city residents lacking high-level job training.

“I’m the cynic of the group; you can build 100 Alexions and if our people don’t have the skill set to do the jobs in those labs, they’re going to be sweeping the floors,” Colon said. She said the company will simply lure employees from Cheshire.

Salovey acknowledged the importance of job training, while Alexander said the University sponsors a program that helps draw New Haven students to science.

Salovey acknowledged that both the University and the city are in tough financial times, circumstances that tend to cause resentment.

Ward 29 Alder Brian Wingate said the University falls short of meeting its obligation to the city when it lets blueand-pink collar jobs dry up.

In response to Salovey’s invocation of the American dream in describing the virtues of a Yale education, he said the University should continue to make that kind of dream possible for its employees.

“I’m one of the Yale American dreamers,” Wingate said.

Alexander said budget shortfalls have prevented additional hiring, though he is “happy to have a Local 34, Local 35 person” in any open job, he said.

Wingate, among a handful of alders who work for Yale’s unions, joked that he was not trying to turn the discussion into a negotiation.

“We want to be an enlightened employer, and yet we also have to be responsible and balance our budget, a budget that isn’t balanced at the moment,” Salovey said.

Alders also asked the University officials how the building of two new residential colleges will affect the city — namely in the form of payments for building permits. Alexander said those permits will not be pulled until this coming fall, which means the money should not be factored into the city’s coming fiscal year budget.

Salovey estimated that construction will begin in January 2015, providing opportunities for New Haven-based contractors and a multitude of construction jobs.

After the meeting, Salovey and Alexander told Ward 9 Alder Jessica Holmes they would look into expanding the route of the Yale Shuttle.

As it stands, Holmes said, the route demarcates the areas of the city Yale considers safe.

After the meeting, Board President Jorge Perez said after the meeting he is pleased with initial overtures from the University’s new leader. He called Salovey a “good continuation of Rick.”

Salovey and Harp’s predecessors — Richard Levin and Mayor John DeStefano Jr. — led Yale and New Haven sideby-side since 1993.

Contact ISAAC STANLEY BECKER at isaac.stanley-becker@yale.edu .

OPINION. YOUR THOUGHTS. YOUR VOICE. YOUR PAGE.

Send submissions to opinion@yaledailynews.com

violate international law.”

“At bottom, Konowaloff offers only historical arguments, not cognizable legal claims,” the motion read.

Yale argued that a court decision in Konowaloff’s favor could have invalidated galleries’ ownership of tens of billions of dollars of artwork.

“The Night Cafe” is not the only high-profile work of art that Konowaloff has sought. He was involved in a previous court case against The Metropolitan Museum of Art, claiming possession of the Paul Cezanne painting “Lady in the Conservatory,” which was also owned by Morozov. In 2012, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit decided the case against Konowaloff.

Robinson said the Cezanne case set a strong precedent for the University’s argument that Konowaloff’s claims should be dismissed.

YUAG Director Jock Reynolds declined to comment on the decision when reached Monday.

Laurence Kanter, the YUAG’s Lionel Goldfrank III curator of European art, said earlier this month that “The Night Cafe” is the greatest 19th-century European painting at the YUAG. It is considered one of Van Gogh’s “most moving inventions,” he added.

The YUAG received the painting in 1961 through a bequest by Stephen Carlton Clark 1903, who bought it from a gallery in New York in the 1930s.

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

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You cheer for them.

Why not write about them?

Join SPORTS, and write about your favorite Yale teams.

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YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, MARCH 25, 2014 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE 5

NEWS

“Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit.” EDWARD ABBEY AMERICAN AUTHOR

Students learn wilderness medicine over break

BY APARNA NATHAN CONTRIBUTING REPORTER While many students traveled with family or friends over spring break, around a dozen students from Yale College and the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies stayed in New Haven for a rigorous eightday Wilderness First Responder course.

The course, coordinated by Yale Outdoors, offers students and locals the opportunity to earn a WFR certification — a qualification that is an important requirement for many outdoor jobs and prepares participants to handle medical emergencies in remote areas — on areas around Yale’s campus. Since its inception at Yale a decade ago, the program has seen steady interest from students and nonstudents alike.

“It’s a magnified version of how to do medicine in the backwoods,” said Emma Spence ’17, co-chair of wilderness medicine for Yale Outdoors. “You learn how to survive, understand the situation and keep someone stable.”

It’s empowering to feel confident in offering help in situations that may arise in the wilderness.

AARON TRONCOSO ’17 Spence helped coordinate the course this year, along with cochair Aaron Troncoso ’17. The course ran from March 8 to March 16, with daily classes and practice scenarios. At the end of the eight days, participants completed a written and practical exam to earn certification.

Instructors from Stonehearth

Open Learning Opportunities (SOLO), a school based in New Hampshire that specializes in wilderness medicine, came to Yale to teach the course. The cost of attending the course was subsidized for Yale students through the Yale Outdoors Alumni Fund, bringing the fee down to $495 — though non-Yale individuals paid a nonsubsidized price.

Organizers said the main goal of the course is to prepare students for medical situations in backcountry locations that are not easily accessible for medical attention and to instill the ability to make a diagnosis in a highpressure situation. Responders are also taught to quickly assess the scene to avoid falling victim to the hazard themselves.

Once the problem is identified, participants are taught a variety of ways to utilize readily available materials to stabilize patients or treat minor injuries. One such exercise involved making a splint from gear such as handkerchiefs or jackets.

“As an EMT by training, I was fascinated by the creativity aspect,” said Alex Roth ’15, co-coordinator of Yale Outdoors who participated in a WFR course in 2013. “In wilderness medicine, using nonmedical resources in a medical way, like pulling traction on a fractured femur with a stick and shoestring, may be necessary to treat your patient.”

The structure of the course includes hands-on simulations for participants to practice skills in a realistic scenario. Complete with posed victims and occasional fake blood, these scenarios are meant to illustrate issues that could happen and teach responders to remain calm, Troncoso said.

The course utilized various locations around the Yale campus — Marsh Botanical Gardens became the site of emergency shelters, and participants con-

ALEXANDRA SCHMELING/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Emma Spence ’17 and Aaron Troncoso ’17 helped organize a Wilderness First Responder Course, which was held over spring break. ducted a mock search-and-rescue in East Rock Park.

Certification in wilderness medicine is particularly appealing to those hoping to pursue outdoor jobs, such as guide positions or park service.

But the skills taught through the course have a wider scope as well, according to both participants and coordinators. Par-

Malloy attacked on “balanced budget”

BY ISABELLE TAFT STAFF REPORTER Republican General Assembly leaders charge that Governor Dannel Malloy’s budget deliberately underfunds state employee health care accounts to create a rosier fiscal outlook.

The accusations made yesterday by Senate minority leader and gubernatorial candidate John McKinney and House Republican leader Larry Cafero follow last week’s report on Malloy’s budget proposal by the Office of Fiscal Analysis (OFA), Connecticut’s nonpartisan fiscal research office. The OFA projects that mandatory appropriations for state retiree health care accounts will cost $51.6 million more than Malloy provides for in the budget. Combined with other spending obligations and Malloy’s proposed expenditures, paying for the shortfall would create a $59.1 million deficit, and surpass the constitutional spending cap by about $60 million, according to the OFA report. Malloy countered that state programs could function under the budget he proposed.

“If our budget was passed today in its present form, that’s the budget we’re going to live within,” Malloy said at a press conference.

