WEEKEND

WEEKEND // FRIDAY, APRIL 4, 2014

Rishabh Bhandari explores how colleges evaluate “non-­traditional” applicants.

TRUTH

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TRADITION

// Page 3

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TRIALS

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YOU OFFEND MY SOCIETY

PASS THE CUP!

WHOSE DEGREE IS IT ANYWAY?

Jame Cunningham illuminates the words behind the wax.

Allie Krause explores the past and present of Mory’s.

David Whipple investigates the Schmidheiny case and the meaning of an honorary degree.

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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 4, 2014 · yaledailynews.com

OPEN LETTER TO THE OPINION “SOCIETIES OFFEND ME”

YAN

CUNNINGHAM

WEEKEND VIEWS

New York is Not the Oyster // BY JUSTINE YAN

// BY JAME CUNNINGHAM

WANG

Dear Mr. Scott Stern, We haven’t met, you and I, but I think that you and I speak the same language of writing our opinions down for the Yale Daily News. My favorite thing about writing opinions is saying what one thinks, and it seems the same with you. A true part of any morning is to feel the breeze and morning drinks, while I sit and crack open a paper to read about our daily ideas that we share among these very pages! But to whom would these writings be for, if one didn’t speak his mind? Even if that means a disagreement among close friends as us.

This opinion is why I felt moved to take to the pages once again, to share what I believe to be the important issues. It’s this: You, in a recent one, had one about all the differences of societies — where they come from, where they are, who sits in them and what they did to make you so mad at them. I understand you’re upset. Let’s face facts: It’s hard and challenging for some people of different ideas to cope with things that so many other people cope with at the same time. So, Mr. Scott, let me help you try to understand why one might think a different position of secret societies, because if you keep being so mad about them, you might never get into one!

Let me disclose a bit myself: I’ve gotten many envelopes on my door from all the societies: Bins, Taps, Caps, Cans, Hat, Tomb, Bazillus, Snakes, Secret One and one or two I can’t even begin to name! Each one had the writing on it, to me, of my name, in the big pens you speak of. I, for one, was glad it had both my names because that means they truly knew it. You should not have thrown yours away, Mr. Scott — you need it!

I felt so anxious when I looked at the envelopes. Indeed, as you say, they were stuck with a sticky seal. Should I open them? If I did, I would truly know that which was inside them. Would there be words there? If there were, then I would have to read them all to know just what

it was that they said. We all know that words can be destroying, humiliating, pretentious and big. Would these words be those?

I read it, regardless of my cares, and it was just a simple thing: to meet us at a time in a place with a thing. Is that really too much for one to do? Is that really the “dramatic” task you claim it to be?

I myself am asked things of this sort all the time in daily life. Everything is at a place! Everything is at times. And often, you bring a thing. You always have to be there at a time, even if it’s just grandma’s birthday, or at a friend’s house. Are you truly saying that to ask us to be there at a minute like any other is a judgment?

But here, Mr. Scott, is what we disagree about the most. When I give and receive an AutoBio, it will be a moment to enjoy, not to hate like you! I will be there with my closest pals and buddies, the ones who just want to know me for my personality! If it were everyone in the audience, like at Yale as you suggest, then what about he who gets nervous?

He who runs and screams away? Or he, even, who pees? Are you forgetting him, Mr. Scott? Isn’t this just the scary thing that you claim to hate?

You claim that a society might make us into the sort of friends you might not want. But who are you to say what are the sort of friends you want and what you don’t want? In my opinion, each of us could be a friend if we were in a big society together. And isn’t that what society truly is? If I had a friend, he would be in the society with me, not out of it like you who hates them. We and you are all in the Yale world, so big and special. This place, where we got in for a letter too, is already a society filled with all of us. Come on and be in it, the water is great! Even though you are swimming with all of us too, you might not even know it.

Contact JAME CUNNINGHAM atjame. cunningham@yale.edu .

The Next Tee // BY EDDY WANG

In my junior year of high school, I switched golf coaches. At my first lesson, he turned my shoulders, spread my feet, realigned my hands and pushed out my butt every time I approached the golf ball until I could barely move. For the first few weeks, my golf balls rarely left the ground, preferring instead to skirt and hiccup in front of me.

I trusted in my coach. There were times when the sun was about to go down, gently burning its last light through the trees, when only a few balls remained in the empty plastic driving range basket and another fruitless practice session was about to end. I wanted to fold and swing the way I used to. But I resisted. I stuck with it, and eventually my shots started whizzing.

FOR THE FIRST FEW WEEKS, MY GOLF BALLS RARELY LEFT THE GROUND After coming out of that initial dark period, I thought I was in the clear. But I was wrong. Growing impatient with my slow progress, I switched coaches again and again. I was introduced to more nuances about the golf swing and experienced the painful process of feeling like a novice on repeat. I came back day after day to yellow and white balls in a green plastic basket.

I stopped taking lessons when I came to college, but when I thought about golf I still felt the bitter taste of those sessions. Now, I only picked up my clubs once a term, for intramural games or outings with friends. On those days,

F R I D AY APRIL 4

I swung without thought.

Over spring break, I interned at an immigration foundation in San Francisco, and after work one afternoon, I walked through a quiet neighborhood, along the shining Golden Gate National Cemetery, and across a booming highway to a driving range tucked in a valley below the roads. I got a bucket of balls and one of the demo clubs in the pro shop for $11.

I began by shooting at a yellow flag in the middle of the range. It took only a few minutes for my shots to get airborne again.

About halfway through the basket, I took a drink of water. I remembered a drill I had done before, where I held my position at the top of the swing, before letting gravity take over.

I stepped over the peeling yellow golf ball, and took my upswing.

My shoulders were turned wide and my hands were extended behind my head. I looked at the golf ball below.

For the first time, my hands and shoulders felt self-directed and I understood where they wanted to go. I recognized that the upswing was simply meant to put my body in a position of power.

I released. My ball took a hop as my club clanged against the mat.

I kept on going. The golf ball became a punching bag, and I punched and punched, feeling the stretch of the windup and the catharsis upon release.

The golf balls sailed in their arcs.

After I hit the last ball, I stood in the sun over the driving range. The desire that had kept me going day after day in high school was gone, filling me with a satisfying lightness. I walked home, freed of thinking about next time.

Contact EDDY WANG at chen-eddy.wang@yale.edu .

// THE MOHAN YIN

I’m graduating in May. I don’t have any plans yet, but I know one thing. I’m moving to not-New York, and I’m sure it’ll be great.

Why does everyone want to go to that city? We can’t help ourselves we’re so attracted to it. My friends and classmates can’t stop talking about it. It’s a point of fixation as we get ready to graduate: who’s going to New York, who’s not going to New York — if not New York, then where else?

We’re in our early 20s, we’ve got big egos and we want pleasure and accomplishment in equal measure. But pleasure is fast, and accomplishment is slow. We want to be writers, artists and actors.

We want to fall in love. We want to buy nice clothes. We want to, frequently, get drunk. And above all, we really want to be successful.

In New York, we can feel that we are achieving something just by being there. There’s a certain cultural capital, legitimacy and sense of importance that this city grants to the bright young people who move in every year. This is the cream of the crop, we think.

All the people from our hometowns will envy us. (Instagram casual dancing on some Brooklyn rooftop. Instagram casual drinking at some Manhattan club. Instagram stunning office view.) New York is The City, the ultimate stage. We think we need to prove ourselves to New York: We have to demonstrate our originality and talent, but also style ourselves as savvy and world-weary. And if we pass this test, we can “make it” anywhere else.

Yale trains us for that city; it’s a microcosm of New York. We have our Upper East Side cliques, our off-campus Brooklynites, our well-dressed internationals. We’ve got our future gallery owners, bankers, lawyers and poets. A lot of us are aggressively self-conscious, relative thinkers.

We’re constantly comparing and competing.

And I love it so, so much. But isn’t it time to grow up?

Freshman year, I went to New York every weekend I could. I thought New York was a miracle.

The people who “don’t like New York all that much” — I thought

they were entirely crazy. New York had everything, so it would have everything I could possibly want. And that was critical.

I’m beginning to think the meaning of youth and the meaning of privilege is this: the ability to leave as many doors open as possible, to revel in the power (and anxiety) of choice. Fancy restaurant menus with way too many entrees. I can never choose, so I ask the bartender what’s the best beer to get. We love to have choices, and we hate to decide.

So we look to our friends and the people around us, trying to discern what the “best choice” is.

What are they getting? Where are they going?

Most of my friends are unraveling, because truly we are lucky, and we could get most jobs in most places if we wanted to. But it’s so hard to choose that we feel like there aren’t enough choices.

It’s this paradox that makes Yalies and New Yorkers such a perfect match. We hate to choose, and moving to The City means we don’t have to.

At Yale, what we have, among lots of other things, is visibility.

We are told time and time again that we’re really good at what we do, that New York is our oyster. But by all accounts, New York isn’t easy. Yale’s never been so perfectly rosy either.

New York may still be some kind of cultural mecca, but I think the city can stunt us. It exercises an enormous curatorial force. We move there and we are shaped by New York — its tastes, fashions, preferences in literature, etc. We turn ourselves into sponges. But we’re smart, we’ve got our own ideas. We need to be more confident about curating our own independent experiences of the world. We are our own private gallery.

Of course, not moving to New York makes me nervous. I worry that I may miss out, lose touch and recede forever into obscurity. This is dramatic of me. A fear of missing out distracts us from another kind of fear — that of being trapped in something not quite right. Because when I am 25 and mildly dissatisfied with my

BREAKING IT DOWN: WRITING ABOUT HEALTH AND SCIENCE

WE HATE TO CHOOSE, AND MOVING TO THE CITY MEANS WE DON’T HAVE TO. New York is both small and large at the same time. Sometimes, it’s so arbitrary how you meet people. I suppose I would really feel scared and crazy when I reach the outer rings of my social scene and what I find are just the ex-hookups of my ex-hookups, or friends of friends of friends of coworkers. I think one could live in New York for a long time and still be lost. And that’s what it is: I’m not afraid of getting lost, I’m afraid of feeling lost.

I have other friends who are not afraid, who are going to teach snowboarding in Switzerland or join the Peace Corps. If New York is Yale Part 2, then these people are actually graduating. They’re going elsewhere. I’m jealous of them: the truly free, truly mobile, truly brave.

We’re so young, we don’t have to be too cautious. I’d rather be completely wrong than almost right. What do we have to lose?

Isn’t our 20s all about accumulating things that we’ll fear losing later (relationships, property, pets)? I expect to fall in and out of love at least four times before getting married. We’ve got to loosen our grip. Right now, I have the least to lose.

Dear class of 2014: Do what you’re gonna do, but I suggest going somewhere else. Let’s go to Cleveland. Or Beijing. Or Dubai.

It doesn’t matter that much, I guess. New York is where you are.

Contact JUSTINE YAN at justine.yan@yale.edu .

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job, my apartment and my boyfriend, I may not leave New York.

I might feel that the risk of losing what I already have outweighs the opportunity cost of staying. I don’t want this Stockholm syndrome.

The Sublime

Justice often occurs at the edge of a cliff.

