NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT · TUESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2014 · VOL. CXXXVII, NO. 61 · yaledailynews.com
INSIDE THE NEWS MORNING EVENING
RAINY RAINY
39 36
CROSS CAMPUS
DRINKING IS ALCOHOL WHILE PREGNANT BAD?
PRESIDENT AT YALE
CRIME IN NEW HAVEN
Jimmy Carter weighs in on sexual assault on college campuses
AUTHORITIES QUESTION DANGEROUS CITY RANKING
PAGES 14-15 SCI-TECH
PAGE 3 UNIVERSITY
PAGE 7 CITY
BASKETBALL The women’s basketball team looks to make a comeback PAGE 16 SPORTS
Hundreds protest Ferguson verdict
Welcome to the bigs. The
newest Studies in Grand Strategy class was named yesterday, concluding the months-long process that forced some of Yale’s brightest minds to ... strategize their way into the selective program. Congrats! Enjoy!
Contingency plan. Meanwhile,
applications for the Institution for Social and Policy Studies Fellowship were due last night, reaffirming both the quality and abundance of Yale’s policymaking programs.
Stealing back Christmas. Last night, the YCC sent a poll to the student body to quantify the dissatisfaction that many expressed after learning the provisional academic calendar for 2015–16 ends the fall term on Dec. 23, one week later than it does this year. You shall pass. And with
the end of the term in sight, residential college deans have taken action to ensure the success of their students during finals season. Morse College Dean Joel Silverman, for example, warned students against surprises — especially those of the not-passingyour-classes variety. “Take a ‘W’ now instead of an ‘F’ later,” Silverman recommended.
Showing love (and hate).
On Monday, SBNation ran an in-depth piece on The Game, listing 25 reasons why “Harvard-Yale was a hell of a game.” But despite the writer’s clear appreciation for the tradition-rich rivalry, she was even more transparent about her disdain for the YPMB, which was apparently enough for her to root for the Cantabs.
’Tis the season. Though Black Friday and Cyber Monday have ended, savings season continues on campus — the Bookstore, Campus Customs and gift shops at the Peabody Museum and Center for British Art are all offering special discounts for the holidays. Nice try. When a store clerk at
the Sam’s Mart on Kimberly Avenue was confronted with a potential robbery, he took matters into his own hands ... by grabbing the suspect’s hand and threatening to break it unless he left the store, New Haven Police Department spokesman David Hartman reported yesterday.
YALE DAILY NEWS
Hundreds walked out of classrooms and dining halls at 12:01 p.m. yesterday, congregating on Cross Campus to protest the no-indictment of Darren Wilson. BY JACOB POTASH CONTRIBUTING REPORTER A Monday afternoon protest on Cross Campus against the no-indictment in the shooting death of Michael Brown turned into a rousing call to students to
BY SARAH BRULEY AND RACHEL SIEGEL STAFF REPORTERS Yale Security employee Joy McAllister was babysitting her infant nephews on the morning of Oct. 31 when her boss called and ordered her to report for an unscheduled shift that night. Unable to find a replacement sitter in the five hours that remained, McAllister informed her boss that her family commitments would prevent her
BY LILLIAN CHILDRESS STAFF REPORTER
THIS DAY IN YALE HISTORY
We think the prosecutors did a fantastic job, but the judge made a mistake in granting accelerated rehabilitation.
Submit tips to Cross Campus
JAMES BHANDARY-ALEXANDER
crosscampus@yaledailynews.com
y MORE ONLINE goydn.com/xcampus
from taking the shift. Three weeks later, the University fired McAllister with no prior warning. McAllister is one of three Yale Security employees that has been fired since early November, calling into question Yale’s relationship with the newly formed, independent union that represents Yale Security employees. On Oct. 17, Yale Security employees voted to leave the Security, Police and Fire Pro-
Cho avoids prison time After facing accusations that he stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from workers and failing to comply with a Department of Labor investigation, Gourmet Heaven owner Chung Cho will not see the inside of a prison cell.
1967 Then-Governor of California Ronald Reagan arrives in New Haven to visit campus as a Chubb Fellow, despite some resistance from various members of the University community objecting to Reagan’s policies and views on the Vietnam War.
as part of the national Hands Up Walk Out event. More than 200 students, joined by more than a dozen city activists and several faculty members, participated in the rally, organized by the Black Student Alliance at Yale. In a crowd outside Berkeley
North Court, protesters silently held their hands up for four and a half minutes to commemorate the four and a half hours that Brown’s body lay on the street after he was killed. “If Mike Brown had been white, the terms of engagement
would have been different,” BSAY President Micah Jones ’16 told the crowd, arguing that Brown’s death was enabled by a social system that treats black people as other. “It is time to SEE FERGUSON PAGE 6
Three firings in Yale Security draw ire
Costly in Connecticut. An
analysis conducted by the Institute for College Access and Success named Quinnipiac and the University of Hartford among the nation’s worst on grads for student loan debt.
fight for justice in the city that lies beyond Yale’s gates. The protest began at 12:01 p.m. — the time at which Brown was shot — when students across campus walked out of classes, meals and other events to congregate on Cross Campus
Last week, Superior Court Judge Maureen Keegan approved Cho’s request for accelerated rehabilitation, a program that will prevent any trace of a crime from appearing on Cho’s record,
but will bind him to two years of probation. Cho was arrested last February on 42 felony and misdemeanor charges of wage theft, crimes for which he could have faced up to 145 years of jail time. While the decision was a clear victory for Cho, some questioned where it left Gourmet Heaven workers who experienced wage theft. “We think the prosecutors did a fantastic job, but the judge made a mistake in granting accelerated rehabilitation,” said James Bhandary-Alexander, the attorney representing six current and former Gourmet Heaven workers who experienced wage theft. “But presumably this creates a very strong incentive for Cho to comply with Connecticut labor and employment laws.” The judge ruled that Cho must fulfill four additional requirements in order to keep his probationary status. First, over the next 23 months, he must pay an additional SEE CHUNG CHO PAGE 8
fessionals of America, a large union with a national span, to form the Yale University Security Officers Association. The new union is only open to Yale Security employees. In addition to McAllister, Yale has also terminated Malu Mulumba and Darrell Turner for reasons many have called unjust. Each of the three terminations was followed by individual letters, which were obtained
by the News, written by attorney Thomas Horgan and sent to the University. Horgan is an attorney at Hanley Law Offices, which first supported efforts to form the new union and now represents YUSOA. Dwayne Goldman, a union representative at the firm, said the three letters went unanswered by Yale’s Office of Human Resources. “As far as we’re concerned, they were excessive, unfair and
unjust,” Goldman said of the terminations. “We believe it’s an abuse of power and authority.” Goldman explained that the three terminations, which he said were not preceded by communication from the University, violated employee contracts and Yale Security protocol. All three were probationary employees, meaning the University was free to discipline them, up to and SEE YALE SECURITY PAGE 8
Power outlines global challenges, solutions
VICTOR WANG/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
Ambassador Samantha Power ’92 spoke at the Yale Law School this Monday. Her topics spanned from Ebola to sexual violence against women and violent extremism. BY VICTOR WANG CONTRIBUTING REPORTER Ambassador Samantha Power ’92, the U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations, spoke to a packed auditorium in the Yale Law School about the dangers facing the world — ranging from Ebola
to sexual violence against women and violent extremism — and the importance of developing long-term strategies against them. “We are living in an age of daunting and perpetual crisis,” Power said. “We have to SEE AMBASSADOR PAGE 6
PAGE 2
YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2014 · yaledailynews.com
OPINION
.COMMENT “As long as these diseases continue to be political footballs, all bets are yaledailynews.com/opinion
off on eradication.”