McKinney said the OFA findings disproved Malloy’s claims that the budget he proposed was “balanced.” According to the press release, State Comptroller Kevin Lembo contacted the governor in October 2013 to ask for additional appropriations to cover the cost of an influx of retirees from the Department of Corrections.

A press release from Connecticut General Assembly Republicans today stated that the governor’s budget estimates fewer than 300 retirements in the Department of Corrections when more than 800 employees are eligible to retire. They contend that Malloy “ignored” Lembo’s request. Lembo did not respond to requests for comment.

The Appropriations Committee is now in the process of reviewing Malloy’s budget and must propose its own budget by April 3. Committee chair state Senator Beth Bye said in a statement that the committee will address the “anticipated shortfall” in its proposal.

JENNIFER CHEUNG/SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

Gov. Dannel Malloy’s budget purportedly allocates insufficient funds for state employee health care by underestimating future retirements.

Alan Calandro, director of the OFA, said the discrepancy between his organization’s numbers and the governor’s budget did not necessarily mean Malloy’s budget was imbalanced.

He added that it is not uncommon for governors to allocate less spending than requested by state agencies, even to cover mandatory expenditures such as pensions or health care costs. At the end of the year, Calandro said, surpluses from over-funded departments can be used to cover potential shortfalls in underfunded areas.

Malloy’s budget included sufficient funding to cover retiree health care costs, according to Ben Barnes, secretary of the Office of Policy and Management — the governor’s agency responsible for budgeting. According to the OPM’s calculations, increases in health care and administrative efficiency will enable the state to pay for additional beneficiaries without increasing appropriations to the degree the OFA projects as necessary.

Additionally, Barnes said, making fully accurate predictions about the health care needs of state retirees is difficult because conditions change every year. In previous years, the state has overestimated the amount of spending required. Barnes suggested that Republicans’ criticism of Malloy’s budget was politically motivated.

“Republicans would love to find fault with his management of the budget but they are left

finding small discrepancies in technical reports from OFA and holding those out as some kind of smoking gun,” Barnes said.

Republican candidate and Danbury mayor Mark Lauretti said the OFA report showed Malloy is fiscally irresponsible.

Lauretti said he believes fiscal issues will play a major role in the gubernatorial election.

Gary Rose, chair of the department of Politics & Government at Sacred Heart University, said the OFA’s findings are significant and need to be addressed in the final budget proposal, but the Republican response should be considered through the lens of the upcoming vote. Rose said McKinney, who was in last place among Republican candidates in the most recent Quinnipiac University poll, might be looking to gain traction by drawing voters’ attention to the budget and presenting himself as a fiscal watchdog.

“I think [McKinney’s] campaign just simply doesn’t seem to be going anywhere right now and [gubernatorial candidate Tom Foley] is somewhat of a juggernaut in the Republican party,” Rose said. “McKinney is going to ride this as much as he can. He needs all the traction he can get because his campaign is floundering.””

The constitutional spending cap for fiscal year 2015 is just over $18 billion.

Contact ISABELLE TAFT at isabelle.taft@yale.edu .

ticipant and FOOT leader Peter Wyckoff ’16 said he now feels better equipped to lead his FOOT group, but also cited the course’s instruction in CPR and dealing with anaphylaxis and cardiac arrest as having practical applications even in daily life on campus.

“These skills are really useful for anyone,” Troncoso said. “It’s

empowering to feel confident in offering help in situations that may arise in the wilderness.”

Yale Outdoors facilitates various forms of wilderness medicine training, including WFR courses during winter and spring break and more regular offerings of shorter Wilderness First Aid courses. “[Yale Outdoors] wants to cul-

tivate a love of the outdoors, but also an awareness of safety in the outdoors and knowing how to handle extreme conditions,” Spence said.

Applications to the spring break WFR program were due on Feb. 27.

Contact APARNA NATHAN at aparna.nathan@yale.edu .

YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, MARCH 25, 2014 · yaledailynews.com

Yale researchers look to China

Levin to lead MOOC platform COURSERA FROM PAGE 1

CHRISTOPHER BILLMAN

The collaboration with SJTU will involve a new biostatistics center and an exchange of faculty and students.

SHANGHAI FROM PAGE 1 the center.

Salovey said the center will promote what he referred to as a “bench-to-bedside approach.” SJTU is stronger in biostatistical modeling of research on clinical medicine, Salovey said, whereas Yale’s biostatistics department is stronger on modeling more basic biomedical research.

Although the exact number is yet to be determined, between six and 10 Yale professors will eventually make their way to Shanghai to do research at the center, which will be housed in a new building at SJTU. Several SJTU faculty will also come to New Haven, and Cleary added that there will also likely be an exchange of students at some point in the future.

“The new agreement calls

for the exchange of faculty and students,” Cleary said. “Students from China will have the opportunity to learn about substantive and methodological issues from faculty at Yale, and Yale students will have an opportunity to learn about such issues from our Chinese colleagues.”

However, Salovey said there will be no exchange of funds in the collaboration, adding that this stipulation is typical for joint centers established by Yale and other universities.

SJTU School of Medicine Chancellor Chen Guoqiang said he believes the center will be beneficial in developing medicine and health care for China.

The idea for the center originated in 2012 from conversations between Cleary and Zhi-Jie Zheng, the Dean

of Public Health at SJTU, who visited each other at their respective campuses.

Yale biostatistics professor Hongyu Zhao, who is spearheading the center, said former University President Richard Levin had long wanted to strengthen collaboration between Yale and SJTU. During his tenure, Levin dramatically expanded Yale’s presence in China.

Although not all of Yale’s biostatistics faculty members are involved in the center, many said they see the collaboration as a positive development.

“Collaboration with other professionals, other cultures, other minds is always good for science, and in general,” said biostatistics professor Marilyn Stolar.

The Shanghai biostatistics center is only the latest of several international collab-

orations Yale has established in recent years.

Salovey pointed to the China Law Center and a joint plant genetics and biology laboratory at Peking University in Beijing as further examples of Yale’s international cooperation, describing the joint centers as a way to “make it easier to grease the skids when it comes to creating joint training or joint research programs.”

In addition to establishing the joint center, Salovey delivered SJTU’s commencement address while in Shanghai, during which he discussed his research on emotional intelligence. SJTU also awarded Salovey an honorary doctorate.

Contact MATTHEW LLOYDTHOMAS at matthew.lloyd-thomas@ yale.edu .

sation at a party in New York. Levin confessed his admiration of Coursera to one of its investors, who in turn connected him with the Coursera leadership. During his sabbatical in Palo Alto last semester, Levin signed on to become a part-time senior advisor to the company. But he said the idea that he should take on a bigger role began to “bubble up from the leadership team.”

“He’s one of the most wellrespected university presidents in the past fifty years,” Koller said. “He carries an incredible amount of credibility in the academic world.”

Koller, a computer science professor at Stanford, said Levin’s appointment demonstrates the significance of MOOCs to higher education. She added that Levin will be able to leverage Coursera’s network of connections across academia, business and industry in service of Coursera’s mission.

University President Peter Salovey said Levin is a fitting leader for Coursera because he is knowledgeable about online education and “thinks broadly about the future of higher education.”

While president of Yale, Levin oversaw successive waves of online education projects, including AllLearn — a joint venture with Stanford and Oxford universities — as well as the Open Yale Courses initiative and, most recently, Yale’s partnership with Coursera itself. This semester, Yale began offering four pilot courses on the platform.

