NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT · MONDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2015 · VOL. CXXXVII, NO. 79 · yaledailynews.com
INSIDE THE NEWS MORNING EVENING
WINTRY SNOW
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CROSS CAMPUS Gut punch. We were going to stop with the Super Bowl items, but, after that ending, how could we? Fists flew and hearts broke … You’ll forgive some of us, Yale professors, if we show up to class today somewhat (emotionally) hungover. Can’t stop, won’t stop. Hope you’re all ready for round two — with significant snow expected to hit throughout the day today, Connecticut and New Haven officials are telling residents to buckle down. We’re not counting on another snow day (what is this, 2012– 13?), but we’re also not quite counting it out. We don’t bite. This weekend,
our counterparts at the Columbia Daily Spectator hosted their Annual Awards Dinner, featuring a keynote by BuzzFeed Editor in Chief Ben Smith ’99. “I went to the first meeting of the Yale Daily News and never came back, I was so intimidated,” the former Herald editor recounted. OK.
Take it off. In case all the
photos in your news feed hadn’t already given it away, the seniors all had a ball running around in nice clothes and masks on Saturday night for Masquerade, a prommeets-real-world affair. With that out of the way, we suppose they’ll be shifting their focus to finding the perfect hats for Class Day now. For the kids. Meanwhile,
2018 is probably too invested in Freshman Screw (i.e., Masquerade lite) to notice what happened at the Omni this weekend. The dance’s official Facebook event went live last night, revealing this year’s theme: The Yule Ball. How refreshing to see yet another Yale shindig inspired by Hogwarts.
REGAIN CONTROL MEN’S HOCKEY BEAT PRINCETON
LET IT GO
DIGITIZATION
City prepares for snow, but classes will proceed as scheduled tomorrow.
YALE PRESS WINS GRANT TO CREATE E-LIBRARY.
PAGES B1–B4 SPORTS
PAGE 3 CITY
PAGE 3 CULTURE
Friends recall Wang’s warmth, insights BY RACHEL SIEGEL STAFF REPORTER The vibrant stained glass windows of Battell Chapel bore a stark contrast to the solemn mood Saturday afternoon as students, faculty and administrators gathered to celebrate the life of Luchang Wang ’17, who took her own life last Tuesday. Those closest to Wang spoke of a friend who was a constant source of warmth and insight for those around her, despite her own internal struggles. They said her suicide has left a hole in the communities Wang belonged to at Yale. As eight of those who knew Wang best took to the podium to share personal anecdotes and memories, a circle of friends spoke to Wang’s selflessness and commitment to ensuring the happiness of others. “She looked to find meaning in a life and world she thought was hostile,” Jonathon Bowyer ’16 said. “She positively impacted our lives. These were the times that made her most happy.” The theme of Wang’s capacity to fill any space she entered remained the focus of the memorial. Whether it was the 10-foot by five-foot freshman dorm room Wang shared with Alejandra Mena ’17 last spring, SEE VIGIL PAGE 6
LIZ MILES/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Students, faculty and administrators gathered in Battell Chapel on Saturday to commemorate and celebrate the life of Luchang Wang ’17.
BY DAVID SHIMER STAFF REPORTER Residential colleges are working with students to avoid the continued loss of tens of thousands of dollars worth of dining hall materials. On Friday, the Berkeley College Master’s Office sent an email to its students asking them to return mugs to the dining hall, which is currently miss-
ing 394 of its 400 mugs. But the problem of missing dining hall materials has become universal — over the past 12 months, Yale Dining has lost 3,276 mugs and spent $90,000 to replace them as well as other dining hall materials, said Director of Residential Dining Cathy Van Dyke. Berkeley Dining Hall Manager Monica Gallegos said mugs, plates and silverware are often lost at a faster rate than the din-
ing hall can replace them. Silliman chef Stu Comen said he places the blame not on students, but on low-grade materials. “I don’t think the plate shortage or mug shortage is due to theft, but breakage because they are just not of good quality,” he said. “In our dish room there’s a bin full of broken dishes — we fill up a bin everyday with broken mugs, dishes and soup bowls.”
TRANSITIONS
Admins depart, opening gate for a new era
Thank goodness for this new video series, called “the bull report,” which kicked off over the weekend. In its pilot, host Sahil Gupta ’17 took on common room piano players, dining hall silverware and philosophy professor Shelly Kagan, promising viewers enlightenment on the oftenhard-to-find truth at Yale.