On gratitude O
n Nov. 24, Salovey sent the Yale community a message with the subject line, “On Gratitude.” In honor of Thanksgiving, Salovey wrote, Yalies should remember, “It was November, 1968 that Yale announced it would admit women undergraduates. The move to coeducation is a moment in Yale’s history for which all of us can feel thankful.” I was vaguely put off by Salovey’s tone. Should Yale women really recall the decision to go co-ed by “expressing gratitude,” as he put it? But my own feelings were not entirely clear to me until I read a Facebook status from former News Opinion Editor Marissa Medansky ’15. She pointed out the absurdity of Yale students being “thankful” for coeducation, as if it came to be spontaneously or because of Yale’s generosity or wisdom. We should not express “gratitude” to Yale for allowing women through its ivy-covered gates. To discuss coeducation in such a reductive manner is to disregard both the work that went into forcing Yale to admit women and the continuing efforts toward gender equality on this campus. Brave women had been pushing and protesting and rallying for coeducation for a century before Yale went co-ed. Inspired by activists in the Women’s Rights Movement, Yale students began picketing in favor of coeducation as early as 1963. Then-President Kingman Brewster, torn between the calls of the students, the threats of intransigent alumni and his own feelings, delayed a decision for years. In 1968, nearly 1,000 protesters marched on Brewster’s home. Meanwhile, other colleges across the country had begun letting women in. Administrators decided to let women matriculate for a variety of reasons, but in large part because of activism from women on the outside, protests from students on the inside and a desire to “preserve Yale’s position at a time when a rapidly changing environment threatened to push it into decline,” in the words of historian Jerome Karabel. The University became coeducational because of the concerted efforts of those whom Yale opposed for decades. I don’t think it’s hyperbolic to suggest that President Salovey’s email glosses over this history. Worse, it asks Yalies to gloss over it too. It suggests that we merely say thank you. Should black or Jewish students say thank you because they’re no longer restricted by punitive admissions quotas? Should Asian students say thank you because they’re not as excluded as they used to be? Should Native American students also say thank you for their admission — especially on Thanksgiving, a holiday Salovey apparently believes is “devoted to the simple acts of feeling and expressing gratitude.” To be fair, Salovey does
not specify exactly to whom Yalies should be saying ‘thank you.’ S a l o v e y ’s email names only one SCOTT woman who STERN played a role in the battles A Stern for coeducaPerspective tion. T h a t woman was Elga Wasserman LAW ’76, who “paved the way for generations of women.” Yet, as Medansky pointed out, we learn little about her except that she was an administrator, “a faculty spouse” who was “also a chemist.” Salovey also wrote, “there is more still to be done.” Damn right. But this was as close as Salovey came to a specific call to arms. Considering Yale’s recent bad press surrounding sexual misconduct, I can think of a few initiatives Salovey could have put forward. I don’t mean to pick on this single email, but to me it embodies the way the Yale administration wants students to view the University. If progress comes, students should be grateful. The idea that students play any role in spurring that progress — that’s absurd. If students were the driving force of change, rather than its passive recipients, they, and their successors, would have less cause to be thankful than to feel accomplished. Yale does not make progress because the administration is so enlightened or because progress just happens. Yale makes progress because students, faculty, staff and outside activists demand progress. Yale adopted its recent sustainability initiatives because of student activism. Yale stepped up its policies aimed at combating sexual violence because of calls (and lawsuits) from students and the actions of peer universities. The University offers wonderful financial aid, but, again, this did not come to be spontaneously or because of Yale’s generosity. Yale could not hope to compete with peer universities without such aid; more importantly, financial aid has improved over the decades because of the vocal, and sometimes physical, activism of students. One day, when Yale recognizes the graduate student union, that too will be a result of sustained activism. In the end, many administrators, as well as a number of alumni, don’t believe students are wise enough to play a substantive role in decision-making. If progress comes, they believe, it must — and should — come from the top. For that ideology, we cannot be thankful.
'SOMENSA' ON 'SECURING HEALTH SYSTEMS FOR THE FUTURE'
NEWS’
VIEW NOTES FOR THE DEAN
Holloway, make sexual assault your issue
W
e are hard-pressed to find an issue more worthy of Jonathan Holloway’s focus as dean than sexual violence. Previous editorials in this series have addressed student body expansion, academic resources, classroom space. This matters more. Sexual misconduct is finally getting the attention it deserves — the attention of the media, of health professionals and of lawmakers. At least part of the national media’s attention has been trained on Yale. A front page New York Times story in October raised questions about the University’s handling of a case of sexual harassment at the medical school. The details of the case, which involved purported sexual advances and professional reprisal, could not match the gut-wrenching description of an alleged gang rape in a fraternity at the University of Virginia, reported this month by Rolling Stone. Too often university administrators run from the issue of sexual misconduct, which disproportionately affects college campuses. But it’s the job of the Yale College dean to safeguard the values of the undergraduate community — Holloway should own this issue. He should elevate it and pledge his time and energy to reinvigorating the aspects of the University’s procedures that work and reforming the aspects that do not. Where decisions lie outside Holloway’s control, as many in fact do, he should fight for a seat at the table, or at least
exert pressure from the outside. In other words, Holloway should lead. Surely, Yale has come a long way in tackling this issue, and we acknowledge that our University is leaps and bounds ahead of other schools in even having a special committee that tries cases of sexual misconduct. We have no doubt that members of the University Wide-Committee are exceptionally committed to creating a safe sexual climate on campus. In focusing on the procedures of the UWC, we do not mean to inflate the role this disciplinary body plays in Yale’s sexual culture. It’s ultimately the responsibility of individual members of our community to hold themselves to a higher standard of conduct. But the two are linked. This editorial leaves undisputed large parts of UWC procedure, including the existence of an informal and a formal complaint process. Chiefly, Yale’s interest should be in ensuring people feel safe to bring complaints forward and ensuring those complaints are adjudicated fairly. By and large, Yale is on the right track. Still, recent media reports reveal that there is room for improvement. We have several specific recommendations, which we hope Holloway will champion. First is timeliness and accountability. A News investigation of a UWC case (“Enough alcohol to call it rape?” Nov. 7) revealed that the UWC repeatedly failed to abide by the time-
line outlined in its online procedures. The appointment of a fact-finder, the fact-finder report and the final panel report all came days or weeks late. Further, Holloway did not render his final decision in the case within 14 days following the hearing. This is unacceptable. As students, we are docked a letter grade when we turn in an assignment a day late. One would think deadlines mattered equally to administrators handling claims of sexual assault. The problem extends beyond scheduling. The complainant in the News’ story reported difficulties in email communication with Title IX Coordinator Angela Gleason and others to the point that she felt like a “petulant toddler” — hopelessly sending unanswered emails to people who are supposed to be figures of calm authority in these proceedings. Psychologists and health professionals tell us that one of the most profound impacts of sexual assault is the loss of control; victims are robbed of agency. Readers may draw different conclusions from the details of the News’ story about the merits of the claim, but everyone deserves to be treated with respect. A higher degree of care and responsiveness is called for. We’ve heard from sources, both within the UWC and beyond, that the body is understaffed, lacking the requisite personnel to handle the volume of cases it is tasked with deciding. Everything must be done to make sure the UWC has the resources it needs to do this most impor-
tant job. Second, the fact-finder assigned to each case must be independent of the University, as dictated by UWC procedure. A supervisor from the Yale Child Study Center was appointed fact-finder in the case examined by the News — hardly independent of the University. The independence of the fact-finder is necessary to ensure the probe into the case proceeds without bias. Finally, we recommend the creation of a decision maker oversight panel. Sometimes the final decision maker — the provost, a dean or another administrator, depending on the respondent — merely signs off on the decision of the five-person UWC panel, which examines evidence and interviews both parties and additional witnesses. But, as the Times story revealed, sometimes this person unilaterally, and drastically, alters the recommended punishment. This is too much power in the hands of an individual who didn’t sit through the hearing or speak to the parties. In order to reduce the likelihood of misinformed decision-making — and to eliminate the possibility of conflict of interest — an oversight panel should review cases in which the final decision maker chooses to modify or reject a UWC recommendation. We urge Holloway to use his position as dean of the College to advocate for these three recommendations. It is an opportunity to make sexual climate the issue that defines his deanship.
Competing for stress
SCOTT STERN is a senior in Branford College. His columns usually run on Mondays. Contact him at scott.stern@yale.edu .