Akhil Amar, a law professor who is currently offering his American constitutional law lecture on Coursera, said he thinks Levin’s appointments signals a good relationship between Yale and the online education platform.

Koller said having Levin on board can “only strengthen” Coursera’s already-strong relationship with Yale.

Levin brings to Coursera the con-

nections he made as Yale’s president — including those in China, where Coursera recently announced a deal with technology firm NetEase to launch a Chinese-language portal called Coursera Zone.

“Certainly Rick’s connections in China are very valuable to any organization that’s trying to have an impact in China,” Koller said.

As Yale’s president, Levin worked to promote Yale’s relationship with China and extend the University’s brand to Asia. When Chinese president Hu Jintao came to the United States in 2006, he made a visit to Yale’s campus. More controversially under Levin Yale entered into a partnership with the National University of Singapore to build Yale-NUS, a liberal arts college in Singapore.

Levin said that China is a “huge potential market” for Coursera.

“I have a sense of how the Chinese educational system operates, I think that knowledge will be helpful,” Levin said. “There is a great interest in China in using more interactive forms of instruction.”

Levin’s appointment drew praise from two of the architects of Yale’s current online education initiatives.

Lucas Swineford, who runs Yale’s office of digital dissemination, called Levin’s appointment a “grand slam” for Coursera.

“To think how strong the Coursera technology and platform is today and how Rick with his energy and vision will get it in short order is exhilarating,” he said.

Music professor Craig Wright, who chairs Yale’s Committee on Online Education, said Levin is “passionately committed to the proposition that education can be extended globally for the good of all.”

Coursera has approximately seven million users.

Contact YUVAL BEN-DAVID at yuval.ben-david@yale.edu .

Send submissions to opinion@yaledailynews.com

FROM THE FRONT

“Cows are my passion. What I have ever sighed for has been to retreat to a Swiss farm, and live entirely surrounded by cows — and China.” CHARLES DICKENS ENGLISH WRITER AND SOCIAL CRITIC

OPINION.

PAGE 6

YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, MARCH 25, 2014 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE 7

WORLD

“Every life has a measure of sorrow, and sometimes this is what awakens us.”

STEVEN TYLER AMERICAN SINGER-SONGWRITER

Missing plane presumed crashed

BY TODD PITMAN AND EILEEN NG ASSOCIATED PRESS KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — After 17 days of desperation and doubt over the missing Malaysia Airlines jet, the country’s officials said an analysis of satellite data points to a “heartbreaking” conclusion: Flight 370 met its end in the southern reaches of the Indian Ocean, and none of those aboard survived.

The somber announcement late Monday by Prime Minister Najib Razak left unresolved many more troubling questions about what went wrong aboard the Boeing 777 to take it so far off-course.

It also unleashed a maelstrom of sorrow and anger among the families of the jet’s 239 passengers and crew.

A solemn Najib, clad in a black suit, read a brief statement about what he called an unparalleled study of the jet’s last-known signals to a satellite. That analysis showed that the missing plane, which took off from Kuala Lumpur for Beijing early on March 8, veered “to a remote location, far from any possible landing sites.”

“It is therefore with deep sadness and regret that I must inform you that, according to this new data, Flight MH370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean,” he said.

His carefully chosen words did not directly address the fate of those aboard. But in a separate message, sent to some of their relatives just before he spoke, Malaysia Airlines officials said that “we have to assume beyond any reasonable doubt that MH370 has been lost and that none of those on board survived.”

Officials said they concluded that the flight had been lost in the deep waters west of Perth, Australia, based on more thorough analysis of the brief signals the plane sent every hour to a satellite belonging to Inmarsat, a British company, even after other communication systems on the jet-

liner shut down.

The pings did not include any location information. But Inmarsat and British aviation officials used “a type of analysis never before used in an investigation of this sort” to zero in on the plane’s last position, as it reached the end of its fuel, Najib said.

In a statement, Inmarsat said the company used “detailed analysis and modelling” of transmissions from the Malaysia Airlines jet and other known flights to describe “the likely direction of flight of MH370.”

Najib gave no indication of exactly where in the Indian Ocean the plane was last heard from, but searchers have sighted possible debris in an area about 1,240 miles southwest of Perth, and officials said more details would be released Tuesday.

Some of the relatives who gathered to listen to Najib con-

vulsed in grief at the news, with shrieks and uncontrolled sobs.

Others collapsed into the arms of loved ones.

“My son! My son!” cried a woman in a group of about 50 gathered at a hotel near Beijing’s airport, before falling to her knees. Minutes later, medical teams carried one elderly man out of the conference room on a stretcher, his face covered by a jacket.

In Kuala Lumpur, screams came from inside the Hotel Bangi Putrajaya, where some of the families have been given rooms.

Selamat Omar, father of a 29-year-old aviation engineer aboard the flight, said in a telephone interview that he and other families were waiting for word about whether they would be flown to Australia, closer to where it is believed the plane went down.

West isolates Russia over Ukraine dispute

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, left, meets with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry inside the U.S. Embassy in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Monday, March 24, 2014.

BY JULIE PACE ASSOCIATED PRESS

JOSHUA PAUL/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak speaks during a press conference for the missing Malaysia Airlines, flight MH370, in Kuala Lumpur.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Seeking to isolate Russia, the U.S. and Western allies declared Monday they are indefinitely cutting Moscow out of a major international coalition and warned they stand ready to order tougher economic penalties if Vladimir Putin presses further into Ukraine.

The moves came amid a flurry of diplomatic jockeying as the West grappled for ways to punish Russia for its annexation of the Crimean Peninsula and prevent the crisis from escalating.

President Barack Obama and the leaders of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan met in the Netherlands for an emergency meeting of the Group of Seven. In a joint statement after their 90-minute meeting, the leaders said they were suspending their participation with Russia in the Group of Eight major industrial nations until Moscow “changes course.”

The G-7 leaders instead plan to meet this summer in Brussels, symbolically gathering in the headquarters city of the European Union and NATO, two Western organizations seeking to bolster ties with Ukraine.

“Today, we reaffirm that Russia’s actions will have significant consequences,” the leaders’ statement said. “This clear violation of international law is a serious challenge to the rule of law around the world and should be a concern for all nations.”

In an unexpected development, Russia’s foreign minister Sergey Lavrov met separately in The Hague with his Ukrainian counterpart, the highest level of contact between the two nations since Russia moved forces into Crimea nearly a month ago. U.S. officials said they welcomed the meeting but challenged Russia to take further steps to de-escalate the

conflict.

Lavrov sought to downplay the significant of the West purging Russia from the G-8, describing the economic partnership as an informal club that has been superseded by other international forums.

“If our Western partners believe that such format is no longer needed, let it be so,” Lavrov said. “We aren’t clinging for that format, and we won’t see a big problem if there are no such meetings for a year, or a year and an half.”

Russia’s actions have sparked one of Europe’s deepest political crises in decades and drawn comparisons to the Cold War era’s tensions between East and West. Obama and other Western leaders have condemned Russia’s movements and ordered economic sanctions on Putin’s close associates, though those punishments appear to have done little to change the Russian president’s calculus.

Hours before world leaders began meeting in The Hague, Russian forces stormed a Ukrainian military base in Crimea, the third such action in as many days. Ukraine’s fledgling government responded by ordering its troops to pull back from the strategically important peninsula.