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 4, 2014 · yaledailynews.com

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WEEKEND COVER

THE NEW DEMOGRAPHICS // BY RISHABH BHANDARI

When Diana Orozco ’16 was applying to college, she wasn’t getting any help from her mother. Rather, her mom was too busy doing her own high school work.

“While I was writing my college admissions essay,” she said. “I was also helping my mum spell words such as ‘serious,’ in her own homework.”

A first-generation student whose parents were undocumented immigrants from Mexico, Orozco, who traveled from Los Angeles to New Haven two years ago, represents the new breed of applicants to elite colleges. Until the late ’60s, Yale and its peers were more extensions of prep school than campuses open to all.

Admissions officers, looking to draw the best of the best to these colleges, now actively seek out students from “non-traditional college communities” like Orozco. Admissions officers interviewed at Yale said the University has made great strides in recent years to expand its applicant pool, but that they are still expanding and experimenting with outreach programs.

But, as Orozco can testify, some students need help just to become competitive applicants. She received support throughout high school, and during the admissions process, but the resources available to her were the exceptions that prove the rule.

Without the help of a multi-millionaire benefactor, Orozco did not believe she could have even left California for college. Her story, along with those of the other students interviewed, spoke to the challenges that accompany students coming from low income communities who approach the world of elite college education.

Even as admissions use broader metrics to evaluate a greater number of candidates, both they and the students they seek must still deal with the real effects the achievement gap and the lingering prejudices that accompany the admissions process.

W

THE NEW BAR

When William Morse ’64 GRD ’74 was at Yale, he saw more students from three or four New England boarding schools than from the rest of the country combined.

“I went to a Yale where my hockey team was full of kids like John Kerry

— we all went to private schools and came from the right type of family,” he said.

The college application process was a lot simpler back in those years, said Geoffrey Kabaservice, an author who has written about the Ivy League admissions process.

Simpler, at least, for those who had connections.

He added that if you were from the right background and schools, where you went for college was largely a matter of personal choice.

“There are stories of the Andover senior classes back in the day congregating for one meeting where they all are asked which college they’d like to go to,” Morse recalled.

The seniors who raised their hands for Yale were counted and their names were written on a document that was sent to the University — these students were near-certain acceptances.

Starting in the early 1950s and 1960s, Yale began to shift its policies, looking for a wider range of applicants. The college, in the words of then-Undergraduate Admissions Officer Inslee “Inky” Clark “could do a lot better than the bottom quarter of Andover.”

But while the current dean of undergraduate admissions at Yale, Jeremiah Quinlan, said Yale has reached a level of diversity that “Inky Clark could not have imagined,” the University’s student body is still not representative of all of America.

The University boasts that 52.3 percent of Yale undergraduates receive some form of need-based financial aid, but the reverse also needs to be considered: 47.7 percent of Yale students come from families that earn over $200,000 a year. Only about two percent of Americans earn this much. Thirty-five percent of Americans at four-year state or private colleges received Pell Grants, the main type of federal aid for lowincome students. In contrast, the number of Yale students who receive such grants is about 14 percent.

The same disproportionately low numbers apply to every group of nontraditional college students.

Fifty percent of college students in America are first-generation college students yet they only compose 12 percent of the incoming class of 2017 — more students, 13.8 percent to be precise, were legacies, meaning that either one or both of their parents attended Yale.

So why are there such major dis-

crepancies between Yale’s applicant pool and that of America’s more broadly?

For some, the status quo barely changed. Pulitzer Prize-winning Bloomberg journalist Daniel Golden wrote in his book, “The Price of Admission,” that many of the spots available at schools such as Yale are actually reserved for the wealthy or the children of alumni through either legacy preference, the collaboration between a university’s fundraising and admissions office or other means such as athletic recruitment.

But all seven college admissions officers or college counselors interviewed disagreed with Golden’s thesis.

Morse said Yale’s legacy students, unlike other recipients of affirmative action, actually tend to have higher test scores and grades than the average applicant. David Petersam, president of Virginia-based education consulting group AdmissionsConsultants, said some schools prefer legacy students because they know these students have a genuine love of the institution.

Still, the University concedes that it hard to move away from traditional pathways. And harder to do so in the most appropriate way.

In a cover story for its January/ February issue, Yale Alumni Magazine published an article with a provocative title: “Reaching beyond the low-hanging fruit: Yale seeks smart students from poor families. They’re out there — but hard to find.”

Immediately the Magazine was caught in a hailstorm of national criticism. One reporter for The Atlantic said the subtitle implied that the low-income students already on campus weren’t smart enough. A fellow at Harvard Law School, Sara Mayeux, said the magazine was incredibly “tone-deaf” and “insensitive” in its remarks.

Still, five college counselors interviewed said they were sympathetic to the arguments made in the Alumni Magazine. Michael Goran, director and founder of IvySelect College Counseling, echoed the sentiments of the other college counselors interviewed when he argued the magazine was merely acknowledging the difficulties top schools have in contextualizing the achievements of students from different backgrounds.

“If it was easy to find these students, Yale would not be expending

huge resources on outreach efforts and hiring staff to recruit nontraditional students,” Goran said.

WHERE DO YOU LOOK?

When looking for the best applicants, scores are both the first and, potentially, the worst sources of information.

The current SAT exam, with its straightforward 600 to 2,400 point scale, is not a purely objective gauge of achievement, said Daniel Edeza, assistant director of admissions at Yale. Edeza said social science studies had clearly proven that a student’s test scores often correlated more with the test-taker’s income level than academic ability.

According to data collected by College Board, a student’s Writing score on the SAT tends to rise by about 20 points for every additional $20,000 that a student’s family earns.

“Our job as admissions officers is not to count scores solely,” said Mark Dunn, senior assistant director at the admissions office. He added that although the admissions office saw test scores and GPAs as useful pieces of information, officers would never use score thresholds.

“Context is everything. We won’t ever outsource our jobs to the College Board or ACT,” he asserted, adding that each candidate is assessed on the basis of how well they performed given the specific resources accessible to them.

But, when Quinlan and the Yale admissions office talk about “holistic” admissions — one which considers every aspect of a student’s application and does not automatically discount students for any one single score or grade — their arguments are often met with eye-rolls and skepticism.

David Petersam, president of Virginia-based higher education consulting group AdmissionsConsultants, pointed out that its easy to read these newer approaches as “arbitrary and designed to pursue political goals.”

Petersam added that many of his rejected clients couldn’t help but feel cheated by affirmative action.

“They say to themselves, I scored a 2,300, I got straight As, is it really my fault that I went to a good public school?” he said.

But according to students and admissions officers, critics miss the reasoning behind these policies.

Orozco pointed out these critics do not understand the structural dis-

advantages that she, and students of similar backgrounds, must overcome.

Orozco grew up in Inglewood, a city in southwestern Los Angeles County which is better known for producing NBA and NFL players than college graduates. Success for kids in Inglewood, according to Orozco, wasn’t attending university, let alone medical school or working on Wall Street. Rather her friends dreamed of graduating from high school and (preferably) without becoming pregnant, she said.

INTERVENTION

Because of a twist of fate, Orozco didn’t attend her local high school, Inglewood High School, with metal detectors and crumbling buildings.

Instead she attended the Brentwood School, a prestigious private school in LA that sends virtually every single student to a nationally recognized four-year college.

And one way to examine the playing field’s inequality is to follow students like her, who have straddled the disparate worlds of low- and higher-income backgrounds, and can attest to advantages some gain at birth.

Orozco’s twist of fate came from an unusual personality, one who in Orozco’s words has “changed the lives of dozens of students just like me.”

Eric Eisner is an abrasive former Hollywood producer who lunched with Tom Cruise and dined with Martin Scorsese. Yet after retiring in his late 40s, he found himself not at a golf course as expected but in some of the worst schools in LA. After meeting students in low-income neighborhoods who score in the top percentiles of standardized tests or who receive glowing recommendations from their teachers, Eisner “adopts” the students as “Young Eisner Scholars.”

Eisner and his team bestow YES scholars with tremendous resources and personal attention, rather than simply setting stipends.

“We treat every kid in the program as if they were our child,” explains Eisner, adding that it was this attention to detail meant that he had to cap the number of students his organization could accept to give each individual the attention they deserve. Jesus Morales, a sophomore at the University of SEE ADMISSIONS PAGE 8

Percentage of Freshmen Class with Alumni Parents

60

Percentage of students on financial aid

1983 ’10-’11 58% 50

22.3% 1993 11.0%

’00-’01 38%

2003

40

14.3% 2013 30

13.8% '95-'96

F R I D AY APRIL 4

'00-'01

'05-'06

'10-'11

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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 4, 2014 · yaledailynews.com

WEEKEND DRINKS

AT MORY’S

Bridging Old Yale and New: The Hopeful Legacy of Mory’s // BY ALLIE KRAUSE

It’s difficult to go through four years at Yale without hearing: “To the tables down at Mory’s / To the place where Louis dwells / To the dear old Temple Bar we love so well.” For years, Yale’s most storied a cappella groups have sung of evenings spent with good drink and good company at the famous club. But the past six years of Mory’s history haven’t been as rosy as the Whiffenpoofs might imply.

In December 2008, this timehonored bastion of Yale tradition was forced to close its doors, citing low revenue and a diminishing endowment. After much fundraising and extensive renovations, Mory’s reopened in the fall of 2010, and since then has put all its efforts into launching Old Yale into the New. Like Yale, Mory’s has in the past been criticized for being an “old boy’s club” and out of tune with the new generation of Yale and its community. Today, it is trying to shake that image, endeavoring to appeal to a broader audience, one more suited to the modern age, while maintaining their roots — and these roots are strong. Mory’s is steeped in history, a rich and colorful one, closely intertwined with that of Yale.

Mory’s began in 1861 as an obscure alehouse. The working-class saloon, then owned by Frank Moriarty and his wife, was located at 103 Wooster St., close to the waterfront. It wasn’t long before Yale students began trickling inside its oak doors. Indeed, its relaxed atmosphere attracted the attention of the Yale Crew Team, who made the bar their post-practice staple.

Over time, as its popularity with the Yale boys continued to grow, it moved — the first of many such changes — to Court Street, where it was given the name “The Quiet House.” The saloon trappings of before were discarded in favor of a Victorian-style pub,

where students congregated to drink Guinness and India Pale Ale. When Moriarty died in 1876, his wife changed location again to Temple Street, where it was renamed “The Temple Bar.” Here it remained for many years, changing management and going through a period of trouble until eventually a German man called Louis Linder bought the lease from the Moriarty estate.

Linder, a popular at what was now known as “Mory’s,” loved music and drew inspiration from his German roots and his time working for Lüchow’s — a favorite in the New York entertainment and restaurant scene. In 1909, Linder encouraged a group of Yale Glee Club singers to perform together one night at Mory’s — a group that eventually adopted the name “Whiffenpoofs.” Audiences would eagerly await the Whiffs’ singing of the new Mory’s anthem, which immortalized Linder and the Temple Bar. “Louis made Mory’s fun,” history professor Jay Gitlin ’71 MUS ’74 GRD ’02 illuminates.

In 1912, Mory’s faced redevelopment plans and financial difficulties due to rising rent and strong competition that threatened to close the bar. Linder, whose health was failing him, prepared to go out of business.