THAO DO/ILLUSTRATIONS EDITOR YALE DAILY NEWS PUBLISHING CO., INC. 202 York Street, New Haven, CT 06511 (203) 432-2400 Editorial: (203) 432-2418 editor@yaledailynews.com Business: (203) 432-2424 business@yaledailynews.com
EDITOR IN CHIEF Isaac Stanley-Becker
SPORTS Grant Bronsdon Ashton Wackym
MANAGING EDITORS Matthew Lloyd-Thomas Wesley Yiin
WEEKEND Jane Balkoski Andrew Koenig David Whipple
ONLINE EDITOR Marek Ramilo
YTV Michael Leopold Isabel McCullough Steffi Yuli
OPINION Rishabh Bhandari Diana Rosen NEWS Lavinia Borzi Adrian Rodrigues CITY J. R. Reed Pooja Salhotra
MAGAZINE Jennifer Gersten Oliver Preston COPY Eva Landsberg Adam Mahler Isabel Sperry Sarah Sutphin
CULTURE Eric Xiao
PRODUCTION & DESIGN Sammy Bensinger Alex Cruz Olivia Hamel Jilly Horowitz Carter Levin Marisa Lowe Aparna Nathan Amra Saric PHOTOGRAPHY Wa Liu Elena Malloy Alexandra Schmeling Ken Yanagisawa
PUBLISHER Abdullah Hanif DIR. FINANCE Yuanling Yuan DIR. ADVERTISING Gonzalo Gallardo ONL. BUSINESS MANAGER Steven Hee MARKETING & SALES MANAGER Eva Landsberg
PUBLIC RELATIONS MANAGER Misael Cabrera ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE MANAGER Joanna Jin ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE MANAGER Christopher Chute
ILLUSTRATIONS Thao Do WEB DEVELOPMENT Annie Cook Aaron Lewis Christopher Wan
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY Hannah Schwarz
THIS ISSUE COPY ASSISTANTS: Martin Lim PRODUCTION ASSISTANTS: Ellie Handler, Tresa Joseph, Maya Sweedler EDITORIALS & ADS
The News’ View represents the opinion of the majority of the members of the Yale Daily News Managing Board of 2016. Other content on this page with bylines represents the opinions of those authors and not necessarily those of the Managing Board. Opinions set forth in ads do not necessarily reflect the views of the Managing Board. We reserve the right to refuse any ad for any reason and to delete or change any copy we consider objectionable, false or in poor taste. We do not verify the contents of any ad. The Yale Daily News Publishing Co., Inc. and its officers, employees and agents disclaim any responsibility for all liabilities, injuries or damages arising from any ad. The Yale Daily News Publishing Co. ISSN 0890-2240
NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT
SUBMISSIONS
All letters submitted for publication must include the author’s name, phone number and description of Yale University affiliation. Please limit letters to 250 words and guest columns to 750. The Yale Daily News reserves the right to edit letters and columns before publication. E-mail is the preferred method of submission. Direct all letters, columns, artwork and inquiries to: Rishabh Bhandari and Diana Rosen Opinion Editors Yale Daily News opinion@yaledailynews.com
COPYRIGHT 2014 — VOL. CXXXVII, NO. 61
I
’m always overcome by a slight feeling of nostalgia for autumn after Thanksgiving. The holiday marks the end of my favorite season and welcomes the premature celebration of winter holidays — wreaths and stockings line the aisles of drug stores and Christmas music finds its way into radio stations almost immediately. We abruptly change gears and invite, or prepare ourselves for, the frigid winter months ahead. At Yale, a shift occurs not only in the season, but also in our workload. We are greeted with final exams and papers upon our return from Thanksgiving break. As we start layering on thicker sweaters and socks, finals occupy our minds completely; even when we are not studying, the topic of studying infiltrates almost all our conversations. It is only natural to vent to peers about our stress, as we are all victim to the same anxieties. Often my friends will joke that they complained to their parents while cramming for an exam or writing a last minute paper only to be told to go to sleep — a comical suggestion when you
ALLY DANIELS Taking the Back Ally
have six more lectures to review or five more pages to write. So we find solace in talking to our c l a s s m a te s , the people who encourage the allnighter, who assure us that 10 pages can be written in a night because they did it last
semester, twice. But often, what we are seeking when we talk to our peers about our stress is not comfort or guidance but validation in the knowledge that our workload is more unmanageable than everybody else’s. At any given point in the next few weeks, one will undoubtedly find students in dining halls discussing with satisfaction their ridiculous finals schedules. It is a point of pride for us to boast about how much work we have, and better yet, that we’ve left it until the last minute. I have heard (and par-
ticipated in) so many conversations in which we attempt to one-up each other: When one person says she has three finals and a five-page pager, the other responds that he has all of that plus a 10-page paper and a takehome exam. I think these conversations are a source of competition. We think that somebody who can survive without sleep for three nights straight and still pull off As on their exams is better, stronger and more resilient, when really all this indicates is a failure to plan ahead. Still, I can’t help but feel this weird sense of gratification when I’ve endured the most unendurable finals period and still come out with good grades, like I can handle whatever is thrown at me. What’s worse is that many of us, myself included, thrive in this culture. We just had a full 10 days off, only one of which was an actual holiday, and we hypothetically could have dedicated at least a couple of those days to studying. There are some people who possess the ability to work ahead, but many of us do not. So many days this break I found
myself perched in front of my laptop, textbooks spread out in front of me, and yet neglecting my schoolwork and procrastinating for hours. I knew that even though it would seriously benefit me to get a head start on all of the work that was about to pile up, I wouldn’t be productive until I got back to school and felt the stress of the quickly approaching deadlines. Some of my best essays have been fueled by the adrenaline that comes at four in the morning and the imminent pride I know I will feel the next day after accomplishing the feat. I continue to fall victim to the masochistic enjoyment of a jampacked finals schedule, but I do think it’s important for all of us to keep in mind that spending these next few weeks procrastinating to the point of all-nighters doesn’t make us any stronger or wiser. If anything, it makes us tired and sick. Instead, let’s try to work ahead so we can take our parents’ advice and go to sleep. ALLY DANIELS is a junior in Berkeley College. Her columns usually run on alternate Mondays. Contact her at alexandra.daniels@yale.edu .
YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2014 · yaledailynews.com
PAGE 3
NEWS CORRECTION MONDAY, DEC. 1
A previous version of the article “In needle exchange programs, users led the charge against HIV” incorrectly stated that only three or four people used the Needle Exchange Van on its very first day. In fact, 13 people made use of it.
OPINION. YOUR THOUGHTS. YOUR VOICE. YOUR PAGE.
Send submissions to opinion@yaledailynews.com
“Human rights is the soul of our foreign policy, because human rights is the very soul of our sense of nationhood.” JIMMY CARTER FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT
Carter condemns sexual violence BY FINNEGAN SCHICK CONTRIBUTING REPORTER In an interview with the News, former President Jimmy Carter decried violence against women, both abroad and in the United States. The author of over 20 books since he left office, Carter, who is scheduled to give a talk in Battell Chapel this afternoon, has long been an advocate for human rights around the world. His most recent book, “A Call to Action,” focuses on injustices against women. Carter said he was inspired to write the book after seeing the oppression of women in many of the countries he visits. “I began to see around the world that women and girls were treated quite despicably in some cases, sometimes with direct abuse and quite often with deprivation of equal rights,” Carter said. Carter said this issue is not exclusive to foreign countries. Violence against women occurs in the United States, especially in the military and on college campuses, he said, specifying the University of Virginia sexual assault that was reported in Rolling Stone magazine as a recent example. Stanford Law Professor Michele Dauber, who served as a chair on the Stanford Board of Judicial Affairs from 2011 to 2013, said that in her experience with Stanford cases, the failures of elite schools to successfully handle sexual assault cases stemmed from an incompetence of staff, a failure to understand and implement the Title IX law and a survivor-centered decision making policy. “Elite schools, like other nonelite schools, have not dealt correctly with this issue,” Dauber
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
In an interview with the News, former President Jimmy Carter decried violence against women. said. “Many schools ignored Title IX for years until they were investigated.” More broadly, Carter touched on the subjugation of women. He mentioned that in many poor families, boys are given better opportunities in school and in the workplace than girls. He added that the mutilation of female genitalia, mostly before the age of five, is a serious problem in many countries, most notably in Egypt, where he said 90 percent of all females have undergone this procedure. Carter went on to say that violence against women continues as women get older, with honor killings and forced marriages sometimes occurring around the ages of 15 and 16 in some regions of the world. Religion is often tied to these incidents of violence against women, Carter said. The interaction between world religions and women is a large theme in his
book. “The misinterpretation of the holy scriptures by different major religions both in Christian areas and also in Islamic and Buddhist areas relegate women to a secondary position of importance,” Carter said. To investigate the causes of this misinterpretation, Carter organized a conference where top religious leaders, both in the Christian and in the Islamic worlds, could share their basic beliefs concerning the relationship between men and women in the eyes of God. Carter was an active and devout Southern Baptist until 2000, when Southern Baptist Convention leaders voted against the equality of women to men, reducing the power and participation of women in the church. Both he and his wife thereafter withdrew their affiliation with the Southern Baptist church.