In Washington, meanwhile, the Senate moved past a procedural hurdle and toward a vote, possibly late this week, on Russia sanctions and Ukraine aid. In New York, Ukraine pushed for the United Nations General Assembly to adopt a resolution this week reaffirming the country’s territorial integrity and declaring that the referendum in Crimea that led to its annexation by Russia “has no validity.”

In the Hague, the G-7 leaders also discussed plans for increasing financial assistance to Ukraine’s central government. And they vowed to launch coordinated sanctions on key sectors of the Russian economy if Putin presses into areas of southern and eastern Ukraine.

Ukraine orders troop pullout from Crimea

BY LAURA MILLS AND PETER LEONARD ASSOCIATED PRESS NOVOOZERNOE, Crimea — Russia’s foreign minister met with his Ukrainian counterpart for the first time on Monday and demanded more autonomy for Ukraine’s regions, even as Ukraine under pressure ordered its troops out from Crimea after the Russian seizure of military bases there.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in an unexpected move agreed to the highest level meeting yet between the Russian government and a representative of the new Ukrainian government that Moscow has opposed vociferously over the past month.

The meeting took place on the sidelines of a nuclear security summit in The Hague, Netherlands.

Lavrov told Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Deshchytsia that Russia continues to want constitutional changes in Ukraine that would give more autonomy to all regions of Ukraine.

Russia is eager to retain its influence in Ukraine’s Russian-speaking eastern regions and prevent Ukraine from joining NATO. It has pushed for the new Ukraine to become a loose federation — demands the new Ukrainian government has rejected.

Before the meeting, Deshchytsia said his government fears a Russian military buildup near Ukraine’s border. “The possibility of a military invasion is very high. We are very much worried about this concentration of troops on our eastern border,” he said.

The concerns have been deepened in by the intense military pressure Russia has applied in Crimea since Russian President Vladimir Putin formally annexed the peninsula last week. Russian forces have commandeered ships and broke into walled mil-

itary installations with armored personnel carriers.

In the bay of Donuzlav in western Crimea, dozens of Ukrainian sailors marooned on the Konstantin Olshanskiy navy landing vessel abandoned ship Monday after weeks of tension and uncertainty. The Olshanskiy and two other warships have been trapped in the bay since Russian forces scuttled mothballed ships at the bay’s inlet.

The possibility of a military invasion is very high. We are very much worried.

ANDRIY DESHCHYTSIA Foreign Minister, Ukraine The sailors, using a small rubber boat that needed several trips to ferry them to land, were greeted by the taunts of hecklers on the shore.

One man shouted they were deserting “rats,” while another man blasted the Russian national anthem from his car.

“We aren’t rats, we aren’t running,” said one sailor, who only gave his first name of Yevgeny to discuss a sensitive subject. “Why should we have stayed, what would we have accomplished?”

Twenty out of the estimated 60 sailors originally on board remained on the ship, which was later in the day stormed by armed men, presumed to be Russian forces.

Defense Ministry spokesman Vladislav Seleznyov said the crew, which barricaded itself in the bulkhead, heard stun grenades and rifle fire.

YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, MARCH 25, 2014 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE 8

SPORTS

“Gymnastics taught me everything — life lessons, responsibility and discipline and respect.” SHAWN JOHNSON AMERICAN OLYMPIC GYMNAST

W. tennis sweeps at home TENNIS FROM PAGE 12 noon came when Amber Li ’15 retired in her match against Bryant’s Briana Leonard at the No. 4 spot.

Doubles competition proved equally favorable for the Elis, as they swept Bryant by winning both of the completed matches.

The duo of Hannu Yu ’15 and Courtney Amos ’16 won a competitive 8–6 match against Bryant’s Boulin and Leonard, while the freshman pair of Lynch and Sherry Li ’17 completed a decisive 8–2 rout in their doubles contest.

“A lot of hard work is starting to pay off for me and for the team where we stepped up and played smart and aggressive on the big points,” Lynch said. “We just need to continue this form into next weekend and into the Ivy season during April.”

Sunday’s contest against St. John’s proved an even more decisive victory for the Bulldogs, as they won every match played against the Red Storm, sweeping them in both doubles and singles. In singles play, Ree Ree Li recorded another win from the No. 1 spot, while team captain Annie Sullivan ’14 returned to action with a 6–2, 6–1 straight sets win over St. John’s Anna Morozova at No. 3.

In doubles, the duo of Madeleine Hamilton ’16 and Lynch completed a perfect 8–0 sweep against the St. John’s pair of Stephanie Elegren and Puck Vlaskamp, while Sullivan and Sherry Li recorded another decisive Bulldog win, defeating Diamond Adams and Anastasia Polyakova 8–1 to cap off a triumphant weekend for Yale women’s tennis.

Yale’s men’s tennis team also experienced success over the same weekend at a very different locale as the team traveled to Wilmington to compete in the four-team “Battle at the Beach” tournament featuring UNC Wilmington, Bingham-

TRACK FROM PAGE 12

Diego, Central Florida, Kansas State, Oklahoma, Tulsa and Canisius.

“It was a really great trip down to Texas,” said captain Maddie Lips ’14, who rowed in Yale’s first varsity eight. “The [University of Texas at Austin] team and coaches were so nice in letting us train there for the week, and it was great to get out in the sunshine after this cold weather.”

A f te r Ya l e b ea t Canisius and Tulsa, the Longhorn title came

everyone on the team competed very well over the past week.” Lu said. “Overall, being able to play Wilmington close and beat two good teams in Binghamton and UCF, it was a solid weekend.”

Zachary Krumholz ’15 echoed Lu’s optimism, saying that he was pleased with the team’s execution and adding that the experience of the tournament gives the team confidence headed into the Ivy League season.

Ivy tennis play will begin in early April when both teams take on Princeton in two weeks.

Meredith Rizzo ’17 started day two for the Elis with a fifthplace finish in the women’s 3000-meter steeplechase, a new event for outdoor track this year. Karleh Wilson ’16 took 10th in the women’s hammer throw finals, throwing a distance of 44.61 meters. In the women’s high jump finals, Megan Toon ’16 took 11th overall with a height of 1.55 meters. The women continued their successful day with fifth and 13th place finishes in the pole vault by Emily Urciuoli ’14 and Renee Vogel ’16, respectively.

At the start of day three, the women started things off with a fifth-place finish by Sarah Barry ’14 in the one-mile run. Barry finished less than a second behind the fourthplace finisher from Mansfield University.

In the men’s 800-meter run, James Randon ’17 and Alexander McDonald ’16 took third and sixth, respectively. Randon’s third-place finish was the best placement for an Eli up to that point. In the men’s 400-meter hurdle final, William Rowe ’15 took 12th. Later that day, Emily Cable ’15 took seventh in the 200-meter dash, the best placement for any Yale sprinter on the day.

The big finish for the day came from Ryan Laemel ’14, who took second in the 3000-meter run, finishing almost 10 seconds ahead of the third-place Army runner.

“I believed I could set high goals for this race and achieve them. While I was happy with my time and second-place finish, there’s always room for improvement,” Laemel said.

Brendan Sullivan ’16 rounded out the competition for the men with a fourth-place tie with three other competitors in the pole vault finals.

Sullivan said Myrtle Beach really tested the team, as it was the Elis’ first outdoor meet of the season. He added that weather conditions made training difficult because of weather conditions, but that the Bulldogs still managed to perform well.

The real surprise for the women’s team came from Wilson. She took second in the women’s discus finals, setting a personal best and nearly breaking a Yale record at 46.49 meters.