Yale students and alumni greeted this with uproar, abhorring the notion that this longloved establishment might close its doors for good. It had become an integral part of the Yale tradition, and those who loved it were spurred into action, donating to the cause, and in the process, forming the Mory’s Association.

Under the new management, with Linder still in the position of steward, the bar and restaurant became a private club, taking up its new and final residence at 306 York St. — fitted with all the accoutrements that had made the

Temple Bar such a beloved place.

Linder died the following year in 1913, though Mory’s continued to grow from its humble beginnings. “It was a kind of informal alumni gathering place,” Gitlin explains, and soon much of the administration and faculty attained membership. “It became part of the Yale life cycle. It had become a place of memories.”

And thus Mory’s carried on for much of the 20th century — allowing women to join as of 1972 — encouraging both alumni and current students to consider the club a home away from home in the heart of New Haven.

Yet as times changed, Mory’s was reluctant to change with them. Gitlin describes how “People came here who came to perceive Mory’s, rightly or wrongly, as elitist Old Yale.”

“Mory’s had a certain identity in the 1910s, and for a long time it was stuck in the Mory’s of 1912,” Basie Bales Gitlin ’10, who is cowriting the official Mory’s history with his father Jay Gitlin, elaborated. As a result of the growing discomfort with Mory’s perceived elitism, student involvement dropped and lifetime memberships — enrollment in which was possible up until 1974 — drained the club of money. Lacking sufficient capital and the appropriate business model to tackle the deficient facilities and operating losses, Mory’s was forced to close in December of 2008.

Much like in 1912, Yale alumni and students viewed the potential end of this 150-year-long era, and the idea of a Yale without Mory’s, as unacceptable. Tom Ketchum, President of the Mory’s Association Board of Governors, details: “People just couldn’t imagine Yale without Mory’s.”

A feasibility plan was soon put forward, setting the ball rolling for renovations and the eventual reintroduction of Mory’s. For the better part of 2009 and early

F R I D AY

Davenport-Pierson Auditorium // 8 p.m.

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“Want to give your heartstrings a workout?”

2010, donations poured in and the building was overhauled, its new, more modern face becoming the symbol for what the club one day hoped to be.

In the fall of 2010, 20 months and just over $3 million later, Mory’s opened its doors once more.

With the club back in business, Mory’s had much to prove. Above all, it had to demonstrate that it could move with the times, that it could adapt and evolve just as the Yale student population had.

The greatest struggle Mory’s faced was where to start.

Given that lack of student involvement in Mory’s was one of the primary reasons for their closure in 2008, student outreach was at the center of their efforts. Jackie Morr, the Mory’s general manager of one year and the first woman to take the post, described the “many moving parts to engage students, to make them feel like a part of the Mory’s family.”

Their initial goal was to try to get a sense of whether the current members were happy, and then build a comfortable space for them. Renovations played a huge role in achieving this goal with the addition of the new “Temple Bar” — a more casual bar area with a relaxed dress code — and the ability to rent space upstairs during the day where free tea and coffee are provided to members all day.

Over time, Mory’s had developed a reputation for sub-par, overpriced club fare. Two years ago, the Mory’s Association approached Jeff Caputo – previously of Scoozzi Trattoria in New Haven (now closed) — to mix things up in the kitchen. Caputo was at first hesitant: “Food was never taken seriously [at Mory’s], and I did things in a different kind of way.” However, as executive chef, Caputo has brought about a new era to the club’s food culture, bringing in elements of his past in

Italian cuisine to improve on the Mory’s basics.

But it had to be more than a matter of just improving the quality of Mory’s and its facilities — it had to increase its visibility on Yale’s campus. This meant that not only did it have to re-establish itself with its old customers — alumni, and of course the Whiffenpoofs — but attract current students who once formed the lifeblood of Mory’s.

“We really do want students to take advantage of us,” Mary Hu ’82, head of Mory’s Membership & Marketing Committee, elucidated. Of Mory’s 14,000 members, 2,000 are current Yale graduates and undergraduates. Mory’s has organized a variety of activities to bring in even more students, such as Thursday Trivia nights and Happy Hour pricing during the week, which Hu notes have been met with praise and are especially popular with seniors and graduate students. Following further suggestions from current and past Yalies, Mory’s established a Student Ambassador program that rewards new signups with food credit and Mory’s gear, and set up a private dinner comprising of prominent student leaders — not all members — to work to change current perceptions of Mory’s.

“I had only heard of old Yale alumni and professors going to Mory’s,” Devika Mittal SM ’15, the current president of ISO, says. Mittal was one of the student leaders invited to the dinner, among representatives from YCC, YIRA, BSAY and others.

Mittal was impressed by what she saw. “[Mory’s] has been doing an incredible job with outreach,” she said. “It was a very intimate setting, and the food and service was excellent.”

Yet despite these efforts by the Mory’s team, many on campus are still unaware of these initiatives. “I haven’t heard of any at

#FEELFEST

// MORY’S, ROBERT LISAK

Mory’s, the early years. all,” Celine Cuevas TD ’15 says.

“I’ve never even been to Mory’s.”

The club’s management is not blind to this reality. “There are still a lot of students who don’t know what Mory’s is,” Ketchum admits. Rather than give up, Mory’s has made a conscious effort to rise to the challenge.

One of these concerted pushes was the release of the new reduced-price student menu at the beginning of this year, a move that has encouraged a 35% increase in student membership this semester alone. Morr determines: “It’s about understanding what people want, developing relationships and what they’d like to see.”

“There are a lot of uncharted waters, and we’re just trying to sail through and build momentum,” Caputo confirms.

Across the board, the team behind Mory’s is united in its vision in bringing together the best parts of traditional Old Yale Mory’s with New Yale, each one of them wholly dedicated to the cause they love so much. Though they will have to continue to fight the highly exclusive, WASP-y image long associated with it, in many ways, moving with the times is in line with the true mission of Mory’s. Basie Gitlin argues that “Mory’s history of tradition isn’t stuffy; it’s not about tradition in the sense of being ponderous and old. Its history is one of evolving with the student population.”

Mory’s ultimate aim is to remain much as it always was: a place to create memories.

Because, as Jay Gitlin observes: “Continuity resides at Mory’s.”

Contact ALLIE KRAUSE at alexandra.krause@yale.edu .

WEEKEND RECOMMENDS: A sharp icicle

The evidence takes care of itself.

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 4, 2014 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE B5

WEEKEND ARTS

THE GRAND TOUR YOU HAVEN’T HEARD ABOUT // BY ANDREW KOENIG

“Art in Focus: Wales,” the Yale Center for British Art’s most recent exhibition, has been entirely curated by students within just eight months. Though it may be smaller than the museum’s usual showings, the Wales exhibition has the flow and sense of a sonatina, traveling from theme to theme with few hiccups.

The show, featuring English depictions of the rugged Welsh landscape in the 1700s and 1800s, breaks down along several subtopics. According to Art in Focus Coordinator Rebecca Levinsky ’15 and student guide Katharine Spooner ’16, these are meant both to help communicate historical context and make the exhibition accessible to viewers.

One such thematic grouping is Travel and Tourism. Sketching tours became something of a fad among 18th- and 19th-century Englishmen either bored with a passé Grand Tour or else scared off by the political unrest in Europe at the time. Diverted to Wales, they found plenty of material for their pens, brushes, pencils and aquatint plates.

Wales turned out to be a convenient touchstone, since its towering landscape — all grays, hills and crags — embodied the Romantic mindset of the artists on display, satisfying their zest for the exotic while allowing them to travel within a reasonable distance.

This exhibition is the tale of several interweaving histories: the development of the Welsh mythology, most memorably distilled in the figure of the Bard; the migration of English artists to a Wales once considered barbaric; the transformation of innocent Nature into a teeming source of artistic imagination, a symbol of darkness, imperialism and sub-

limity, softened here and there by more familiar, domestic scenes — a house, a mill, a lake.

The curators explicitly make mention of this balancing act, one of their themes being Burke’s idea of the “sublime” versus that of the picturesque. This focus is very much in keeping with the spirit of the Center for British Art, which gives us Constable’s shepherds and watermills alongside Turner’s sprawling vaporous masterpieces. The latter in fact turns up in “Art in Focus” — one of its finest selections is a waterscape by Turner, “Harlech Castle, from Tygwyn Ferry, Summer’s Evening Twilight.” Though one of the lesser known Turners in the YCBA’s holdings (as one guide quipped, “The YCBA is the one place where you can find Turners in a storage facility”), the painting’s soft undertones and glimmering surfaces demand a second look.

The Student Guides have done hard work in curating the exhibit, and it shows. The subject poses several challenges, all nimbly navigated: foremost, it goes beyond the scope of what a student exhibition might normally take on, pursuing for its topic not just a single artist or brief moment in art-historical time, but rather a history that spans across multiple disciplines — the fine arts, poetry, travel writing.

The preeminence of travel writing and the artists’ sketchbooks as mediums of choice means that much of the material related to this annal of art history is contained in books. The advantage of these sketchbooks is their spontaneity; the limitation is that the pages can’t be turned.

The curators have judiciously chosen a few texts from the Beinecke as well as the Center’s

// YCBA

A deep dive into the YCBA archive.

Library of Rare Books and Manuscripts to testify to the importance of the sketchbook. So that these are not dwarfed by the large oil paintings, the curators spotlight a number of “off-the-cuff, en plein air sketches” and watercolors, as Levinsky puts it. One such work is “Capel Curig,” an understated watercolor by David Cox. The painting contains only a few forms, all in varying shades of gray — mountains, lake, clouds and cliffs — and a little white form that almost escapes notice; this is the chapel. Scattered across the watercolor are small indentations, perhaps caused by actual precipitation, as Levinsky conjectures. It’s in works like these that we see an artistic and migrational movement very far from vacation painting: these works capture the essence of Wales, and very well may include droplets of it.

“Art in Focus: Wales” opens this afternoon at the Yale Center for British Art. The Student Guides and Coordinator who curated the exhibition will give an introductory talk at 4:00 p.m. on the second floor where the exhibition is, and a reception will follow in the Library Court at 5 o’clock.

Contact ANDREW KOENIG at andrew.koenig@yale.edu .

Opens Friday afternoon at the YCBA Introductory talk at 4 p.m.

Reception in Library Court at 5

Perfection Unveiled // BY TYLER FOGGATT Most people today would probably say that perfection is subjective — a simple matter of perception. But as I looked through “The Perfect Man” exhibit, housed in the Rotunda of the Harvey Cushing Medical Library, I found myself contemplating the possible objectivity of perfection and questioning whether humans — who are generally seen as imperfect — may actually be able to embody such a quality. In 1895, Yale School of Medicine graduate and physical education expert Dudley Sargent believed that he had found perfection in Eugen Sandow, a bodybuilder who Sargent described as “… the most wonderful specimen of man I have ever seen. He is strong, active and graceful, combining the characteristics of Apollo, Hercules and the ideal athlete.”