Carter recently urged Pope Francis, along with 200 world leaders, to address some of the problems outlined in his book. He felt optimistic about the Pope’s response, but did not expect to see any radical change in upcoming years. “I think that women are going to be given more authority within the church in some councils,” Carter said. “But I don’t believe that it’s likely in the next 10 years for women to be ordained as priests.” Carter said that the United States had failed to observe many parts of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and urged college graduates without a clear career goal to join the Peace Corps. Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his work through The Carter Center. Contact FINNEGAN SCHICK at christopher.schick@yale.edu .
Labor relations director laid off BY NOAH DAPONTE-SMITH CONTRIBUTING REPORTER In an unexpected administrative reshuffle, Connecticut’s Director of Labor Relations Linda Yelmini has been asked to leave her post. Last week, Yelmini received notice of her dismissal, effective on Jan. 20 of next year, from Ben Barnes, the secretary of the Office of Policies and Management. According to state law, civil servants like Yelmini cannot be abruptly fired. But Yelmini — a non-partisan who heads the department that negotiates and directs the state’s relations with its unions — said her termination came without warning. “I was told I was being laid off and I was being replaced by a ‘political appointee,” she said. “I asked [Barnes] who, and they told me they didn’t know yet. They can appoint anyone they would please.” Yelmini said she expects the appointee will come from the Democratic Party. Because of the state law, Barnes has made her dismissal part of a reorganization of the Office of Labor Relations, but one that only affects Yelmini. Yelmini has held her post for nearly two decades, serving under Republicans and Democrats alike. Yelmini said she had no idea why she was laid off and that no major union-related disputes had occurred recently. In a memo sent to Barnes and Deputy Secretary of the
Office of Policy and Management Karen Buffkin last week, Yelmini accused the OPM’s leadership of violating state law. She said that she was being “constructively discharge[ed] without just cause,” and that the state had overstepped her due process rights. Yelmini said she is considering all legal options to combat the dismissal.
I asked [Barnes] who [was replacing me], and they told me they didn’t know yet. They can appoint anyone they would please. LINDA YELMINI No clear motivation for Yelmini’s sudden dismissal has emerged. Barnes did not return a request for comment. On Nov. 24, the Hartford Courant reported that Andrew Doba, spokesman for Gov. Dannel Malloy, would not comment on “personnel matters.” The dismissal took union representatives by surprise. Chief negotiator for the state Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition Daniel Livingston said that organized labor had not sought Yelmini’s ouster. “We are not aware of any particular reason for the announcement of Linda Yelmini’s layoff, which came as a complete sur-
prise to state employee union leaders,” he said in a Monday statement. Matt O’Connor, a spokesman for the Connecticut branch of the American Federation of Teachers union said that there has been speculation about the dismissal and that the AFT is watching developments reported in the press. Nancy Dinardo, head of the Connecticut Democratic State Central Committee, told the News that she would prefer not to comment on the issue. Last month, Malloy announced a hiring freeze for all non-essential state employees due to substantial cost overruns for the 2015 fiscal year. By removing Yelmini from her position through reorganization of the department, Malloy must create a new position and hire a new employee. In a Nov. 29 column published in the Hartford Courant, Jon Lender raised questions about whether adding another position during a hiring freeze is fiscally sound policy. “Why add a new position in the budget office during what’s become a perpetual budget crisis, when there’s supposed to be a hiring freeze?” Lender wrote. Before serving as director of the OLR, Yemlin served on the Department of Administrative Services and the Department of Public Safety. Contact NOAH DAPONTE-SMITH at noah.daponte-smith@yale.edu .
CAPTURE THE MOMENT JOIN YDN PHOTO photography@yaledailynews.com
PAGE 4
YALE DAILY NEWS 路 TUESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2014 路 yaledailynews.com
YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2014 · yaledailynews.com
PAGE 5
NEWS
“Good habits formed at youth make all the difference.” ARISTOTLE GREEK PHILOSOPHER
SOM makes progress on gender balance
Financial aid to cover student activities fee BY VIVIAN WANG STAFF REPORTER Starting next year, the Student Activities Fee will be explicitly covered by financial aid for the first time. The change comes as the result of a discussion between the Yale College Council, the Yale College Dean’s Office and Student Financial and Administrative Services, said Director of Financial Aid Caesar Storlazzi. While in the past the SAF was supposed to be tacitly included under the broader category of “Books and Personal Expenses,” beginning next year it will be included as a distinct item in students’ financial aid packages. The change is intended to remedy student confusion about whether or not the SAF is included in financial aid calculations, Storlazzi said in an email. YCC president Michael Herbert ’16 said the change will also complement an increase in the SAF, currently in the works. “To get [the SAF] covered by financial aid helps make sure we don’t have as many people opting out, but that we are able to keep that fee at a level that will allow us to do the things we want to do,” Herbert said. Yale’s current SAF is $75 — the second lowest in the Ivy League. The money collected is used to fund student organizations, club sports and student events such as Spring Fling. According to the YCC website, the fee was included in tuition until 2005, at which time it became an optional charge. Storlazzi said that after discussions with the YCC and YCDO, his office came to the conclusion that students might be unclear about whether or not the SAF was accounted for in their financial aid packages. “Students did not understand that their cost of attendance included this charge,” he said. “In an effort to be more transparent, we want it to be clear that we consider the SAF in determining a student’s need — especially since it shows as a separate charge on the student’s account.” Herbert said the change will be especially important if the YCC succeeds in raising the
DEMOGRAPHICS PERCENTAGE OF WOMEN
SAF to $125. This initiative has widespread support, he said, adding that it is simply waiting on approval from Yale College Dean Jonathan Holloway, who could not be reached for comment Monday afternoon. At its current level, the SAF does not generate enough funding for the YCC to put on events of the caliber that it would want, Herbert said. Because SFS agreed to include the SAF in financial aid packages, the YCC was more comfortable raising the fee and did not feel that it would alienate or exclude students, he added. This sentiment was echoed by the YCDO’s Student Affairs Director Hannah Peck, who said that while there is no penalty for students if they opt out of the SAF, she believes most students would like to be able to pay for it in order to feel that they are contributing to campus activities. YCC Finance Director Connor Feeley ’16 said that an increase of $50 would greatly expand the YCC’s capabilities without putting excessive pressure on students. Of 12 students interviewed last month, eight said they would support a slight raise in the SAF if it meant certain events such as Spring Fling could be expanded. Only one student said she knew that the SAF was included in calculations of her financial aid package. But Storlazzi said the move to include the SAF in financial aid was not necessarily related to a change in the SAF. “To my way of thinking, showing the SAF as a separate item in the Cost of Attendance will not help or hinder the raising or lowering of the SAF in the future,” Storlazzi said. “Raising any charge is a serious matter and impacts the financial aid budget and the direct costs of students who are not on financial aid.” Still, Herbert said he is optimistic that the increase in the SAF will be approved soon. The average SAF in the Ivy League is $159.57.