“I was never really good at discus in high school and only had one good throw at Heps last year, so I had no real expectations going into this meet,” Wilson said. “I would have been happy with any throw.”

Her distance of 46.49 meters set the record for the second-farthest throw by a woman in Yale history.

The Elis have the upcoming weekend off before heading to Princeton for the Sam Howell Invitational April 4.

Contact MARC CUGNON at marc.cugnon@yale.edu .

Contact SYDNEY GLOVER at sydney.glover@yale.edu .

JENNIFER CHEUNG/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

The women’s tennis team will travel to Rice and William & Mary for its next matches. ton and Central Florida. The Elis won two of their three matchups, defeating Binghamton and Central Florida, but they fell to the tournament hosts 5–2.

In their initial defeat, the Bulldogs did manage a highlight win at the No. 1 spot as Tyler Lu ’17 defeated UNC Wilmington’s Rafael Aita, the 53rdranked player in the nation. The matchup against the Binghamton Bearcats proved to be a bright spot for the Bulldogs, as they won four of their six singles matches and swept the completed doubles matchups, which were capped by a close-fought 8–7 win by the pair of Alex Hagermoser ’17 and

Daniel Faierman ’15.

Finally, in perhaps their most dramatic contest of the weekend, the Elis narrowly defeated No. 51 Central Florida 4–3.

After six singles matchups, the teams were level with three victories each. However, doubles proved decisive for the Bulldogs, as Lu and Martin Svenning ’16 produced a key win in the first doubles match, while the duo of Hagermoser and Faierman came through in the clutch again, recording an 8–3 win that drove the final dagger into Central Florida.

“Transitioning to outdoor tennis was really tough, but

Crew wins opener CREW FROM PAGE 12

Track leaps into outdoor

down to Yale’s five crews, three eights and two fours, versus the University of San Diego boats.

The first varsity boat saw the closest race, edging out a slim twosecond win over San Diego in 6:26.2 minutes.

The third varsity boat had the widest margin of victory, finishing the 2000-meter course 14 seconds before its opponent.

Lips said team members were excited to kick-start the season with three wins under their belts.

Gymnasts fifth in ECAC

“Racing in the Longhorn Invitational was great,” women’s coach Will Porter said. “We have a bunch to work on.

We need to set a line up and find our speed. It’s very early for us.”

The heavyweight team will rest for three weeks before hosting Dartmouth at home. The women will have their first Ivy race of the season against Penn and Columbia at home this weekend.

Contact ERICA PANDEY at erica.pandey@yale.edu .

PHILIPP ARNDT/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Yale gymnasts will next compete at NCAA Regionals and USAG Collegiate Nationals.

GYMNASTICS FROM PAGE 12

ALLIE KRAUSE/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

The heavyweight crew team beat Brown in its home opener, and the women’s team won at the Longhorn Invitational.

ratus. At the end of the meet, Traina found herself in fifth place in the all-around with a score of 38.675. She was the only competitor to finish in the top seven places who was not a member of the two title winning teams — Brown and William & Mary.

Joyce Li ’15 also performed well for the Elis, earning a 9.075 on the vault, 9.175 on the bars, 9.175 on the beam and 9.525 on the floor. Li’s allaround score of 36.950 put

her in the 11th overall spot in the all-around as Yale’s only other competitor to place.

On the vault, Camilla Opperman ’16 stuck Yale’s top score of 9.650 that put her in a tie for sixth place in the event.

The Bulldogs fought injuries and sickness throughout the year and cite their resilience as one of their accomplishments throughout the season.

“We didn’t reach all of our goals as a team this season,” captain Ashley O’Connor ’14 said.

“Unfortunately, we were

plagued with many setbacks such season-ending injuries. So, what we were able to accomplish even with those setbacks was positive. Every single person that could stepped up and put in even more effort and hard work to make up for this. I fully expect this team to win the Ivy League championship next year.”

Both O’Connor and Tabitha Tay ’14 ended their Yale careers at ECACs. After this season’s second place finish at Ivy’s — an accomplishment that both Sooksengdao and O’Connor listed as a sea-

son highlight — the Bulldogs are looking to their younger talent to help them take first place next year.

Many Bulldogs may be headed to USA Gymnastics nationals for individual events, and Sooksengdao said Traina might be an all-around alternate for NCAA regionals.

NCAA regionals take place on April 5 and USAG Collegiate Nationals will be held on April 12.

Contact ASHTON WACKYM at ashton.wackym@yale.edu .

YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, MARCH 25, 2014 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE 9

BULLETIN BOARD

TODAY’S FORECAST

TOMORROW

A chance of light snow after 3pm.

Mostly cloudy, with a high near 37.

THURSDAY

High of 38, low of 18.

High of 42, low of 33.

XKCD BY RANDALL MUNROE

ON CAMPUS TUESDAY, MARCH 25 12:30 p.m. Art in Context: “Some Considerations in Postwar British Figurative Art.” Eric Stryker, assistant professor of art history at Southern Methodist University, will deliver this talk. Yale Center for British Art (1080 Chapel St.).

5:30 p.m. “On Sovereignty and Other Political Delusions.”

Joan Cocks studies the ways that people understand (and fight over) essentially contested concepts as freedom, power, justice, property, community, and individuality. Over the course of her career, she has focused on the role of ideals in the political struggles of women, ethnic minorities and colonized cultures.

William L. Harkness Hall (100 Wall St.) Rm. 309.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 26 12:30 p.m. Gallery Talk: “Entranced by the Past: Homage and Fakery in Colonial Revival Furniture.” Join John Stuart Gordon, the Benjamin Attmore Hewitt associate curator of American decorative arts, for a visit to the Furniture Study. Yale University Art Gallery (1111 Chapel St.).

4:00 p.m. “Faith in the Face of Empire: The Bible through Palestinian Eyes.” Talk and book signing of Mitri Raheb’s latest work, which presents a new reading of the Bible from the perspective of the “people of Palestine.” In light of the current geopolitical turmoil, after the hopes of the Arab Spring, and in the face of the latest round of U.S. shuttle diplomacy, Raheb asks, “Can we imagine another Middle East? Can there be a different future?”

Sterling Divinity Quadrangle (409 Prospect St.).

THURSDAY, MARCH 27 4:00 p.m. Bernstein International Human Rights Symposium: “The Future of Dissent.” This roundtable discussion will draw out contrasts between what being a dissident used to mean and what it will mean with new politics, new geography and new technology. Scholars will join activists of past and present movements in a conversation that will also explore the role of human rights language in the future of dissent. Sterling Law Buildings (127 Wall St.), Rm. 129.

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 Julia Zorthian at (203) 4322418.

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 MARCH 25, 2014

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

CLASSIFIEDS

CROSSWORD Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Lewis ACROSS 1 Ancient Egyptian pictograph, e.g.

6 Game, __, match 9 Signs 14 Tiny South Pacific nation 15 High-tech film effects, for short 16 Spreading like wildfire, as online videos 17 Place for a Hold ’em game 19 Breathing 20 Missouri tributary 21 Approved of, on Facebook 22 Golf club part 25 Some evergreens 26 Visualize 27 Hindu royal 28 Feels poorly 30 Lith. and Ukr. were part of it 33 Swear (to) 36 See 38-Across 38 With 36-Across, needy people 39 Located in that place, in legalese 41 Arctic wastelands 43 Slippery fish 44 Baby bed 46 Veterans Day tradition 47 Trace amount 49 Afternoon socials 51 Garden locale 52 __ de plume 54 Onetime Russian monarch 56 DUI-fighting gp.