Ten lantern slides in the Rotunda contain photographs

F R I D AY APRIL 4

of Sandow in various positions — nude, and proudly placing his flawless body on display. Flexing, Sandow’s figure resembles the bodybuilders of today, but the perfection he exemplifies is not simply physical. Sargent also praised him for possessing the qualities of a “perfect gentleman” and for his vast knowledge of anatomy. To the right of the photographs sits Sandow’s book “Life is Movement.” Its subtitle reads “The Physical Reconstruction and Regeneration of the People (A Diseaseless World),” and the book contains numerous illustrations of healthy bodies, including Sandow’s own. This display is a celebration of physical and mental excellence, a tribute to the idea of perfection, and an exploration of how perfection can be achieved by an individual.

But among the other posters, books and artifcats in the Rotunda, this section is an anom-

aly. While the Eugen Sandow display is a testament to human greatness, the other pieces serve as reminders of human mortality. One of the cases holds British Medical Officer James Haran’s notes on plague patients in Nairobi in 1902. Haran studied 48 different patients who contracted the plague, and juxtaposed with “The Perfect Man,” his extensive notes on human sickness are a rather depressing — albeit muchneeded — dose of reality. Each patient in Haran’s notebook is an individual who suffered at the hands of the plague, contrasting heavily with Sandow’s idea of “A Diseaseless World.”

The case directly next to “The Perfect Man” focuses on mental illness by displaying “The Mind Unveiled,” a book containing photographs and information about 22 people who attended the Pennsylvania Training School for Feeble-Minded Children in Phil-

adelphia. The book in this case is open to a picture of one of the 22 “imbecile children”. The child is sitting in a chair with an almost pained expression on his face — a stark contrast to the photographs of Sandow contained in the case to the left.

outbreaks of malaria, typhus and cholera among the Turkish people. Leslie Buswell’s rare firsthand accounts of being an ambulance driver in France have also been acquired by the Cushing Library and are on display in the case next to Ussher’s.

PHOTOGRAPHS OF SANDOW IN VARIOUS POSITIONS — NUDE AND PROUDLY PLACING HIS FLAWLESS BODY ON DISPLAY. The other displays contain rare works of medical history like Clarence Ussher’s book “An American Physician in Turkey,” which recounts events Ussher experiences with a hospital in Turkey, such as his witnessing of the Armenian genocide, the destruction of his hospital and

But the case at the opening of the Rotunda, containing a testimonial to Dr. Belfast Burton, returns to the more optimistic idea of humans possessing a certain greatness. Burton was born a slave, but practiced medicine in Philadelphia and Haiti and is praised in the testimonial for his

HUG A NEWSMAN DAY

Contact TYLER FOGGATT at tyler.foggatt@yale.edu .

Showing in the Harvey Cushing Medical Library through May 2

WEEKEND RECOMMENDS:

Everywhere // All day

We’re located on the top floor of 202 York St., thx.

“thirst for knowledge,” “sagacity” and “sound judgment”.

Although Burton is never given a title like “The Perfect Man,” he still stands as a symbol for human potential, as he was able to rise above his slave status to accomplish great things and receive recognition for them.

By presenting samplings of ideas like human strength and excellence alongside examples of human weakness and disease, “The Perfect Man” is not only a fascinating journey through medical history, but also a comprehensive display of what it means to be human.

Sharpie markers

For smelling or for drawing.

PAGE B6

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 4, 2014 · yaledailynews.com

WEEKEND WATCHES

PAGE B7

TOO MUCH TV

S

pring is upon us, the grass is slightly greener and the sky is almost (possibly) blue. But the most exciting hallmark of the season is new TV. “Game of Thrones” returns this Sunday, along with “Veep” and (next week) “Mad Men.” Given the recent season finale of “Girls” and the beginning of the back half of “Scandal,” we at WEEKEND hardly know what to do with our free time. And so, we’ve relied on our reporters to tell us the best of the small screen. What characters should we love? What can we learn from them? Most of all, what should we watch?

We’ve got all the answers.

Residential Colleges by Game of Thrones Faction Jonathan Edwards

Trumbull

Calhoun

Berkeley

House of Lannister

House Baelish

House Tully

House Tyrell

(have you heard of culture draw?)

(soft power, good food)

A Netflix Guide to Springtime // BY ANDREW KOENIG If you too are easing your way back into Yale after spring break reclusion, watching Netflix, drinking wine and cuddling may be just the ticket to stepping out onto the social scene. (As for me, this is a semi-permanent phase preceding my début). While you make your re-entry, here are some suggestions for Netflix streaming shows old and new to suit your ever-changing vernal mood: 1. “Twin Peaks” — what could be more fitting to watch in springtime? The dewy evergreens, the overcast skies, the plashing rain (did I mention moisture?) will provide the per-

fect thematic complement to April showers. Other things recommend this show. There are dancing dwarves. There is a young Kyle McLachlan, who went on to play Brie’s evil ex on “Desperate Housewives.” There is budding sensual adolescent love galore, and there is murder — what more could you ask for?

2. Well, humor. David Lynch doesn’t exactly have that in spades. So if you’re looking for a good laugh that the whole family can enjoy, you can’t go wrong watching “Parks and Recreation.”

When you watch, you just might feel a modified version of what small-town petty politician Les-

lie Knopes so well describes during one of her mockumentary end-of-episode monologues: “How does [watching “Parks and Rec”] make me feel? Amazing. Tingling sensation throughout my whole body. I feel flushed.

My muscles are relaxed yet I feel awake. Just waves of pleasure.”

3. If you’re looking to ride those waves to the West Coast Best Coast of reality television, my personal choice is “Keeping Up With the Kardashians.”

A pleasure cruise of a television show, to retain the metaphor.

Once upon a time, I thought quite critically of the Kardashian family. To my untrained eye, Kim was

a gold digger, Kris a stage parent. The list went on. But watch the show and you will be amazed — the truth is, the Kardashians are people just like anyone else (minor caveats: they make more money than most people; they have TV shows made in their honor), and, at the end of the day, family comes first for the clan. They remind you to never forget who you are, where you come from, and what not to wear.

Humanizing, humorous chicken soup for the soul on a rainy spring day.

Contact ANDREW KOENIG at andrew.koenig@yale.edu .

Saybrook

Stiles

Davenport

Pierson

House Frey

House Baratheon

Dorthaki

House Targaryen

Yale School of Graduate Studies White Walkers

(in a weird relationship with Davenport)

(this dining hall = red wedding?)

Branford

Morse

Timothy Dwight

Silliman

House Tully

House Greyjoy

Wildlings

Night’s Watch

(weird and far north)

House of Cards: PLSC 101 // BY DAVID WHIPPLE Let’s be honest with ourselves: nobody at Yale actually wants to be a political scientist. Writing papers, going to conferences, sending out surveys made up of questions like, “On a 1 to 10 scale, how racist are you, honestly?”

— it doesn’t seem too glamorous, but we knew that. No, Yale’s political science majors are in it to win it, and by “it,” I mean, a seat in the United States Congress. We

thought our poli sci classes were enough to get us there, and we’re sure that we learned something of value writing that 18-page term paper on election fraud in Moldova, but nowhere have we learned as much about success in politics as we have from “House of Cards.”

Face it: Kevin Spacey is a better political science lecturer than just about anyone else here at Yale.

Gaddis gets butterflies when Frank Underwood turns to the camera and explains that success in politics is all about having sex with people and then throwing them under trains. Clausewitz who?

And the best thing about PLSC 101: House of Cards? There’s no final.

Girls on “Life” // BY CAROLINE HART Hannah, Marnie, Jessa and Shoshanna arrived at their Thursday night section for the popular philosophy class, “Life”, unprepared (mostly due to their consistent absence in lecture). Instead of completing the assigned readings, the Girls believed they could rely the richness of their limited life experience … except for Marnie, who had already completed the entire semester’s reading.

The TF first asked the class about the relationship between love and friendship, and Marnie immediately offered up her expertise.

“So, I actually just got out of a long relationship with someone who I now understand to be completely incompetent named Charlie, but through some pretty intense self-reflection and discovery, I’d say I have a kind of enlightened point of view on this. I can see now that the love

Contact DAVID WHIPPLE at david.whipple@yale.edu .

Olivia Pope solves a Yale Scandal // BY WESLEY YIIN At midnight, crisis management expert Olivia Pope gets a call. With her phone in one hand and a glass of red wine in the other, she answers it.

“Fitz, stop calling me. We’re over.” “… It’s Peter Salovey.”

“Oh.” By 1 a.m., Liv’s chopper has alighted in Beinecke Plaza. Harrison and Abby, looking as gladiatorly as ever in their Yale hoodies, march ahead of Liv. They tug at the double doors to Woodbridge Hall, but they can’t open them without proper swipe access. Olivia Pope and Associates exchange glances

with one another. They aren’t in Washington anymore — this is a whole new beast.

Inside, Salovey briefs them on the situation: “The campus is in uproar,” he tells them. Apparently, a top male administrator, whom everyone had previously thought was gay, had recently been spotted canoodling with a female faculty member of his own age.

“It’s a PR disaster,” he finishes, collapsing into his chair.

They’re stumped. Never before has Olivia Pope and Associates had to deal with an assumed-gay public figure’s outing as straight

and romantically-ordinary.

Nonetheless, she has a plan.

He is called into the building and arrives with his face mask intact, cursing Angela Lansbury for his bad luck. Liv calms him down. She tells him to keep wearing his frilly scarves and rainbow socks, but he also has to be frequently seen in public with his new girlfriend in order to legitimize and normalize the relationship.

“You must,” she stresses, as he claims that she was just a onetime “trick.” “Make them feel something for you.”

A year later, the power cou-

ple weds, and their wedding photos are the most-shared Facebook post of the weekend. Crisis averted.

And Livvy? She’s back in DC covering up murders by presidential candidates and having (U) RST with Fitz. But not for long — Salovey has her on speed dial.

What’ll it be next? Chicken tenders made out of mushrooms?

A YDN reporter sleeping with a dean?

“Consider it handled,” she’ll say.

in friendship is much more durable and forgiving than love in romantic relationships. I have been through sooo much with my group of friends, and even though we have our ups and downs — sorry again, Shosh, about sleeping with Ray — we are all here for one another! I think that after what happened between me and Ray, when Shoshanna and I had a total heart-to-heart, we’ve never been closer!”

Marnie then made analogy between herself and Shoshanna and Plato and Aristotle, but no one really understood. The next question up for discussion was whether students would continue to work if the necessity of income did not exist. Hannah eagerly took the opportunity to discuss the personal issues that this very conflict brings her on a daily basis.

“As a writer whose job opportunities have not yet allowed me

appropriate creative license, I know what it’s like to constantly be working without the recognition of pay. I mean, I work very hard to keep up with my writing.

I feel as though I live my life as a writer, so I take the time to write every night because it’s my talent and my passion. Someday my work will reach people in a really profound way…”

Before Hannah could finish her thought, the TF decided it was time to move on with the discussion (after all, this had nothing to do with Aristotle). The next question asked was about the value of having children. Shoshanna somehow misinterpreted the question to be about her childhood experience, which confused both her and the rest of the section.

“Wait, so, like, are you asking about whether or not I’ve progressed as a person since child-

hood? I mean, yeah, I would say I def have. My parents have always reminded me how vocal I was as a child, and that that’s a skill I’ll be able to use in the business world.