2014
2016
35%
2012
37% 2015
36%
2013
39% 36%
ALEX CRUZ/PRODUCTION & DESIGN EDITOR
BY PHOEBE KIMMELMAN STAFF REPORTER The Yale School of Management continues to put out initiatives aiming to attract a larger female applicant pool. On Thursday, the SOM will host a panel of female alumnae at the Yale Club in New York City for women interested in applying to the school’s MBA program. Previously, the school’s annual “Fall Friday” provided female applicants to the SOM an opportunity to tour Yale, attend student panels and hear about the SOM curriculum. The SOM also annually awards several Forté Fellowships to female applicants and organizes admissions visits to women’s colleges such as Wellesley, Bryn Mawr and Barnard to garner the interest of younger prospective students, the SOM Director of Community and Inclusion Tiffany Gooden said. Gooden was the first person to be appointed to the role six weeks ago, which she said was created this fall to initiate more programming to engage underrepresented populations, including women. Beyond recruitment, Gooden said the SOM is looking to create more strategic programming for its female students to improve the gender imbalance at the school. The SOM Associate Dean Anjani Jain, however, said the imbalance is a systemic problem at most business schools. “It’s true for potentially all business schools that the gender ratio is very unbalanced,” Jain said. “It’s been a consistent problem for business schools and the SOM too does not have a balanced gender ratio.” Still, Jain said the SOM has one of the largest numbers of female applicants among United States business schools. Female students at the SOM, he added, have been shown to perform equally or better academically as their male counterparts. In addition, Jain said, the presence of women in extracurricular groups
Contact VIVIAN WANG at vivian.y.wang@yale.edu .
has actually overrepresented the school’s female population. With 569 members, the SOM’s Women in Management group is the school’s largest student club, Gooden said. Alexa Allen SOM ’15, the school’s third female Student Government President in a row, said she has not found SOM’s gender imbalance to inhibit her ability as a student leader. Allen added that because she worked in finance before coming to the SOM, she did not find an environment with a male majority jarring. Nevertheless, she said she has been impressed by the SOM’s gender equality, which she attributed to the nature of the school. “I think [being student government president is] kind of a gender blind role at the SOM,” she said. “I don’t think people think of me as a male president or a female president.” Gigi Zhang SOM ’15 also said she found the SOM to be virtually indifferent to gender and that she hasn’t seen any kind of differentiation between male and female students. But Susannah Harris SOM ’16, who spent last year as part of a female student majority at the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies as part of her joint degree, said even though she has not faced any particular challenges due to gender at the SOM, she has not found the school to be completely gender-blind. She added that the majority of women at the SOM also tend to be international students. “I wasn’t really aware of being a woman in my classes [at FES], and I think I have been a little bit this year just because I tend to be in the minority, but it’s also been coupled with the fact that I’m often the only female and American in a group,” she said. Within the SOM faculty, the gender imbalance is more prominent than among students. About 25 percent of the faculty is
female, excluding affiliated faculty members, while the proportion of female students is 37 percent. The SOM professor Amandine OdyBrasier said her department, Organizational Behavior, has almost an equal gender ratio, while most other departments have less balance. Even still, she said the overall gender imbalance at the SOM has negatively affected her experience at the school. Ody-Brasier also said that while the move to the new building could have provided facilities for working mothers in the faculty, these plans did not come to fruition. “When we moved into [Evans Hall] there were discussions about having day care and a lactation room, and I think the fact that there are so few of us [women] is the reason why it didn’t go through,” she said. Though the SOM professor Fiona Scott Morton said she would like to see more women on the SOM faculty, she thinks this problem will be ameliorated as more junior women on the SOM faculty move up the academic pipeline. In January 2014, the SOM professor Constance Bagley sued the SOM Dean Edward Snyder and two faculty members, alleging she was fired because of gender animus against her. The environment the SOM provides for women came under scrutiny last January, when Constance Bagley, a professor in the practice of law and management at the School of Management sued the University and three high-profile faculty members at the SOM. In the suit, Bagley claimed that she was not reappointed to her professorship in May 2012 because of her gender and age. The SOM has been coed since its founding in 1976. Contact PHOEBE KIMMELMAN at phoebe.kimmelman@yale.edu .
City secures youth violence prevention grant BY ERICA PANDEY AND SARA SEYMOUR STAFF REPORTER AND CONTRIBUTING REPORTER
ERICA PANDEY/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
New Haven will make use of $500,000 state grant to prevent youth violence.
After securing a $500,000 state grant to prevent youth violence for the second consecutive year, the Elm City will use the funding to expand 23 existing youth programs. Representatives from the Connecticut Judicial Branch elected to award the grant to New Haven to continue its violence prevention programs. However, for the first time this year, the state allowed the city’s Board of Alders to decide how to allocate the $500,000 among city organizations. In previous years, the state has made those decisions. At a City Hall gathering yesterday celebrating the grant’s renewal, Ward 1 Alder Sarah Eidelson ’12 announced that the alders plan to allocate the funds toward addressing “at risk” youth, as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Mayor Toni Harp and State Representative Toni Walker also gave remarks, and a crowd of over 50 city officials, local activists and New Haven students were in attendance. Over the past two and a half years, New Haven has received a total of $1.25 million from the judicial branch for youth violence prevention, including $250,000 for half of 2013 and $500,000 each for 2014 and 2015. Bridgeport and Hartford, two other cities where youth violence is a major issue, will also receive grants to fund youth violence prevention programs, Walker said. “The commitment we’ve made to reduce youth violence, improve public safety and peaceful streets in New Haven is ongoing,” Harp said. “The recent award of this most-welcome state grant will help underwrite some of this ongo-
ing effort to provide programs and activities.” The state’s judicial branch has awarded the grant to Connecticut cities since 2011. Since then, Walker has been in conversation with Harp about New Haven’s youth violence problem and has advocated for state assistance on behalf of the Elm City, Harp said. Walker added that the Connecticut incarceration rate for youths aged 18 to 24 has dropped 44 percent since the judicial branch’s grant was established. Of the 23 New Haven-based programs that will receive aid this coming year, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southwestern Connecticut, the city’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Trees, Solar Youth, and LEAP, Inc. are the four organizations allocated the greatest proportion of money. Grant amounts range from $5,000 to $50,000. Several programs focus on mentorship, create safe and fun environments for children outside of school and offer career training. Rebecca Bombero, director of the parks department, said the funding would allow her department to bring its Open Schools initiative — which offers after-school recreational activities to students — to four new schools and reach 200 additional youth. “In a lot of ways, we are an extension of family [...] we try to stay with them for as long as possible,” said Joanne Sciulli, founder and executive director of Solar Youth. Though some programs plan to use the money solely to further previous projects, some organizations hope to create opportunities that were not previously as accessible. Sciulli said that, though in past years they focused on tackling current problems that youth face, in the upcoming year they plan on redirecting some of their attention
to launch young people into adulthood, whether that means a career or college. Yakieta Robinson, director of programs at LEAP, Inc. — devoted to developing youth leadership and advocacy skills which received two grants that total $60,000 — said the money would be used to expand several training initiatives, including a sexual education program. “[LEAP] is a good opportunity to be able to learn more and go do things besides being in the house all day,” New Haven Academy sophomore Nazair Peters said. “I came to LEAP to work on my leadership skills.” Peters, who has been with LEAP since he was 12, said he has noticed that the program has expanded to include more students and that the facilities have improved in the last two years. LEAP’s pool just reopened this year, he added. The city has stepped up its game in an effort to create opportunities for youth in the city, according to Barbara Tinney, executive director of New Haven Family Alliance — an organization awarded $35,000 that supports at risk youth by engaging their family members. The program also aims to decrease juvenile incarceration by helping reframe and adjust youth behaviors. Tinney said that many believe that not enough is being done for youth in the area, and that, though more can always be done, an important step is informing families about existing opportunities. In 1993, the CDC established the Division of Violence Prevention as a division within National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. Contact ERICA PANDEY at erica.pandey@yale.edu and SARA SEYMOUR at sara.seymour@yale.edu .