THIS DAY IN YALE HISTORY
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PAGE 5 UNIVERSITY
On national board, Esserman to mend police, community rifts New Haven Police Department Chief Dean Esserman — best known for bringing Elm City cops out of their cars and onto walking beats in New Haven’s neighborhoods — will serve on the National Advisory Board of the National Initiative for Building Community Trust and Justice, a national effort to improve the relationship between police and the communities they serve. Last September, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that a $4.75 million grant would fund a national initiative to improve relationships between police and citizens, prompted by a trend of distrust after the events in Ferguson, Mo. Five months later, Esserman has been called to participate in the effort. The National Initiative is a cooperative effort between the Department of Justice, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Yale Law School, the University of California, Los Angeles and the Urban Institute. The initiative will first focus on identifying U.S. cities where the Board can pilot new policing strategies. Esserman will join Yale Law SEE ESSERMAN PAGE 4
Dining halls come up short on mugs
We don’t know what to think.
1984 A Boston District Court judge decides to postpone hearings for a cocaine possession charge against Jodie Foster ’85 after the actress was searched by Customs officers at Logan International Airport.
After a semester of darkness, Harkness Tower’s lighting restored.
BY STEPHANIE ADDENBROOKE STAFF REPORTER
Sam we are. Outing
themselves as perhaps the quirkiest group of identically named individuals on campus, the entire population of Yale College students named “Sam,” or some permutation of it, gathered for the (apparently annual) Sam Brunch in Silliman on Saturday. Reports that the dining hall’s cagefree scrambled eggs were dyed green for the occasion could not be confirmed.
LIGHT UP MY LIFE
YALE DAILY NEWS
Recent leadership changes allow those who remain to determine the direction Yale will take. BY EMMA PLATOFF AND VIVIAN WANG STAFF REPORTERS In the past year, three top administrators have decided to say goodbye to the institution to which they have each dedicated four decades of their lives. These announcements come in a string of other administrative changes, including departures from the Office of General Counsel to the Provost’s Office to the Yale College Dean’s Office. Though the University welcomed a new top
legal counselor, Yale has seen the shuffling of several of the president’s top advisers and is now preparing for the departure of four college masters. Some Yale administrators, faculty and staff attributed these changes in administration to the departure of former University President Richard Levin in fall 2013 or recent retirement incentive offerings. Others, however, said they were merely flukes of SEE MASTERS PAGE 6
But Van Dyke said Yale Dining estimates accidental breakage accounts for some lost objects, but two-thirds of the total amount missing is due to Yale students taking them and not returning them. Calhoun Dining Hall Manager Jeffrey Hughes said breakage is only a minor part in the problem of lost dining hall property when compared to student misplacement. The only way to
get these materials back is if students decide to help Yale Dining, he said. Anna Russo ’17 said she and three of her friends are taking the initiative to get Berkeley’s mugs back by throwing a “mug party,” in which students will be asked to bring and drink from dining hall mugs before returning them. SEE MUGS PAGE 4
Yale-NUS to grow faculty by 40 percent BY YONATAN GAZIT AND MAY TAY SPECIAL TO THE NEWS SINGAPORE — Yale-NUS is seeking to grow its full-time faculty by nearly 40 percent, using a process that administrators say reflects the culture of the nascent school. The college is in the midst of a series of hiring workshops, offering students the chance to interact with prospective faculty members over lunch or dinner. A workshop toward the end of January was the third in a series of five such events, with the final one scheduled for March. Roshan Singh YNUS ’18, who attended a workshop in the sciences, said the sessions reinforce the college’s commitment to teaching. “Professors have a few roles in the college. One is to add to the research vibrancy, but at the same time they are also teachers,” he said. “You can’t tell the worth of a teacher by the pieces of paper they’ve accumulated, or even the testimonials that they have, because at the end of the day those are pieces of paper. But you judge the worth of a teacher by their communication of ideas.” After each session, students
are asked to fill out a form providing feedback on the candidates. The forms are then forwarded to one of the 17 review committees, depending on the professor’s specialization. Dean’s Fellow Regina Markle said the students’ evaluations can make or break a candidate’s chances. SEE YALE-NUS PAGE 4
EDITOR’S NOTE Starting this semester, the News is collaborating with a group of student journalists at Yale-NUS, founding members of The Octant — to provide our readers with on-the-ground coverage from Singapore and to share with readers there a better sense of events at Yale. This story was reported in Singapore and edited here in New Haven. We hope this fosters dialogue between our two campuses and promotes student journalism at Yale-NUS.