Also, I don’t know if you’ve heard of this, but apparently, less social children are more likely to become socially successful adults, and I think I’m a really good example of that.”

Everyone snickered, but, strangely, Jessa came to Shosanna’s defense. Before the TF could stop her, she stood up and announced class was a “complete waste of time” and questioned why anyone should “take advice on living from a bunch of nerds who sit in all day, with their noses in pointless, elitist literature.”

They all failed to receive participation points for section.

Contact CAROLINE HART at caroline.hart@yale.edu .

Contact WESLEY YIIN at wesley.yiin@yale.edu .

// KAREN TIAN

S AT U R D AY APRIL 5

VALUE-BASED HEPATOLOGY CONFERENCE Park Street Auditorium // 7 a.m.

A lot of you need to check your values stat.

WEEKEND RECOMMENDS: Slicing someone’s neck with a credit card Our seventh-grade gym teacher taught us this.

S AT U R D AY APRIL 5

YALE WOMEN’S CREW VS. CORNELL Gilder Boathouse // all day

Especially if the weather is nice!

WEEKEND RECOMMENDS: Hooking up with your ex’s best friend Great revenge or best revenge?

PAGE B8

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 4, 2014 · yaledailynews.com

WEEKEND COVER

WHO WILL SUCCEED? Critical Reading 600

Math Writing

Average SAT Score

500

400

300

200

100

0 <$20,000

$20,000$40,000

$40,000$60,000

$60,000$80,000

$80,000$100,000

$100,000$120,000

$120,000$140,000

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>$200,000

Family Income ADMISSIONS FROM PAGE 3 Michigan, said he and his fellow YES scholars talk about Eisner to their friends more often than they speak about their parents.

Yet for Orozco, her challenges did not end with her acceptance to a high school that sends dozens of students each year to selective East Coast colleges. Rather in many ways, her challenges were only beginning.

For one thing, she felt like she was entering a foreign world. Now she was going to a school where students would regularly be given their own Mercedes-Benzes and BMWs when they turned 16.

“I experienced a world I had never seen before,” she said, adding that some of her classmates would frequently use the noun “private jet” or “PJ” as a verb to explain their travel plans. “I’m just going to PJ to New York this weekend,” was one expression Orozco said she heard on multiple occasions.

At school, Orozco and Roger Lewis, a scholarship student at the private school Loyala High School, said all the black and brown students stayed friends with just one another. Orozco emphasized that any social segregation was not intentional or explicitly imposed. Rather her unique socioeconomic situation made it impossible to always relate with richer members of the school.

Jim Patterson, an Upper School dean at Harvard-Westlake, said the concerns that Orozco and Lewis faced at Brentwood and Loyala were not unique. Harvard-Westlake — considered one of the most prestigious schools on the West Coast — often recruits high-achieving low-income students, and it has developed ways to approach the problems they face.

The school places these students under the care of an Upper School dean (Harvard-Westlake’s version of a college counselor) and works with these students to help them transcend the social difficulties they may face upon arriving at Harvard-Westlake, he said.

Still, he concedes that it is a difficult task. Seven students interviewed on Harvard-Westlake’s campus said social cliques were often predicated on wealth and status. And all six YES scholars or scholarship students interviewed for this piece said the consequence of income inequality do not end in the cafeteria but extend to the classroom.

Jeffrey Bradshaw, a former student at Pilgrim High School whose tuition was paid by the billionaire philanthropist Ron Burkle, said he always thought he was a smart kid before entering the private school as a sophomore. A straight-A student at his old high school in Compton, Bradshaw brought that same braggadocio when selecting his sophomore classes at Pilgrim.

“I signed up for AP classes left

S AT U R D AY APRIL 5

and right, I was just happy this new school was offering them,” he said.

On his first AP Biology test of his sophomore year, Bradshaw scored a flat C. No one else in his class scored below a B+.

Upon receiving the test, he remembers bursting into tears and storming out of the room. The same trail of Cs and the occasional B haunted him throughout his sophomore year.

Bradshaw’s mother, a receptionist who once worked for one of Burkle’s companies, remembers her son telling her every day that he would drop out of Pilgrim and return to his local public school where the classes were much easier and the expected workload was significantly less.

These memories are not unique to Bradshaw, but rather a similar tale each student told the News.

Orozco remembers crying to her mother after receiving a C on first paper. She eventually pulled her grade up to a B+ and overcame that initial shock. By the time she graduated, Orozco was near the top of her class.

“I would work so incredibly hard but I would never let anyone tell me that I wasn’t smart enough,” she said, adding that this was a trait she still holds to this day whenever she gets a bad grade or struggles with a problem set at Yale.

FURTHER INTO THE GAP

But despite the occasional bad grade she received as a freshman, Orozco is still at Yale, and excelling.

She is in many ways the poster child of a student who, with a little bit of help, exceeded her socioeconomic expectations.

Indeed, the students who found their way to private high school through this sort of scholar program interviewed for the piece were unanimous in expressing their gratitude for the opportunity.

“I dodged a bullet. Literally. While I complained about struggling in classes, some of my kindergarten friends were in gangs or had knocked a girl up,” Bradshaw said. After a significant pause on the phone, he spoke in a softer voice. “Remembering this has always made me thankful of God and keep things in perspective.”

Mark Barnett was not as lucky. He did not score high enough to qualify for a YES scholarship.

Instead, he remained in Inglewood High School. There he found himself skating through classes and receiving good but not great grades. When he took the SATs, Barnett scored a 1,720, the 79th percentile. He added that there were many words on the test that he had never even seen before.

Upon entering San Diego State, Barnett felt out of place. A prospective English major, he quickly grew disenchanted after going through the same struggles that Orozco and Bradshaw first felt in high school. After his freshman year, he dropped out to

YALE LIGHTWEIGHT CREW VS. GEORGETOWN Gilder Boathouse // 9 a.m.

Go Brendan!

attend a community college in Santa Barbara.

Yale, unlike San Diego State, boasts tremendous resources and support systems. But even here students who do make it through the application process from poorly performing public schools have often felt out of place.

“I felt like I was so behind everyone else. There was such a strong temptation to just quit and give up, the gap seemed that insurmountable,” John Gonzalez ’14, a senior from Modesto, Calif. recalled. Mikhail Reece ’16, a football player from Tampa Bay, Fla. said he had never had a workload comparable to what he faced his freshman fall.

Quinlan said his office and their partners in the College Dean’s Office and the Office of Institutional Research track the performances of students that the University admits, and they are aware of these issues.

The University is continuing to develop resources such as the Freshman Scholar’s Program or the precalculus modules that will arrive next summer to better prepare students whose transition to college is particularly challenging.

All three admissions officers interviewed said they would often have to turn down students who, despite excelling given their background, were not prepared for attending Yale.

“We have something like a Hippocratic oath as admissions officers,” Edeza said. That is, do no harm.

Still, he and Dunn both stressed that the admissions office accepts students who may struggle initially but with a little additional support will eventually flourish. Often, officers debate what it means for a student to be a “success” — will they have the highest GPA at Yale from the get-go, or will the make the biggest impact on their communities after graduating?

Eisner said it was for this reason that so many of his YES scholars do exceptionally well in the college process.

“There are relatively fewer qualified black or Hispanic students who can score in the range that other applicants, especially Asians, can score,” said Eisner, adding that because the pool is so slim, top colleges fight over elite-scoring African-American and Hispanic students knowing that they can all do the work. He pointed to Kwasi Enin, the Long Island, N.Y. senior who has made national news for his acceptance to all eight Ivy League schools, as an example of how coveted highscoring minority students are.

BRIDGES

If 90 percent of success is showing up, then this applies to not just applicants but also to colleges — who must raise awareness that the ivory tower is open to all deserving candidates.

Quinlan said Yale’s focus is not

on fighting for the small pie of highscoring low-income students who are already applying to elite colleges.

He added that there are many of these students across the country who do not even apply to selective colleges, and it is these students who Yale wants to attract.

“One of the core priorities of my first year [as dean of admissions] is finding and encouraging the brightest students to consider Yale,” he said.

Harvard Kennedy School of Government public policy professor Christopher Avery, who has been cited frequently by University President Peter Salovey and Quinlan when explaining the importance of Yale’s outreach efforts, said his research and the research of others demonstrates that only 34 percent of high-achieving students in the bottom quarter of income distribution attended one of America’s 238 most selective colleges whereas 78 percent of students in the wealthiest quarter of the income distribution did so.

Students from low-income areas interviewed said Avery’s research was not surprising.

“Unless a school had a really good football or basketball team, I had no idea what any of these schools were until I came to Pilgrim,” said Bradshaw, adding that many of his friends from home had only heard of Harvard. Even then, he said they didn’t know anything about Harvard except that it was apparently where you went if you were going to be president.

One way we can encourage lowincome high-achieving students to apply to Yale is by accepting more students who come from that background in the first place. Quinlan pointed out that you must build momentum, and signal to these communities that Yale and our peer schools are accessible to anyone who is bright and capable.

Barnett said he applied to San Diego State only because one of his teachers went there.

“I always assumed that a school is a school. It’s the innate ability of the student that mattered and anyone reading the same book can learn the same material,” Barnett said. He did not realize there was a substantial difference between San Diego State or Stanford until he heard from classmates in college of the incredible resources and attention that are available to low-income first-generation students at some schools.

Changing these perceptions is part of our jobs as admissions officers, said Edeza. Edeza’s background is one similar to Barnett and Orozco.

His father did not graduate from elementary school and his mother did not graduate from middle school. He went to a large underperforming Los Angeles public school. Still, he found his way to Yale through the help of Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID), a private organiza-

tion that raises awareness of the college application process for gifted students.

He said one core part of his mission as the admission officer in charge of Los Angeles is to work with organizations such as AVID and YES to ensure more students are made aware of the possibilities of a Yale education.

When Corinne Kentor ’16, a student ambassador, visited Oak Park High School, a public school for middle-class students in Los Angeles, the questions she dealt with at the beginning of the session were almost exclusively about numbers: how many APs she had taken, what her GPA was or her SAT scores. After Kentor had skillfully put this subject to rest using the standard admissions line — each application is unique so each person’s scores can’t be compared — she proceeded to explain Yale’s financial aid policies.

At that moment, the sleepier heads in the room were roused. Seven attendants interviewed said they were astonished at how generous Yale was with financial aid.

“I had always thought of Yale as that place for characters from Gossip Girl or Montgomery Burns from the Simpsons,” said junior Faiyaz Khan.

He added that he had never heard of Yale’s policy to allow all families earning under $65,000 to contribute nothing to their child’s education — a policy for which his family would qualify.

According to internal data collected by the University, its outreach efforts are working. Data tracking the student ambassador program — which sends current Yale undergraduates to high schools that likely cater to low- or middle-income Americans — demonstrates that high school students are more likely to apply to Yale if student ambassadors visit and discuss Yale’s robust financial aid policies.

Avery’s research also shows there is much work to be done. Geography continues to be one of the biggest barriers to college admissions, he said, adding that at the very least, high-achieving low-income students such as Orozco in metropolitan areas have access to programs such as the YES organization or Prep for Prep.