PAGE 6
YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2014 · yaledailynews.com
FROM THE FRONT
“Knowledge is power.” FRANCIS BACON ENGLISH PHILOSPHER
With hands up, hundreds “walk out” to demand justice FERGUSON FROM PAGE 1 stop putting the victims on trial and instead to indict a system that devalues black and brown lives.” Speakers noted that Brown is only the latest in a long list of unarmed black men killed at the hands of police officers — including Eric Garner in New York and Tamir Rice in Cleveland. Yonas Takele ’17 and Jamie Hobson ’17 also read a list of 10 demands recently issued by Ferguson Action, a group of organizers in Ferguson calling for the appointment of a special prosecutor for all deadly force cases and, more broadly, ending “over-policing and criminalization of poverty.” From Cross Campus, roughly half the crowd marched down Elm Street to City Hall, blocking traffic as they chanted “Black lives matter!” and demanding justice in Ferguson, Mo., in New Haven and across the country. As they walked, many held their hands up in solidarity with the message of “Hands up, don’t shoot” that has become a rallying cry since Brown’s death. “Darren Wilson do your time, being black is not a crime,” they repeated, referring to the police officer who killed Brown in August. On the steps of City Hall, a series of speeches excoriated inequalities in the criminal justice system and called on students at Yale to engage in the world around them. Protesters denounced the “Surge,” a police tactic recently adopted in New Haven that targets loitering, vandalism and other suspect activities. “We demand that New Haven
put an end to the surge, right here, right now,” Karleh Wilson ’16 told the crowd. Speakers cautioned the crowd against treating Ferguson as unique, instead urging students and others to focus on the racism that exists in their own communities. Christopher Taft, 48, a New Haven resident who is black, said he recently witnessed police conducting more than 10 stops in quick succession on Goffe Street, between Orchard and Webster Streets. All of those stopped, he said, were either black or Latino. “I’ve been abused by the police, I’ve been beaten by the police, I’ve been tased by the police,” Taft said. Norman Clement, a member of the national organization Act Now to Stop War and End Racism Coalition, urged students to organize to combat police brutality and racial profiling, which he said goes on unnoticed in New Haven. Clement noted that a grand jury decision in the case of Garner, a New York man who died in a chokehold as police arrested him for the sale of untaxed cigarettes in July, is expected shortly. “We need to be prepared to hit the streets again,” Clement said on the steps of City Hall, megaphone in hand. Lex Barlowe ’17, social justice chair of BSAY, said in an email that the rally was part of a national call by Ferguson Action for students to respond to the Michael Brown case. Similar walkouts were scheduled for more than 30 other cities across the country. Barlowe said the aim was to “disrupt business as usual,”
ensuring that the events in Ferguson did not simply fade into the background as students returned to campus. She added that BSAY plans to continue discussion within Yale’s black community in order to determine further action. Jones said she was pleased with the high turnout. One goal, she said, was to show students who were passionate about the cause that they were not alone
and to empower them to work together. A second goal was to put a human face on issues of racial violence, she said. “For students who aren’t as sympathetic … the purpose was for them to see black and brown people that they know and love care about this issue and … see that it’s not removed and separate from them,” she said. American Studies professor Laura Barraclough, whose father
was a police officer, said all people are affected by police brutality. “I witnessed firsthand how racism shaped the way [my father] saw things,” she said. “As a professor, I think it’s important to educate students on the history of violence and also resistance. Our job is to help and support the students who are organizing this.” The U.S. has a long, less than
glorious history with racial violence, Stephen Pitti, master of Ezra Stiles College and professor of History and American Studies, said on Cross Campus. “These events remind us that we still have a long way to go,” he said. Joey Ye contributed reporting. Contact JACOB POTASH at jacob.potash@yale.edu .
ANNELISA LEINBACH/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
The hashtag #blacklivesmatter has been adopted throughout the country by activists in light of the no-indictment of officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Michael Brown.
UN ambassador tackles global challenges AMBASSADOR FROM PAGE 1 help shape a world where these things don’t happen.” While Power’s Chubb Fellowship presentation focused on a variety of global challenges, Power also connected the issues to domestic actions. After presenting short-term strategies to combat each of the issues, Power stressed that it is essential to focus on long-term solutions and to search for the root of the problems in order to prevent them from recurring. Power further encouraged members of the Yale community to take an active role in working to combat the range of challenges facing the world. While the fight against the current Ebola outbreak in Africa is far from over, Power urged her audience to “look beyond the [current] outbreak in order to prevent the next epidemic outbreak occurrence.” As a UN ambassador, Power has vis-
ited several nations impacted by Ebola, and she highlighted the inadequate health service infrastructure in West African countries as the underlying cause of epidemic outbreaks. Power presented two longterm solutions that the United States is currently taking to address the lack of health services in these countries. The United States is currently forming partnerships with regional health services to offer more extensive support for local citizens. As an even longer-term strategy, the U.S. government recently formed the Mandela Washington Fellowship to invest in the education of young African leaders. The fellowship allowed 500 young African leaders to attend a leadership program in 20 American institutions, including Yale, during the summer. Power urged Yale administrators to take a further step in the University’s participation in the fellowship by
sending Yale students to Africa to partner with Mandela Washington fellows directly.
While we should address the immediate concern facing women. DASIA MOORE ’18 Power continued on the theme of education by discussing the empowerment of women and girls. The ambassador listed a string of statistics that highlighted the atrocities women and girls face around the world. In particular, Power addressed the issue of sexual violence in Brazil, Honduras and the Congo, as well as at home, on college campuses across the United States. In response to the immediate dangers facing women, the United States has worked to pro-
mote accountability in the justice systems of developing countries, while President Barack Obama has launched the It’s On Us campaign to address sexual violence occurring on American college campuses, Power said. She also applauded students’ initiative in working with the Yale College Council, the Yale Women’s Center and administrators to create a safe environment on campus. However, in the long term, the empowerment of women must come from education, Power said. She stressed that there must be a change in the mental models and attitudes of societies where female education is a threat and not a right. In order to eradicate sexual violence against women in the long term, the United States must remove the fears and prejudice facing female education, and affect change in the public policies of developing countries. Finally, Power addressed the
rise of violent extremism in the Middle East, once again stressing the importance of long-term strategies in the fight against terrorism. She said that America must encourage Muslim voices which oppose the Islamic State and other extremist groups, adding that shutting down Guantanamo Bay would increase the legitimacy of the U.S. in what she called the “moral battle.” Power’s message that America must be a leader in developing long-term, global strategies was well-received by the audience. “I thought her message of America being seen as the leader in addressing global issues, and to have this responsibility to empower our nation was an important one,” Makana Williams ’18 said. Williams also praised Power’s strategy that sexual violence in college campuses should be eliminated by student-led activism, adding that she came to
college not only for educational purposes but also for social development. Attendees interviewed were particularly absorbed by Power’s analysis of women’s empowerment, both abroad and at home. Gavin Schiffres ’15 was impressed with the ambassador’s emphasis on developing judicial institutions in foreign countries to bring sexual criminals to justice. Others felt that Power’s speech connected with their personal experiences. “Women education is a very important issue for me personally,” said Dasia Moore ’18, who previously attended an allgirls school. “While we should address the immediate concerns facing women, the education and empowerment of women would solve more fundamental problems.” Contact VICTOR WANG at v.wang@yale.edu .
YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2014 · yaledailynews.com
PAGE 7
NEWS
“There is hopeful symbolism in the fact that flags do not wave in a vacuum.” ARTHUR C. CLARKE BRITISH SCIENCE FICTION WRITER
With flags and candles, students observe World AIDS Day BY ERIC LIN CONTRIBUTING REPORTER Students passing through Cross Campus on Monday afternoon bore witness to 750 red flags that were planted as part of a demonstration for World AIDS day. Each flag represented 20,000 people living with HIV/AIDS. Later at night, roughly 20 students attended a candlelight vigil to commemorate and honor victims of the disease. The two-part event was cohosted by the Yale Global Health and AIDS Coalition and the Yale chapter of Partners in Health Engage. The groups aimed to educate students about the severity of the disease and urge Congress to increase funding for HIV/AIDS treatment, said Emily Briskin ’15, president of the coalition and a co-organizer of the event. “We can’t stop AIDS funding now because there are so many people who need treatment,” Briskin said. As students passed through the flag display, some stopped to take a picture with a whiteboard displaying slogans such as “Don’t Stop Until We Have 100% Coverage” and “Invest In PEPFAR, Support AIDS Treatment.” PEPFAR stands for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, a program begun by former President George W. Bush ’68 to combat the disease. According to Sarah Merchant ’17, the event’s other co-organizer, the program has been highly effective, but is currently underfunded. The photos will be sent to Congress to highlight constituent support for AIDS funding, Briskin said. She added that Congress decides how much money is put into PEPFAR each year. Teresa Logue ’15, a member of Yale Global Health and AIDS Coalition who attended the vigil, stressed that treatment for the disease is already available. By raising awareness to push for increased funding, she hopes the goal of eradicating the disease can be achieved. She noted that the United Nations recently announced the goal of ending AIDS worldwide by 2030. Both Logue and Briskin noted that the lack of sufficient response was systemic rather than simply isolated to HIV/ AIDS. They pointed to the U.S. response to Ebola for comparison. “There are really disturbing parallels between the response to Ebola and HIV/AIDS,” Logue said. “The international community ignored the outbreak at first. We didn’t really see action until two Americans became infected,”
she said, pointing to its similarity to the AIDS response. Briskin noted that former President Ronald Reagan refused to even say the word AIDS for several years, even though the epidemic was ravaging communities in the U.S. during his presidency.
We can’t stop AIDS funding now because there are so many people who need treatment. EMILY BRISKIN ’15 Co-organizer, World AIDS day at Yale The vigil that followed took place at the Women’s Table. A ribbon pattern, placed on the table, was formed using candles, and participants were given candles to place around the table.
The vigil consisted of a moment of silence followed by poems written by children in Africa affected by the disease. Ariel Lowrey ’18, an attendee, said she really appreciated the candles and the poems. “The treatment is out there,” she said. “The fact that people can’t afford it is scary.” World AIDS events have been observed at Yale in the past. Last year, several campus organizations including the Yale Public Health Coalition, the Yale AIDS Support Coalition and the Student Global Health and AIDS Coalition held information tables and a talk with New Haven health professionals. This is the first year flags have been used to represent HIV/AIDS victims, Logue said. As of Sept. 30, 2014, PEPFAR was providing antiretroviral treatment for 7.7 million people. Contact ERIC LIN at eric.v.lin@yale.edu .
ERIC LIN/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
This Monday afternoon, students on Cross Campus planted 750 red flags that were planted as part of a demonstration for World AIDS day.
City crime ranking disputed BY MRINAL KUMAR CONTRIBUTING REPORTER After a California-based real estate brokerage ranked New Haven as Connecticut’s most dangerous city, local authorities have dismissed the ranking as inaccurate. Movoto real estate, an online real estate brokerage based in San Mateo, California, used data from the 2012 FBI Uniform Crime Report to compile its report on the most dangerous cities in Connecticut. Based on a number of factors, including the average number of violent and property crimes per person, New Haven was ranked as the most dangerous. But both the New Haven Police Department and a representative of Yale questioned the ranking’s legitimacy. “[The data] is not reflective [of the state of crime in New Haven],” said NHPD spokesman David Hartman. “The FBI has over and over again denounced such reports as using just numbers and not circumstances … numbers don’t paint a good picture of crime.” Hartman said that the state of crime in New Haven has improved significantly over the past years, largely due to the return of community policing. University Deputy Chief Communications Officer Michael Morand ’87 DIV ’93 echoed Hartman’s sentiment. He argued that the ranking is invalid and an irresponsible misuse of data, adding that it impedes society’s understanding of crime-related issues. “Much more important than invalid rankings used as clickbait by commercial websites and recirculated by some news sites are the facts of how people and businesses make decisions,” he said.
To this end, Morand listed several indicators that homebuyers have a positive view of the city. These included New Haven’s low apartment vacancy rate and the fact that New Haven has the highest population growth rate of any city in New England, according to the latest census. He also pointed out that larger organizations and retailers are placing their faith in the city. For example, Gateway Community College has moved its campus from the outskirts of New Haven to the center. Realtor Paul Denz, owner of the New Haven-based Northside Development Company, said that crime has not been an issue in bringing people to the city. “I can’t remember anyone ever saying [they’re] not moving to New Haven because it’s crime ridden,” Denz said. Morand said that violent crime began declining in the city over two decades ago. Hartman said that over the past few years, the NHPD has developed partnerships with other law enforcement entities and non-law enforcement entities, such as the Board of Education. This has been vital to facilitating the NHPD’s goals. “We’ve seen dramatic drops in violent crime city-wide,” said Hartman. “From Project Longevity to task forces, there are a lot of things going on that are considered behind the scenes … there’s a great deal of proactive work that we didn’t see years ago.” Morand said that Yale’s campus safety is also continuing to improve, and that it compares favorably to peer institutions. Violent and property crimes in New Haven are down 9 percent this year. Contact MRINAL KUMAR at mrinal.kumar@yale.edu .
Happiness Lab coming to Chapel Street BY FINNEGAN SCHICK CONTRIBUTING REPORTER Conceived in the foothills of Mt. Kilimanjaro, a new kind of coffee culture is coming to New Haven. “The Happiness Lab,” a café that offers collaborative office space, will serve direct-trade coffee from the company “A Happy Life.” The new café will be located next door from The Grove, a company that rents out desk and cubicle space on Chapel Street. Entrepreneurs Vishal Patel and Onyeka Obiocha created A Happy Life in 2012 with the goal of helping disadvantaged coffee farmers around the world. “We wanted to find a sustainable way to break cycles of poverty,” said Obiocha, president of A Happy Life. After traveling to Tanzania and working with coffee farmers during college, Vishal Patel founded a company that buys both direct trade and fair trade coffee from farmers in Tanzania, Costa Rica, Ethiopia and Bolivia. Many of the coffee farmers in these countries are underpaid and some work with dangerous pesticides, Patel said, adding that A Happy Life takes a “holistic approach” to combating poverty. Direct trade coffee is purchased directly from the farmers, who receive 100 percent of the profits from the transaction. This differs from fair trade coffee, which uses farming co-
operatives to sell the beans. The presence of a co-op can cause money to be taken away from the famers, Obiocha said, though there are both good co-ops and bad co-ops. A Happy Life prefers to buy direct trade coffee. “You always get market value,” Patel said of direct trade coffee. “You have a long-lasting relationship with the famers.” The not-for-profit company has raised over $10,000 from 127 individual backers through a Kickstarter campaign. All of the net profits are used to help farmers, Obiocha said. Patel said that A Happy Life will invest solely in solutions that are designed by the beneficiaries of the money — coffee farmers in this case. A Happy Life sells its coffee to 70 accounts in the area, including the Elm City Market and The Grove. When the landlord of 758 Chapel St. suggested that The Grove — which is currently housed in 760 Chapel St. — move into both spaces, Grove founder Slate Ballard approached Patel about opening a coffee shop next door. Patel and Obiocha had received positive feedback about the quality of their company’s coffee, Patel said, so the idea of opening a coffee shop was a natural step. Patel said he felt that New Haven residents had been receptive to his product, adding that by roasting their own coffee, A Happy Life added transparency to their product. Many consumers do not know where their
coffee is grown, or whether the farmers are paid fairly, Patel said. Dolores Colón of Ward 6, where the café will open, echoed this sentiment. “[It] sounds like a win-win situation for the community and the employer and the citizens of New Haven,” said Colón. Using The Happiness Lab as a way to reach out to the New Haven community, Patel said he hopes to remind people that happiness should be a priority in their lives. Drawing his inspiration from Buddhism, Patel said wants to use the brand of A Happy Life, which has a smiling face as its logo, to spread happiness to the broader community. The Happiness Lab will host meditation sessions, guest speakers and live music. Patel anticipates that the café, which is currently under construction, will be completed as early as mid-January of next year. The Happiness Lab harnesses the layout of New Haven, said Grove Director of Culture Christina Kane, adding that the area is a gateway for visitors coming into New Haven from Wooster Square, Fairhaven and the Connecticut shoreline. The unique nature of coffee culture, which Obiocha said is extremely social, makes The Happiness Lab a good place for collaborative work. “[The Happiness Lab is] when coffee meets co-working,” said Kane. Contact FINNEGAN SCHICK at christopher.schick@yale.edu .