57 Social division 59 Trojan War hero 61 Some highway ramps 62 Nabisco cookies ... and what you might cry upon solving this puzzle’s three other longest answers?

66 Long-extinct birds 67 Assembly aid 68 Open-mouthed 69 Opposition 70 Sloppy farm area 71 Bedbugs, e.g.

Want to place a classified ad?

CALL (203) 432-2424 OR E-MAIL BUSINESS@ YALEDAILYNEWS.COM

3/25/14

By Dave Sarpola

DOWN 1 Treasury Dept. variable 2 Mekong River language 3 Relative of har 4 Dressed more like an Exeter student 5 Fling 6 Nova __ 7 Self-serving activity 8 Broadcaster’s scheduling unit 9 Racetracks 10 Surroundings 11 Officer Frank Poncherello portrayer of ’70s-’80s TV 12 Congregation area 13 Snowy day toy 18 U.K. flying squad 22 Like Parmesan, commonly 23 Newsman Dan 24 Slogan seen on computer stickers 29 Salad go-with 31 Treelined 32 Email again 34 Wall Street watchdog org.

35 Tangy

Monday’s Puzzle Solved

SUDOKU EASIEST

8

7 9 4 1 7

5 5 3

9 (c)2014 Tribune Content Agency, LLC

37 Genetic info transmitter 40 Dapper pins 42 Equestrian competition 45 Single or double, say 48 Deepest part 50 Rational state 53 Complicated, as a breakup 55 Sales staff member

3/25/14

57 Give up, as territory 58 Nervous system transmitter 60 With all haste, in memos 63 Owns 64 Get off the fence 65 Hoped-for answer to a certain proposal

5 6

4

3 3

1 7

8 7

1 2 6 4 2

5

PAGE 10

YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, MARCH 25, 2014 · yaledailynews.com

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY Neurotransmitters predict reading ability

MICHAEL MCHUGH/STAFF ILLUSTRATOR

BY APARNA NATHAN CONTRIBUTING REPORTER New research may provide a way to predict reading disorders in children, simply by measuring the levels of certain chemicals in the brain.

A study conducted at the Yale and University of Connecticutaffiliated Haskins Laboratories discovered that higher levels of two neurotransmitters, glutamate and choline, were associated with lower reading proficiency in young children. Initial levels of glutamate continued to correlate with reading levels observed two years later.

The finding is the first pediatric study to show that levels of chemicals in the brains of children that are beginning to learn to read can predict later reading outcomes, said Ken Pugh, pres-

ident and director of research at Haskins Laboratories and study co-author.

“Good reading skills are very important for success in the modern world,” Pugh said.

“We’re trying to solve the mystery of why reading can be so difficult for so many children who are otherwise of normal intelligence.”

The research team administered a series of behavioral tests to 75 children six to 10 years of age to measure their reading, language and cognition skills. Additionally, they conducted magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) to measure the levels of a variety of chemicals in the brain.

MRS is a relatively novel technique that provides researchers with a non-invasive way to identify neurotransmitter levels, said Nicole Landi, professor of psy-

chology at the University of Connecticut and study co-author.

In the study, the researchers report a negative correlation between reading scores and concentrations of glutamate and choline. A follow-up behavioral assessment two years after the initial measurement showed that initial glutamate levels were still predictive of reading scores.

The results support previous studies on adults, which also identified elevated choline levels in individuals with reading disorders. Glutamate, a key neurotransmitter that has also been associated with disorders like ADHD, may contribute to impaired reading through excessive excitatory activity at high concentrations, Pugh said.

The researchers are cautiously optimistic about the implications these results may have for

future treatments, as Pugh said they must replicate the findings before the results can be applied clinically. Even then, modulating neurotransmitter levels to improve reading would serve as only one component of a broader therapy program.

“You can’t remediate a reading problem with chemicals alone,” Pugh said. “However, it is conceivable going forward that pharmacological treatments helping the brain respond to learning opportunities will be developed.”

The study focused on a sample of children between the ages of six and 10 and is one of the first studies to study neurochemicals in humans at such a young age.

Studying children is a particularly useful approach because it allows researchers to look at the brain before reading expe-

riences have shaped the brain, said Albert Galaburda, professor of neuroscience and neurology at Harvard Medical School, who studies dyslexia.

Galaburda, who was not involved in the study, said future research should investigate whether neurotransmitters can predict reading ability in infants so that interventional treatment can begin as early as possible.

Despite the limitations of chemical-based treatment, Pugh said the study’s results provide deeper understanding of the underlying neurochemical mechanisms of reading disorders. Such knowledge can help educators facilitate reading in children who might otherwise struggle.

“My estimate would be that, in 10 years, the knowledge from neuroscience on how the brain

learns will have a transformative impact on the classroom,” Pugh said.

The Haskins team will continue their research by attempting to understand reading disorders from other perspectives.

Future research will involve looking into the genetic regulation of these neurotransmitters, as well as studies involving manipulation of neurotransmitters, Landi and Pugh said.

Guinevere Eden, a professor of pediatrics at Georgetown Medical Center, who was not involved in the study, praised the study for approaching the problem of reading ability from these multiple perspectives.

Haskins Laboratories has been in New Haven since 1970.

Contact APARNA NATHAN at aparna.nathan@yale.edu .

Monkeys likely less curious than humans

BY BEN FAIT CONTRIBUTING REPORTER George may not have been so curious after all, as Yale researchers have shown that humans may be the only primates that learn for learning’s sake.

The study tested whether capuchin monkeys would engage in causal reasoning in the absence or presence of a reward.

When presented with a mysterious machine, the monkeys only attempted to reason its workings in the presence of a reward. In contrast, previous research has demonstrated that young children are often curious regardless other benefit. According to Laurie Santos, a Yale psychology professor and the paper’s senior author, the findings suggest that other primates have the ability to reason causally, but that only humans give causal reasoning intrinsic value.

“These results suggest that the gap between human and nonhuman animal causal cognition is in part a gap of motivation, and not just a gap in specific cognitive abilities,” said Brian Edwards, a graduate student at Northwestern University and the paper’s lead author.

“People are often interested in learning for learning’s sake. In contrast, monkeys only spontaneously tried to learn which objects would activate the machine when there was the prospect of receiving an immediate food reward.”

The research team adapted a test previously used on young children called the “blicket detector.” Placing certain toys on the detector — a small Styrofoam box — would cause the

detector to emit a visual and auditory cue, as well as dispense a food reward during certain trials. Over several varying experiments, researchers operated the blicket detector in front of the monkeys to assess their ability to deduce and test which toys would trigger the device.

Though the monkeys sought out combinations of toys to activate the device when a food reward was present, they did not perform a similar investigation when the food dispenser was detached from the machine.

Because the experimental design with monkeys was nearly identical to that previously employed to test humans, Edwards said the results highlight cognitive differences between young humans and adult primates. The willingness to explore without immediate reward, he said, may be one reason why humans are able to accumulate knowledge of their surroundings so quickly.

David Rand, a Yale psychology professor unaffiliated with the research, praised the study for using tools from developmental psychology for studying nonhuman primates.

“I find the results in this paper to be particularly interesting,” Rand said. “In this context, the capuchins may not be less smart, but may instead just care less.”