And, for other students and families, lingering perceptions of elitism and distance can further drown out Yale’s outreach efforts.

Orozco recounted the first time her mother heard about Yale. She was watching a Mexican TV show when a wealthy man mentioned that his daughter was attending Yale, she said, adding from that moment onwards her mother always assumed Yale was a school where rich people sent their kids.

Contact RISHABH BHANDARI at rishabh.bhandari@yale.edu .

WEEKEND RECOMMENDS: Changing your roommate’s Netflix password TRY SETTING THAT 6AM ALARM ONE MORE TIME.

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 4, 2014 · yaledailynews.com

WEEKEND GETS

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DEGREES

ON WHOSE HONOR? // BY DAVID WHIPPLE Terry Lynch never planned to take on Yale University, nor did he want to.

“I’m a blue-collar guy,” Lynch said.

“When I think of Yale, I think of the President [of the United States]. I hold it in high esteem.” But he hasn’t let his regard for Yale drown out his conscience.

Last month, after reading an article that mentioned Yale’s affiliation with Swiss billionaire Stephan Schmidheiny, Lynch did something that surprised even his “blue collar” self: he wrote a letter to University President Peter Salovey. It was a long letter, about three pages, and it bore the letterhead of the International Association of Heat & Frost Insulators & Asbestos Workers, a labor union of which Lynch is the International Vice President.

“I don’t go writing a letter every time I don’t agree with something,” Lynch told me. “That’s not my nature, I don’t have time to do that. But I said, you know what, I’m going to weigh in on this.”

In doing so, Lynch joined a chorus of voices calling for Yale to rescind the honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters it awarded to Schmidheiny in 1996. In the 18 years since, Schmidheiny hasn’t spent a day in jail, despite have been sentenced to 18 years worth of them. *** In the 1970s and ‘80s, Schmidheiny was the CEO of Eternit, a now-defunct company that was at the time one of the world’s largest producers of asbestos cement. Today, asbestos is recognized as a carcinogen — a fact that’s painfully clear in the town of Casale, Italy, where one of Eternit’s plants has been held responsible for two to three thousand asbestos-related deaths and associated environmental damage.

In 2012, Schmidheiny was convicted by an Italian court on charges related to the Casale plant, and sentenced to 16 years; in 2013, an appeals court tacked on two more.

Schmidheiny, who was tried in absentia, remains a free man so long as he doesn’t step foot on Italian soil.

He maintains his innocence, denying direct involvement in the factories’ management, and has vowed “never to go to an Italian prison.” He did begin to phase out asbestos from Eternit’s operations upon becoming CEO in 1976, and in 2006, he established a compensation fund for plant workers sickened by asbestos exposure. But to people like Lynch, who lost his father and uncle to asbestos-related disease and now lobbies on behalf of mesothelioma victims, such actions don’t justify Schmidheiny’s freedom — nor his retention of an honorary doctorate from Yale.

Lynch wasn’t the only one to write a letter. Linda Reinstein, director of the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO), wrote to the University after learning of a similar effort

by AFeVa, the Italian Asbestos Victims and Relatives Association. Lynch and Reinstein’s letters went unanswered.

But late last year, Christopher Meisenkothen, a lawyer representing AFeVa in Connecticut, struck up a written dialogue with University Secretary and Vice President Kimberly Goff-Crews.

Goff-Crews stated in December the University’s resolve not to rescind Schmidheiny’s degree. But after Professor Thomas Pogge suggested in an interview with WNPR that the University establish a committee to investigate the issue, Meisenkothen made the same suggestion in January.

In her Jan. 30th response, GoffCrews was less than receptive: “Yale has demonstrated its con-

cern for the victims of asbestos exposure through its pioneering work in the understanding and treatment of asbestos-related diseases,” she wrote. “You have done the same through litigation and public advocacy. It is from this standpoint of mutual respect that I ask you to accept as final the response that I have previously provided regarding reconsideration of Mr. Schmidheiny’s degree.”

Yale’s stated refusal to even reconsider Schmidheiny’s degree has left it at odds with asbestos victims and victims’ advocates worldwide. The University’s stance also raises questions about the meaning of an honorary degree, and Yale’s policies surrounding such awards. There’s more to the case, and others like it, than meets the eye. *** It’s easy to see why Yale offers honorary degrees. When executed properly, they offer recipients some of Yale’s coveted store of recognition and validation, all while expanding the reach of Yale’s already formidable network and brand.

“The year I got [my honorary degree] at Yale, we even had a very wellknown tap dancer,” recalled Thomas Schelling, an influential game theory professor who received an honorary degree in 2009. “When he was called up to receive the award, he did a pirouette onstage.” (Schelling corrected himself later to state that the recipient was in fact Bill Jones, a renowned modern choreographer.)

Yale has bestowed honorary degrees on everyone from Hillary Clinton to Willy Mays, but whatever the discipline — politics, scholarship, modern dance — an honorary degree from Yale is an acknowledgement of accomplishment.

“Since the commencement of 1702,” reads the website of Yale’s Office of the Secretary, “the Yale Corporation has awarded honorary degrees to recognize outstanding achievement.”

One word in that sentence is key to the story of Stephan Schmidheiny: recognition. An honorary degree from Yale affirms one’s status as a leader in some field. Perhaps it was this potential to easily legitimize an individual’s conduct that led Thomas Jefferson, fearing patronage and elitism, to ban honorary degrees at the University of Virginia in 1819.

But those whom Yale selects for degrees are also a reflection on the University: In selecting certain people as exemplary of “the aspirations of this institution,” Yale ties itself to their conduct. As long as an individual retains his degree, he acts, to some extent, in Yale’s name.

A university willing to recognize modern dance alongside scholarship demonstrates a certain open mindedness. But by the same token, when a degree recipient finds himself sentenced to 18 years in jail, some of the associated ignominy makes its way back to the conferring university as well.

If an individual behaves poorly after receiving an honorary doctorate from a university, Pogge noted, he is effectively dishonoring that institution.

How would such behavior affect the value of other honorary degrees?

Schelling said he wouldn’t take it personally, but it would pique his curiosity. “I would wonder what had tipped the argument in [the recipient’s] favor,” he told me. In the case of Schmidheiny, that turns out to be an important question. *** Honorary degrees are revoked from

time to time, under extenuating circumstances. At the outbreak of World War I, Brown University and the University of Pennsylvania revoked degrees they had been given to Kaiser Wilhelm II. In 2007, multiple universities revoked degrees awarded to Robert Mugabe, the president of Zimbabwe, when he was accused of severe human rights violations. And Tufts, of course, recently sent Lance Armstrong packing after revelations surfaced about his doping history.

But Yale has never revoked an honorary degree. The University emphasizes this in communications regarding the Schmidheiny case, suggesting that a truly overwhelming case would be required to outweigh historical precedent.

Schmidheiny’s accusers think they have just such a case. Yale, they believe, made an honest mistake in 1996. Reinstein suggested that background checks could prevent such mistakes in the future. That Yale hasn’t rescinded the degree, other advocates say, demonstrates only an unwillingness to face new facts.

In a December letter, Meisenkothen pointed out that important historical information has surfaced since Yale decision to give Schmidheiny the award.

“We can make mistakes,” Reinstein told me. “It’s how we deal with rectifying them that determines our inner core. It’s immoral not to take a look at what’s happened.”

To Schmidheiny’s accusers, the facts of the matter are more than adequate to justify rescinding his degree — which leads to the question of why Yale appears to have ignored those facts. The University does benefit from its relationships with degree recipients, and it’s tempting to believe those benefits often take a tangible form, denominated in dollars. Yale initially denied ever having received money from Mr. Schmidheiny, but in December, Meisenkothen sent Goff-Crews copies of press releases from 1996 and 1997 that listed Schmidheiny’s Avina Foundation as providing “major project support” for environmental workshops at Yale.

“Now we are uncovering major support provided by Mr. Schmidheiny’s foundation to Yale University around the time that he received the honorary degree,” Meisenkothen wrote.

The donations provided a possible answer to the question that Meisenkothen and others hadn’t been able to parse: why wouIdn’t Yale rescind the degree when, in their view, the facts demanded it? “[Yale’s position] raises the question of whether there are any circumstances under which Yale would (or is prepared to) revoke an honorary degree,” he said in a November letter.

Now, with the donation records, Meisenkothen felt he had a lead. It wasn’t exactly a smoking gun, but he smelled gunpowder. *** Yale offers an unexpected response to advocates’ questions of why new evidence hasn’t changed the University’s position: Namely, that there is no new evidence. Yale’s official position downplays the outcome of the trial and says instead that Schmidheiny’s dealings in the asbestos industry were known and accounted for in vetting him for a degree.

Yale can also point to the unusual circumstances of Schmidheiny’s trial. Trials in absentia are extremely unusual, and illegal under most circumstance in the United States. But more striking is the fact that there was

Maurice Sendak

Joan Didion

Desmond Tutu

Edith Wharton

Benjamin Franklin

a criminal trial at all. In the United States, asbestos-related damages are usually negotiated outside a courtroom, or through civil damages suits at most.

The discrepancy between American and Italian approaches to asbestos damages gives Yale the ability to play down the Italian verdict.

“I think Yale is snubbing the Italian [justice] system,” Meisenkothen said in an interview with the Connecticut Law Tribune. And while Professor Pogge points out that Yale might have been justified in overlooking misdeeds unrelated to Schmidheiny’s recognized achievements, that’s clearly not the case here.

“Yale gave the honorary doctorate specifically for the environmental achievement of Schmidheiny,” he told me. “Only one of the two can be right.

If the Italian court is right in convicting Schmidheiny for the environmental harm that he did, then we must rescind the degree.”

Pogge is quick to point out that he doesn’t necessarily think the Italian court was right. His claim is simpler: that if they were, and Schmidheiny was indeed an eco-criminal, then maintaining his degree would be inexcusable. Pogge laid out to me his hopes for an expert committee convened by Yale to determine not the legal, but rather the moral upshot of Schmidheiny’s actions in Italy. Yet Yale has stood its ground, insisting that Pogge’s hypothetical hasn’t even been discussed.

“The University,” wrote GoffCrews in an email to the News, “does not believe that the ongoing legal proceedings in Italy provide cause to reconsider the committee’s judgment regarding Mr. Schmidheiny.” *** Why has so much ink been spilled over this controversy? The answer has to do with the power of an honorary degree to influence appearances.

Schelling posited that universities might award degrees to erase undeserved black marks on recipients’ reputations. Such degrees, he suggested, can alter the public perception of a recipient — and that’s exactly what’s at stake in the debate over Schmidheiny’s award. It’s hard to imagine this would play out as it has if Schmidheiny were actually in jail; once someone is in jail, arguing over appearances seems much less relevant. But Schmidheiny remains a free man, and given the strange nature of his trial and conviction his character is still up for debate.

“He’s convicted of a crime. It doesn’t matter where you live — that conviction follows you,” Reinstein insists. But it does matter that Schmidheiny was tried in absentia and the verdict was never enforced. Italy has, in essence, conferred a dishonorable degree, a testament to misdeeds.

The result is a competition between

two different public perceptions of Stephan Schmidheiny. Yale still recognizes him as a philanthropist; Reinstein wants to brand him as a criminal.

Perhaps that explains her frequent use of a single phrase during our conversation: asbestos criminal.

Lynch, the asbestos workers’ union official, wrote to Salovey in March that “The character revealed in the trial is at odds with the image of environmental philanthropist and green businessman” that Yale recognized. His degree, in other words, belies what accusers believe to be the “real” Schmidheiny, as “revealed in the trial.” Schmidheiny knows this, some of his accusers contend, and they believe that the honorary degree from Yale was a form of “greenwashing” designed to mask his past environmental misdeeds.

Reinstein, among others, made such a case explicitly.

“I believe that Yale might have fallen prey to a clever PR scheme to absolve Schmidheiny of the crimes he committed,” she said.

According to Pogge, there is some evidence for such a claim — a claim that, if true, would call into question the integrity of the honorary degree process and of the institution itself. Yet such a revelation would also answer the question at the heart of the matter: Why has Yale refused to even consider rescinding the degree?

In the years before Schmidheiny received his honorary doctorate, Pogge told me, some of his lower-level managers in Italy were under criminal investigation. Schmidheiny knew he might shortly find himself in a similar situation. Schmidheiny hired a public relations firm to head off scrutiny of his actions, Pogge said.

“He quite deliberately was trying to make it harder to indict him for environmental misconduct,” he noted. “He also gave money to Yale University.”

That was the “major project support” that Meisenkothen unearthed back in December, after Yale had denied its existence.

If it turns out that Schmidheiny is not the environmental philanthropist that Yale recognized in 1996, the University has a responsibility to find out exactly why he was honored, Pogge argued. Was it an honest mistake, or something more sinister? As pressure mounts from the media (Meisenkothen’s last letter to Goff-Crews included a long list of publications that had covered the story), Yale’s actions and motives will come under increased scrutiny.

In relatively minor cases, Pogge told me, it might make sense for an imageconscious university to refrain from rescinding an undeserved degree, so as not to “rock the boat.” But it is far too late, he thinks, to sweep the Schmidheiny affair under the rug.

Contact DAVID WHIPPLE at david.whipple@yale.edu .

Schmidheiny ordered to stand trial in Italy on charges stemming from Eternit’s asbetos cement factory in Casale, Italy

Swiss billionaire and Eternit CEO Stephan Schmidheiny is awarded an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Yale University

1995

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1993-1995

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Low-level managers at the Eternit plant in Casale, Italy come under criminal investigation for asbestosrelated deaths in the town.

APRIL 5

Yo-Yo Ma

2009

1996

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Notable Yale Honorary Degree Holders

Italian public prosecutor opens an investigation into Schmidheiny’s conduct as CEO of Eternit

#ROMEOJULIET

Calhoun College Theater // 2 p.m. #shakespeare #cool

2013

An appeals court adds two more years to Schmidheiny’s sentence

2010

2012

Schmidheiny convicted in absentia and sentenced to 16 years of prison

WEEKEND RECOMMENDS: Force someone to buy a timeshare with you

According to Jackson McHenry ‘15, “Timeshares are the worst.”

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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 4, 2014 · yaledailynews.com

WEEKEND COLUMNS

THE REAL HOUSEWIVES OF NEW HAVEN Record admissions results again, I hear? According to the reputable, peer-reviewed database Funny2. com (“the place for humor on the Internet”), the odds that an application to Yale will be successful are now lower than your chances of having a stroke next year and only slightly higher than the risk of your next flight being flown by a drunken pilot. (Apparently, odds of the latter are a terrifying 1 in 117, which explains a lot about that time I woke up from an in-flight snooze to find that we’d landed in the wrong country.)

Because I’m a terrible person, whenever the Admissions Office releases its yearly stats, I always feel a huge zing of confidence. Never again, I think smugly, will I ever face anything else so competitive. The worst is over! Compared to this, life will be a cakewalk.

This, boy and girls, is called hubris — and I am now paying for it.

This week has taught me that there is something harder than getting into Yale, and that’s finding a place

ELEANOR MICHOTTE CRIT FROM THE BRIT to live once you’re here. Apparently, the only form more likely to be rejected than your Common App is your lease request with Elm Campus Partners, providers of offcampus apartments and gnawing despair.

Here’s how I know: Over spring break, my roommate and I decided on a whim that to hell with these world-class residential college facilities; next year, let’s live somewhere small and overpriced off camps instead! So, in our naiveté, we made a few casual inquiries to realtors.

What followed was exactly how I imagine a battle on “Game of Thrones,” if the Seven Kingdoms were fighting for an unpainted liv-

ing room instead of the Iron Throne.

On our first day of house hunting, 14 people showed up to view a lone two bedroom. Fourteen. Everyone exchanged silent, poisonous looks.

If the tour had lasted any longer, someone might have ended up facefirst out the window.

Afterwards, my roommate and I looked on in horror as friends stole friends’ application logins to poach each other’s housing.

Sooner or later (definitely sooner), we too found ourselves descending to depths we didn’t know we were capable of. Within 48 hours, we were calling the nice man from the rental agency every hour in an attempt to elicit more from him than a one-line email addressed to “u 2” and signed “TY.” Apparently, 12 phone calls were not enough, because we lost the real estate battle. So now we’re having to pick through the dregs to find anything — anything — that’s left.

Which is how, this morning, I found myself in an apartment in a popular development near Alpha

The Surprising Ways of Chardonnay In this brief warm respite from the hell of snowstorms and finals, I’m celebrating with one of my favorite white wines: chardonnay.

To wine lovers, chardonnay is often thought of as the great “chameleon.” This because chard is particularly low in varietal character, meaning that, more than any other grape, its taste hinges on the land where it’s grown and what the winemaker chooses to do with it — not the grape itself.

But this is not an insult to chardonnay.

In fact, chardonnay is the world’s most planted white variety of quality. Because of its versatility, chardonnay can assume a tremendous spectrum of flavor and texture, comprising some of the most complex and beloved white wines across the globe.

With every wine, each winemaker must make the critical decision whether or not to age in oak barrels. In both red and white wines, barrel aging will impart flavors that are, well, oaky. Stainless steel tanks, on the other hand, can keep a wine more fresh and light. Second, a winemaker must choose to use either new or used oak, as well as French or American oak. New oak barrels will heighten the woodier notes, whereas used barrels are more neutral. Similarly, American barrels strengthen tastes of oak, vanilla and toast, while wines aged in French oak are more subtle.

Another important choice every winemaker must make is whether or not the wine should undergo malolactic fermentation. This process converts tart malic acid into softer lactic acid. Chardonnay subjected to malolactic fermentation develops a lush, creamy texture and a fuller body, famously expressing a buttery character. Left alone, chardonnay remains more zippy, acidic and refreshing.

TO WINE LOVERS, CHARDONNAY IS OFTEN THOUGHT OF AS THE GREAT “CHAMELEON.” With this knowledge in mind, my friends and I are enjoying two chardonnays — one from Burgundy and another from Napa.

Like pinot noir is for red, chardonnay is Burgundy’s noble white grape, providing practically all of the region’s white wine.

But don’t assume each white Burgundy tastes just like the next. In truth, studying the diversity of chardonnay offered across Burgundy can be an eye-opening endeavor to the effects of terroir, oak and fermentation processes on a wine.

Tonight we’re starting off with a bottle of 2012 Alain Pautré Petit Chablis. Chablis remains one of Burgundy’s most idiosyncratic wine-making towns, notably using stainless steel tanks rather than oak. Their wine is known for its signature “gout de pierre à fusil,” or “taste of gunflint,” along with its high acidity. Chablis traditionally

S U N D AY APRIL 6

Delta. The building, don’t get me wrong, is ideal: very trust-fund grunge, full of lots of people who look great in beanies.

THE ONLY FORM MORE LIKELY TO BE REJECTED THAN YOUR COMMON APP IS YOUR LEASE REQUEST WITH ELM CAMPUS PARTNERS This particular apartment, however, should probably be roped off by the CDC. We looked around in the dark because only one lightbulb was working in the whole place. The floor was a garden of congealed cups and graying socks. “This is the last two-bedroom unit available in our entire agency,” the realtor told us as we admired the way a patina of

mold gave a certain “je ne sais quoi” to the bathroom. In the kitchen, an array of dishes covered in some sort of salad festered fetchingly. I stepped a little closer; it turned out the salad was actually, no joke, a full plate of weed. (I can only assume that the fork and knife were for ease of consumption.) “We have a lot of demand for this unit,” the realtor said pointedly as she bent down to sniff the plate. “I need to know right now if you’re taking it, or someone else will. This is your last chance.”

“No other vacancies?”

“None.”

“Not even that place the man died in last year, where they didn’t find his corpse for months?”

“That was actually one of our most sought-after properties. It went months ago.”

Class of 2018, enjoy the high of your acceptance. But get ready to adjust your expectations: The real competition has only just begun.

Contact ELEANOR MICHOTTE at eleanor.michotte@yale.edu .

The Scenic Views of the New York Subway System

BRYCE WIATRAK WINESDAY boasts so much acidity that the majority of wines experience at least partial malolactic fermentation to make them approachable.

Petit Chablis comes from the town’s outermost vineyards, and is starting to gain recognition as a hidden gem among French wines.

The Alain Pautré is made in the customary Chablis fashion — 100 percent stainless steel fermented and 50 percent malolactic. With a pale straw color, this Petit Chablis enjoys a more savory bouquet of wild herbs. The wine surprises you on the palate much like sour candy does, with an initial tartness soon fading to notes of lemon drop, lime juice, green apple, wet stone and of course, gunflint. This mineral-y, citrusy Chablis paired beautifully with our Brie cheese, which itself comes from the neighboring département of Seine-en-Marne.

Ultimately, a perfect wine for the warm months ahead.

Next, we’re savoring Aviary Vineyards’ 2012 Napa Valley Chardonnay. California creates chardonnay in such a different style from Chablis that as you sample the two side by side, you may be shocked to discover they’re actually made from the same grape. California cultivates more chard than any other wine grape, transforming it into a rich, chewy, full-bodied wine that carries its weight year-round. But California’s stylistic proclivity for American oak and malolactic fermentation has turned traditionalists off to New World chardonnay. Indeed, when taken to extremes these “meal in a glass” chards can be tough to swallow.

But the Aviary chardonnay is no such wine — classically Napa, but still entirely quaffable. Bearing a more golden hue than the Chablis, the Aviary chard smells of white flowers and vanilla. The thick, buttery mouthfeel immediately screams California, along with the strong tastes of oak and toast. Although completely dry, the wine suggests notes of Teddy Grahams, honey and cantaloupe.

Chardonnay on the whole is notorious for inviting polar reactions among its drinkers. People quickly dismiss the wine as either bland or over-the-top. Others would take a glass of chard with them to their graves. Ironically, it is not that uncommon to hear somebody say, “I hate chardonnay, but I LOVE white Burgundy.”

Little do they know they’re denouncing the very wine that they claim to cherish!

Both the Domaine Alain Pautré “Petit Chablis” 2012 (Chablis, France) $18 and the Aviary Vineyards “Chardonnay” 2012 (Napa Valley, California) $19 are available for purchase at The Wine Thief (181 Crown Street, New Haven).