Very little is known about curiosity in nonhuman primates, Santos said. While it is unknown whether other primates would also fail to investigate similar causal relationships, Santos said Capuchin monkeys seem to be the best place to look for such behavior. Their curious nature and predisposition to use tools makes them likely to explore

MICHAEL MCHUGH/STAFF ILLUSTRATOR

causal relationships.

Edwards said he hopes to look into more monkey-friendly experimental setups for future investigation into primate curiosity. While the monkeys were

not incredibly interested in the blicket detector, he said further research using a different experimental design might be helpful to confirm the results.

“It’s possible that monkeys

would be more curious about other types of causal systems, especially those that are more relevant to monkeys in their daily lives,” Edwards said.

Though five monkeys began

the experiment, one dropped out in the middle of the study due to pregnancy.

Contact BEN FAIT at benjamin.fait@yale.edu .

YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, MARCH 25, 2014 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE 11

“Little girls think it’s necessary to put all their business on MySpace and Facebook, and I think it’s a shame … I’m all about mystery.” STEVIE NICKS AMERICAN SINGER-SONGWRITER

Emotions spread through Facebook A

BY J.R. REED STAFF REPORTER Professor of Social and Natural Science Nicholas Christakis ’84 researches the ways in which networks impact behavior, health, and longevity. In a recent study released this month in the journal PLOS ONE, Christakis, along with researchers from the University of California and Facebook Inc., discovered that emotions spread through the social networking site just like other phenomena such as disease spread through real networks of people. After analyzing over a billion Facebook statuses, the researchers discovered that positive posts, on average, resulted in 1.75 more positive posts from friends, and negative posts generated 1.29 further negative posts.

At Yale, Christakis co-directs the Yale Institute for Network Science (YINS), which opened last summer. The News spoke with Christakis on Monday about the network of emotions on Facebook and how studying network interactions can improve public policy.

Q

I understand that your research focuses on social networks and the ways in which social factors can affect health and longevity. Why did you decide to look at online social networks like Facebook?

A

We humans do this amazing thing. Each of us inherits our relatives, and chooses our friends and our co-workers. All of the people to whom we are connected, in turn, make similar choices. As a result, we fabricate this incredibly ornate structure known as a social network, and we proceed to live out our lives embedded in this network. This fact means, among other things, that we are susceptible to spreading processes in networks. All kinds of things spread in networks — ideas, germs, behaviors, norms and even emotions.

did you first become QWhen interested specifically in how

social networking sites like Facebook can influence emotions?

The topic of emotional contagion is an old one in psychology. It’s been understood for a long time that there’s a spread of emotions [between people]. For example, if you’re on a subway, if a person across the car smiles at you, it’s normal human behavior to smile back. But we became interested in whether emotions could spread more broadly through enormous networks. We published a paper five years ago, which featured the first network map of human emotions. That was a sample of about 5,000 people, and we looked at face-to-face emotional contagion in networks. But for years we had been meaning to do a bigger project.

your Facebook study, you QInfound that rain impacts not

only the emotional content of those experiencing the weather first hand, but also the emotional content of other statuses in the network. Can you elaborate on how you went about studying this pattern?

A

We used Facebook data — millions of people and tens of millions of connections between them and hundreds of millions of Facebook posts. In collaboration with Facebook, we did natural language processing of their posts and saw whether or not the posts were happy or sad. We didn’t read anyone’s posts.

There are lexicons that have been validated to be either happy or sad. For example, if you said, “I feel great,” then that’s a happy post. We used these validated algorithms to assign posts a rating of whether they were happy or sad.

We then linked the posting data for a 1,000 days to weather data for the whole nation for three years, and we found, as others had previously found, that if it rains, you are more likely to be sad and make sad posts. That’s not too shocking, [but] it’s good to validate that.

Then we did a natural experiment and what we found was that, if it rains in your city, your friends in sunny cities are more likely to become sad. Rain in New York City

made the people in New York sad, but that sadness spread to people in other cities that were otherwise sunny, who are more likely now to express sad posts as a result of their friends being sad. Thus, we were able to find evidence for emotional contagion on this massive scale. were some challenges you QWhat encountered in carrying out a

study that included data from tens of millions of Facebook users?

A

It is challenging to cope with data on this scale, but there are many people at Yale who are working on using such “big data.”

At YINS, people like [YINS CoDirector] Dan Spielman ’92 and professor Sekhar Tatikonda are working on mathematical techniques to cope with such enormous data sets. In my lab, we’re using such techniques to analyze real world problems.

It’s also important to note that this type of work was a natural experiment. What we would love to do is conduct a real experiment, where we take a group of people and experimentally make them happy or sad. Psychologists can do this — they can show you a Charlie Chaplin movie or give you an unexpected candy bar, and it makes you transiently happy. We would like to test whether that has an effect on your friends or your roommates. For example, if you get a good grade on a test, especially if it’s unexpected, does it make your roommates or friends happy? But we couldn’t experimentally manipulate people’s emotional state on this scale.

is the research team QHow planning to expand on this research?

A

We’ve been doing a couple of things. We are trying to see whether we can take advantage of the deep understanding of these effects to intervene in the world to make it better. For example, can we induce cascades of cooperation, innovation and vaccine adoption; or, in the develop-

MICHAEL MCHUGH/STAFF ILLUSTRATOR

ing world, can we take villages and make them more likely to change their practices with respect to clean water? Can we make the world better by taking advantage of social contagion? And we believe the answer is yes, and we have a number of experiments that are showing that is the case. can this research be QHow applied in other fields, such as in shaping public policy?

A

First, we need to understand that, when we make public policies that improve people’s well-being, we have to take into account not just the direct effect of the public policy but also the indirect effects. If I have a welfare-improving policy, up until now, the conventional perspective has focused just on the welfare of the individual. But what if I told you that if I took better care of college kids who are depressed,

their roommates become happier? Or, what if I have a food stamp program and the food stamp program improves not just the health of the people getting food stamps but also their neighbors? So, there are all these additional benefits that you need to take into account if you take network effects seriously.

Contact J.R. REED at jonathan.t.reed@yale.edu.

Flu vaccine mandate effective

BY STEPHANIE ROGERS STAFF REPORTER The number of children hospitalized for the flu in Connecticut plummeted after a recent statewide vaccination mandate, according to a new report coauthored by Yale investigators.

In September 2010, Connecticut became the second U.S. state to require that all children from six months to six years of age receive a dose of influenza vaccine each year prior to Jan. 1 in order to attend a state-licensed childcare program. Despite anticipated public resistance towards the program, the investigators found that the mandate decreased hospitalization rates

and increased vaccination rates, said James Hadler, lead study author and clinical professor of epidemiology at the Yale School of Medicine.

“Our study demonstrated the feasibility [of making] day care centers safer,” Hadler said. “We hope that other states will consider that [mandated vaccinations for day-care attending children] is something that can and should be done. Connecticut and New Jersey have broken the ice on this issue and hopefully others will follow.”

According to the study, Connecticut’s vaccination rate for children aged six months to six years increased significantly after the mandate, spiking from

67.8 percent during the 2009– ’10 influenza season to 84.1 percent during the 2012–’13 flu season. Compared to nine other states without mandates, Connecticut also saw the greatest percentage decrease in the influenza-associated hospitalization rate among children aged four years and younger.

Even though the study only looked at hospitalization rates of young children, Hadler said hospitalization rates for the entire community likely decreased as well. Even though the mandate applied only to young children, other studies have demonstrated that protecting a subset of the population decreases circulation of the virus more generally,

Hadler said.