Contact BRYCE WIATRAK at bryce.wiatrak@yale.edu .

// BRIANNA LOO

When you think “New York City subway,” the first words that come to mind are probably congested, dirty, loud, among other lessthan-positive descriptors. Most of us coming from New Haven associate the descent into the subway system with a sad departure from the grandeur of the Grand Central atrium. But if you take a second to look, you’ll find unexpected beauty in its tunnels.

Though we imagine New York City’s art attractions to be almost exclusively above ground, the subway stations are filled with public artworks commissioned and installed over the past 25 years. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority network continues to plan artistic installations with the goal of brightening every station in the city. The founders of the NYC subway wanted to reflect the city’s vibrant artistic culture beneath its streets, enriching the travel experience of millions of New Yorkers each day.

Subway stations are covered with carefully crafted terra cotta, bronze, glass and mixed media sculptures. Like art in more conventional aboveground museums, the works on the walls of subway stations are carefully preserved, even in the midst of construction for improving the technology and quality of the subway.

One of my favorite collections includes the “Architectural Artifacts from the Collection of the Brooklyn Museum, 2004” installed at the Eastern Parkway-Brooklyn Museum station. This subway stop — below one of the oldest and largest art museums in the country — houses the long-term installation of terra cotta artifacts and glass mosaics along its mezzanine and stairway walls. The bright blue mosaic tiles and carefully carved figures are a natural extension of the Beaux-Arts architecture of the building above. Appropriately, Beaux-Arts architecture is known for its sculptural decoration, classical details and mosaics — all of which the subway station possesses.

The artistic features of the subway system extend across the bridge to the 14th Street Eighth Avenue station. The station features prolific public sculptor Tom Otterness’ bronze sculptures on railings, beams and columns.

Created in 2001, Otterness’ work is sure to garner a smile from even the grumpiest of rush hour commuters. The series, called “Life

TARTAN DAY

Underground,” features small men engaged in what Otterness imagines to be typical — or in some cases purely comical — underground tasks. In one sculpture, a man in a top hat slips under the railings, only to find himself looking up at a castigating police officer. In another, a giant alligator peaks out of a manhole cover to drag a frightened New Yorker down into the sewers with him. In a third, a man sits on a bench while holding an ostentatious bag of money — a shrewd commentary on commuters’ tendency to flaunt their iPhones and other pricey gadgets. Otterness equates this flashy behavior to clutching a large pouch bearing a dollar sign.

In the near future, even more stations will boast insightful and diverse art projects about New York culture. The Second Avenue subway line has scheduled to open its track in 2016 and with it pieces from leading artists like Sarah Sze, Chuck Close, Vik Muniz and Jean Shin.

Sarah Sze plans to ornament the 96th Street station with wild landscapes mimicking the commotion of everyday subway travel, replacing the skyscrapers and concrete with flora and fauna. 86th Street will boast Chuck Close’s photorealist portraits of important New Yorkers. Vik Muniz’s “Perfect Strangers,” depicting Muniz’s perspective on the subway goers themselves, will adorn the walls of the 72nd Street station. Finally, 63rd Street will play home to an installation of Jean Shin’s photographs on ceramic and glass from the Transit Museum. All of the works will embrace the diversity, culture and force of New York City.

So the next time you leave the aqua blue dome of Grand Central for the crowded subway below, don’t forget to take a moment and look up — there’s more beauty than you think.

Contact STEPHANIE TOMASSON at stephanie.tomasson@yale.edu .

WEEKEND RECOMMENDS:

All Day // everywhere Cue aggressive bagpipes.

STEPHANIE TOMASSON PUSHING THE PALETTE KNIFE

Guilt

You may move on, but they will remember the feeling for years later.

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 4, 2014 · yaledailynews.com

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WEEKEND THEATER

NAVIGATING THE NATURE OF KNOWLEDGE // BY CAROLINE HART

EP // ST

The language of love and the language of science do not often find themselves in correspondence, but their discourse in Arcadia seems natural. The play oscillates between present-day and 18th century sets in England, within the same house. The opening scene reveals 13-yearold Thomasina, played by Eliza Hopkins ‘17, sitting at the table with her tutor, Septimus, played by Simon Schaitkin ‘17.

She innocently inquires to him about the meaning of “carnal embrace” during their lesson, and the audience is quickly hit with the guiding theme of Arcadia: that the pursuit of knowledge is, ultimately, a unifying force among us all. The interaction featured notes that would prevail throughout the rest of the show—wit, depth and complexity.

Director Zachary Elkind ’17 and pro-

d u c e r by Alison Mosier-Mills ’17 center Arcadia at a home in Sidley Park, England. The presentday setting focuses on a group of people intent on uncovering the mysteries of the home from the 18th century. These two timelines are so intertwined that the set does not change between scenes. The characters in each era differ, and never interact directly. Marianna Gailus ‘17 plays Hannah, a writer in the present day who is researching “The Hermit of Sidley Park,” who formerly lived around the home. Hannah is joined by Bernard Nightingale, played by Taylor Rogers ‘17, who has come to the home to research a theory about a murder among the home’s former inhabitants.

As the two collaborate in research, they slowly begin to unravel details about the characters from the earlier time.

They a re also joined by Hannah’s fiancé and academic Valentine Coverly, played by GianPaul Bergeron ‘17, his sister Chloe, played by Eleanor Slota ‘17, and the puzzling Gus played

by Greg Suralik ‘17, who remains silent for the play’s entirety.

The set consists of doors in the middle and on both sides of the stage, two windows and a table set with chairs in the center of the stage. The props used by both sets of characters do not change or move off of the set.

These include books, and a tortoise named “Lightning” by the present-day characters. The constancy in both set and props suggests a greater commonality than mere place—both sets of characters have a universal and insatiable appetite for knowledge. This aspect joins with the phenomenon of human emotion, as in the scene

where Chloe theorizes that the world would be able to run according to predictable laws, if not for the unexpectedness of romantic relationships.

the audience, as his self-important humor effectively broke up the sometimes overwhelmingly detail-rich plot.

The simplicity of the set and minimal props allows the audience to concentrate entirely on the characters, which emphasizes the play’s focus on the human element. Costume is

ELEGANCE OF THE COSTUMES AND SET ASIDE, ARCADIA BOASTS A THEME THAT WILL RESONATE WITH AUDIENCES As classically “unexpected” as can be, student Thomasina and teacher Septimus ultimately admit their attraction and share a kiss in the final scene of the play. Hopkins played Thomasina brilliantly, as a genius adolescent whose age and inexperience render her a dynamic and likable character. Rogers’ Bernard was also well r e c e i ve d by

markedly different among the two sets of characters to reflect the times, providing an interesting juxtaposition to the innate similarity in the storylines.

T h e c h a ra c te rs within the

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1800’s setting donned authenticlooking dresses and menswear, the modest dresses of female characters being especially striking.

Elegance of the costumes and set aside, Arcadia boasts a theme that will resonate with audiences long after they leave. The show balances love and humor effortlessly with thought-provoking ideas about the nature of science and life as we know it. And the actors succeed further in weaving humor into this complex and insightful plotline: their interactions with the tortoise, while not the focus of the play, are an amusing respite from the intense questions on the nature of knowledge. Ultimately, for a unique performance that focuses on plot instead of frills, Arcadia is a must-see.

Contact CAROLINE HART at caroline.hart@ yale.

// ALEXANDRA SCHMELING

Gypsy Needs No Stage Mother // BY THERESA STEINMEYER If I were Gypsy’s stage mother, I’d point my finger toward the Off Broadway Theater and insist, “this way, everyone,” and “a little louder with the applause, please.” When I head over to catch the Wednesday night dress rehearsal, I’m pulling out my phone, expecting to have to call to get in. Instead, I find a line outside of the theater and a student crowd ready to fill one third of the seats just for the run-through performance, with the show’s four-day weekend slate still on the horizon.

Gypsy is set during the decline of American vaudeville in the 1960’s, as Rose (Chandler Rosenthal ‘14) attempts to herd her two daughters, June (Sarah Chapin ‘17) and Louise (Lucie Ledbetter ‘15) toward Broadway stardom. Rose dreams up a children’s singing and dancing act, hunts down a couple of boys to round out her troupe, and snags her agent and romantic interest, Herbie (Iason Togias ‘16). But the harder she pushes and manipulates, the quicker the vaudeville market dwindles away.

Gypsy chronicles the family’s emotional struggles, culminating in Louise’s rise as Gypsy Rose Lee, one of America’s most famous strip-tease artists.

Full of emotional complexities and with a demanding score, Gypsy would be an ambitious performance for any undergraduate group. Nevertheless, Ethan Karetsky ’14, determined to tease out the story’s rich psychological edge, valiantly takes it on as his senior project. The curtain opens on a vulnerable, elderly Rose as she watches her children perform onstage via a nursing home television set – a clever interpretation of the original script. The production uses Gypsy’s potential for quiet scenes that allow its talented cast to capture emotional subtleties. Ledbetter nails these in her transformation from vaudeville flop to burlesque star, striking the difficult balance of terrified, loving and visionary, all while achieving a lovely vocal performance. And when Chapin sings about leaving vaudeville to perform on Broadway, I almost believe it. Rosenthal successfully performs Rose as a deeply conflicted character that the audience can simultaneously love and loathe. Other noteworthy performances are Tulsa’s (Christian Probst ‘16) dance solo and Togias’ lovable Herbie. And I couldn’t review the Yale production of Gypsy without singing the praises of the produc-

S U N D AY

GERMAN KAFFEEKLATSCH

APRIL 6

We’re all about that invigoration.

tion’s two child stars, Veronica Nardo (Baby June) and Rosa Nardo (Baby Louise) – it’s worth going to Gypsy just to watch their adorable first ten minutes.

Gypsy doesn’t drop the details.

Clever scenery plays a huge role in the musical’s success. Backdrops are projected against the far wall of the theater, which might seem halfhearted, but in Karetsky’s nursing home context adds another layer of understanding to his interpretation of the classic musical. Otherwise, set design is simple and bare, an unexpected artistic choice against the context of the showy bur-

lesque world that brings the familial relations into the spotlight. I’m tapping my feet for the pit orchestra’s delivery of a triumphant, energetic performance from the downbeat to the end. And I’m still mystified by how Gypsy pulled off the dancing cow – two actors expertly maneuvering a cow suit during one of Rose’s vaudeville children’s performances.

Even though theater has certainly heard this routine before, Karetsky makes Gypsy his own, harnessing the

strengths of the Yale theater community to deliver a smart and subtle production with a clean sound.

Go this weekend, not only to experience Karetsky’s artistic vision, but for a cast that delivers a performance with maturity, energy and precision.

Gypsy needs no stage mother – it’s a great act, ready to make a splash on its own this weekend.

Contact THERESA STEINMEYER at theresa.steinmeyer@yale.edu .

WEEKEND RECOMMENDS:

WLH Lounge // 6:00 p.m.

Housing Draw

If Monopoly taught us anything, it’s that backstabbing is always acceptable in real estate.

PAGE B12

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 4, 2014 · yaledailynews.com

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