Day care centers regularly check all immunization and medical records at the start of each school year, and influenza vaccine is typically only available in late September. Although this late release creates more logistical challenges for health administrators, Hadler said the study demonstrated that a mandated influenza vaccine is feasible.

“People don’t think about influenza conventionally as a deadly disease like measles for example,” said Kimberly YouseyHindes, a study author and epidemiologist with the Yale School of Public Health. “Now that we have gotten those illnesses under control, we can move onto other

SEASONAL INFLUENZA VACCINATION COVERAGE IN CONNECTICUT AND THE U.S. Connecticut 2009–10 Connecticut 2012–13

100

United States 2009–10 United States 2012–13

diseases such as influenza which can be just as deadly especially in young children and the elderly.”

In 2009, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that all people older than six months receive a yearly influenza immunization. Christina Tan, assistant commissioner for epidemiology in the New Jersey Department of Health, called the recommendation an important public health initiative, adding that states will continue to independently determine whether to adopt a mandate similar to that in Connecticut.

While a mandate for an annual vaccine may at first seem like a financial burden to the uninsured, Tan said the CDC’s Vac-

cination for Children program provides the shots at no cost to those in need.

Public health officials nationwide are considering broader mandates, Hadler said. In Connecticut, some individual hospitals have already mandated that employees receive the vaccination, and state officials have recommended that all hospital staff receive the vaccine.

A CDC report from March 22, 2013 indicated that of the 105 children who died from the flu in the 2012 to 2013 flu season, 90 percent had not been vaccinated.

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

VACCINATION RATES IN CONNECTICUT DURING INFLUENZA SEASON

67.8%

84.1%

2009–10

2012–13

80

Percentage

60 40 20 0

Preschool

6 months – 17 years Age group

< 6 months

IF YOU MISSED IT SCORES

NCAAW Notre Dame 84 Arizona State 67

NCAAW Stanford 63 Florida State

SPORTS QUICK HITS

BRANDON MANGAN ’14 MEN’S LACROSSE The senior attackman was named to the Ivy League honor roll this week for his performance in No. 11 Yale’s 16-15 victory over No. 14 Princeton last Saturday. The Wantagh, NY native scored five goals and notched two assists in the contest.

NCAAW DePaul 74 Duke 65

y

NCAA EAST REGIONAL MEN’S HOCKEY Despite missing the NCAA tournament after winning the national championship last year, Yale will co-host the NCAA East Regional this weekend with Fairfield.

Union, Quinnipiac and Providence will compete at Webster Bank Arena.

NCAAW Kentucky 64 Syracuse 59

LA LIGA Almeria 4 Real Sociedad 3

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“I fully expect this team to win the Ivy League championship next year.”

ASHLEY O’CONNOR ’14 GYMNASTICS YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, MARCH 25, 2014 · yaledailynews.com

Tennis impresses over break TENNIS

Yale crew dominates in season openers

BY ERICA PANDEY CONTRIBUTING REPORTER Both the Yale men’s heavyweight crew and women’s crew teams opened their seasons with victories this weekend.

MEN’S CREW The men raced Brown at home, while the women brought home the Longhorn Invitational title in Austin, Texas at Lady Bird Lake.

The Eli men beat the first and second Brown varsity boats, but were bested by the third boat. Yale’s first varsity boat finished the 2000-meter course on the Housatonic in 5:50.88 minutes, earning a nearly two-second victory over Brown’s first boat. The second boat, finishing in 6:14.6 minutes, also beat the Bears by about two seconds.

We have a bunch to work on. We need to set a line up and find our speed.

It’s very early for us.

WILL PORTER Coach, Women’s crew team

match.

“We have some girls with injuries because of our long season so we changed up our lineup,” Lynch said.

“It didn’t affect us though, as every girl on the team stepped up and took care of what she needed to do.”

Yale’s only defeat on the after-

“This weekend’s results were a product of the countless hours of work the squad put in over the past few months,” John Risbergs ’17 said. “Although early season speed is an indicator of progress from top to bottom, the guys have their eyes set on the national championships. We have bigger fish to fry.”

The men’s third varsity boat finished in 6:30.5 minutes, about four seconds behind Brown.

All five women’s boats won their races in Austin on Sunday. The team participated in the Longhorn Invitational after finishing up the second week of their spring training in Texas. At the regatta, Texas hosted Yale, San

SEE TENNIS PAGE 8

SEE CREW PAGE 8

ALEXANDRA SCHMELING/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

The men’s tennis team went 2–1 at the Battle of the Beach last weekend, while the women’s team went 2–0 over the weekend.

BY MARC CUGNON CONTRIBUTING REPORTER While most of their peers were resting over spring break, the men’s and women’s tennis teams were in full swing. The women completed a weekend sweep of Bryant and St. John’s Universities at the CullmanHeyman Tennis Center, while the

men made a strong showing at the “Battle at the Beach” tournament in Wilmington, N.C. The women began the weekend on Friday with a contest against the Bryant Bulldogs and triumphed in decisive fashion, winning five of six singles matches and both of the completed doubles matches.

In singles, Ree Ree Li ’16 proved a

key performer, recording her firstever victory at the No. 1 spot with a 6–0, 6–3 straight sets win over Bryant’s Marion Boulin. Caroline Lynch ’17 also achieved a significant milestone, recording her first ever singles victory, winning in straight sets at the No. 6 spot. Unforeseen complications, however, prevented Yale from making a clean sweep of the

Gymnastics competes at ECACs

BY ASHTON WACKYM STAFF REPORTER

Track starts outdoor season

On March 22, the Yale women’s gymnastics team traveled to Philadelphia to compete in the 75th ECAC championships.

William & Mary and Brown tied to take the title, each recording a total score of 193.600, followed by Cornell (192.350), Temple (191.775), Penn (191.275) and Yale (189.950). The Elis performed best on their beam, floor and vault routines, but came in last on the beam.

GYMNASTICS “We had some great moments at ECACs. We hit a strong floor and vault lineup,” Brittney Sooksengdao ’16 said. “As a whole ECACs didn’t go exactly how we wanted them to go. We made some mistakes and it wasn’t our best. But we are proud to have pushed through a lot of setbacks.”

Morgan Traina ’15 performed best for the Bulldogs on the bars with a score of 9.775 — enough to tie her for third in the event.

Traina duplicated that score on the beam, earning her a spot in second place on the appaSEE GYMNASTICS PAGE 8

FOLAKE OGUNMOLA/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

The track and field team competed at the Shamrock Invitational in South Carolina over spring break.

PHILIPP ARNDT/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

The gymnastics team placed fifth at the ECAC championships.

STAT OF THE DAY 6

BY SYDNEY GLOVER CONTRIBUTING REPORTER

TRACK AND FIELD

Although it still feels like winter in New Haven, the men’s and women’s track and field teams started the outdoor season in South Carolina at the Shamrock Invitational. After three long days of competition, the Bulldogs walked away with multiple top-10 finishes and several personal records.

The events were hosted by Coastal Carolina in Myrtle Beach and began on Thursday, March 20. The first Yale top-10 finish came from Anna Demaree ‘15, who took fifth place in the 10000meter run.

SEE TRACK PAGE 8

COMBINED MARGIN OF VICTORY IN THE MEN’S BASKETBALL TEAM’S TWO VICTORIES IN THE CIT. The Elis will take on Columbia in New York in the quarterfinals of the tournament tomorrow.