PAGE 8
YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2014 · yaledailynews.com
FROM THE FRONT
“Man maintains his balance, poise and sense of security only as he is moving forward.” MAXWELL MALTZ AMERICAN COSMETIC SURGEON
Firings cast doubt on security union’s relationship with Univ. YALE SECURITY FROM PAGE 1 including termination, for any reason. However, employees can only be terminated after repeated offenses, Goldman said, which was not the case in any of the three instances. Deputy University Press Secretary Karen Peart said the University could not discuss personnel matters regarding specific individuals. “The employment terms and conditions of the former contract continue to apply to personnel matters within this unit, until the University and the YUSOA complete negotiations for a new agreement,” Peart said in an email. “We remain committed to honoring the terms and conditions of the former agreement, and the University has fully complied with them.” Because Mulumba, McAllister and Turner were all probationary employees, Horgan said no formal grievance can be filed on the their behalf, but that “just because they’re probationary employees doesn’t mean that their treatment was fair practice.”
It remains unclear how the three former employees will next choose to take action. However, if it becomes evident that the terminations were connected to the formation of the YUSOA, Goldman said a complaint could be filed with the National Labor Relations Board. Mulumba, who was the first employee to be terminated, on Nov. 3, was fired because of failure “to demonstrate [her] ability to ride a bicycle for an extended period of time as outlined in the job posting,” according to her termination letter from Daniel Killen, the director of security officer operations. However, according to Horgan’s letter, the two employees assigned to assess Mulumba’s ability to ride a bike were not certified bike instructors themselves, suggesting that they could not fairly review her bike-riding skills. Goldman added that the University should have provided proper training before suddenly informing her of her termination. The subsequent terminations of McAllister and Turner were both due to the officers’ unavail-
ability to take a shift on Halloween night. McAllister received her termination letter on Nov. 18, and Turner received his on Nov. 22. When McAllister was ordered to come to work on her scheduled day off, she made numerous phone calls in an attempt to arrange childcare for her young nephews, eventually causing her sister to leave her planned anniversary trip, Horgan’s second letter said. Despite her sister’s early return, McAllister was unable to arrive on time to her 4:00 p.m. shift, though she informed her boss that she would be willing to report to duty as soon as her sister arrived. The letter further stated that McAllister’s boss understood her predicament but that she could still be disciplined for failing to report to duty. According to the “Order In” policy contained in the most recent Collective Bargaining Agreement, “ordering-in an employee is the least desirable way to fill an assignment. However, the department also recognizes that once the need is established, the assignment will be filled.”
Horgan’s letter states that McAllister never refused to report for duty, but rather took extra measures to ensure she could arrive at the shift as quickly as possible. Prior to the night of Oct. 31, McAllister had never refused or failed to report to duty for any of her regularly scheduled or ordered-in shifts, nor was she ever disciplined by the University.
There was no refusal on his part, there was no discussion, no counseling, no training, just a kneejerk decision. DARRELL TURNER McAllister said the University told her she had violated the order-in policy, and that as a probationary employee, this violation justified her termination. McAllister said while her contract states the University can fire employees
after repeated offenses, Oct. 31 marked her first offense. “You’re just setting up people to fail,” McAllister said of the way in which she and the two others were terminated. “Maybe they’re looking for a way to fire people.” In the three-week interval, no one informed McAllister that there was a possibility that she might be fired. She added that she could have been looking for another job during that time. McAllister said that the transition between unions makes firing employees easier for the University. In the SPFPA, employees could address their problems through an elected chief steward, who would facilitate a discussion between the employee and management. But McAllister said the YUSOA will not vote for officers until Dec. 6, so employees can only talk to Horgan, the lawyer representing their union. Turner said that like McAllister, he was unaware that failing to report to an order-in shift could result in termination. Turner previously worked 16 hours per week — eight hours on Saturday, eight hours on Sun-
day — for Yale Security while also holding a full-time job elsewhere. On Oct. 31, which was a Friday, Turner was also ordered in to work while at his other job, as a school security officer for the City of New Haven. Because he was unable to report to his shift, Turner said, his employment was terminated three weeks later. Turner said the University was aware of his additional occupation. Turner said that had never received a copy of the contract that said he was required to adhere to a call-in policy, adding that he was never able to talk to a supervisor about his termination. He said that he returned to work at the University for two more weekends before he received his termination letter. “For one single incident he was terminated,” Goldman said. “There was no refusal on his part, there was no discussion, no counseling, no training, just a kneejerk decision.” Contact SARAH BRULEY at sarah.bruley@yale.edu and RACHEL SIEGEL at rachel.siegel@yale.edu .
Cho granted accelerated rehabilitation
HENRY EHRENBERG/SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER
Although the criminal case against Cho is complete, six workers have filed a case against Cho in civil court. Cho now has the option to file a response or settle the case out of court. CHUNG CHO FROM PAGE 1 $120,000 to the 20 workers from whom he stole wages, as well as a deposit of $5,000 to the Connecticut Victims Compensation fund, which helps crime victims pay for expenses incurred due to the violation. He must also write letters of apology to the six workers who testified against him last month. Lastly, he must continue to abide by Connecticut labor and compliance laws over the next two years.
If Cho violates labor laws or is again uncooperative with the DOL, he will face time in jail with no trial. The $120,000 he must now pay is added to the roughly $140,000 that he was originally ordered to pay to workers, according to Megan Fountain ’07, an organizer for Unidad Latina en Acción, a local social justice organization. Yet according to Fountain, the original amount that the Department of Labor found that Cho had stolen
yale institute of sacred music presents
Yale Camerata marguerite l. brooks conductor
dona nobis pacem Advent Concert
from his workers was upwards of $250,000. “The owner of Gourmet Heaven caused considerable harm to the workers,” said Fountain. “They were working in sweatshop conditions.” Although the criminal case against Cho is complete, the six workers who Bhandary-Alexander represents have filed a case against Cho in civil court. Cho now has the option to either file a response or settle the case out of court.
One of these workers is Alejandro Rodriguez, a Mexican immigrant who worked at Gourmet Heaven for 12 years as a cleaner and testified against Cho during the hearing for accelerated rehabilitation. Rodriguez said that he was paid $40 for every 12-hour shift he worked. Rodriguez added that after he chose to cooperate with the DOL investigation, Cho retaliated by limiting him to working only 40 hours in the 24-hour deli each week and forcing him to work the
marilynne robinson yale institute of sacred music presents
night shift. It is because of these retaliations that Rodriguez has decided to return to Mexico. “I think that the judge is not being impartial,” Rodriguez said. “The judge is leaning towards his favor. Because at the end of the day, he is going to walk out as if he did nothing.” Bhandary-Alexander called the results of the decision a mixed bag. Evelyn Nunez ’15, President of MEChA de Yale, a campus social justice group, said that she wor-
ries about the precedent that the decision sets for wage theft in New Haven. “I think that dismissing the criminal charges is not justice,” Fountain said. “But the fact that the labor department, the police department, and the community are paying attention to this issue is real justice, and perhaps that is even more important than Mr. Cho having a criminal record.” Contact LILLIAN CHILDRESS at lillian.g.childress@yale.edu .
yale institute of sacred music presents
YALE SCHOLA CANTORUM simon carrington, guest conductor
author of Gilead and Lila The Givenness of Things
yale literature and spirituality series followed by a book signing.
Music of J.S. Bach, Vaughan Williams, Kyr, and Marshall
saturday, december 6 7:30 pm battell chapel
Free; no tickets required.
Thursday, December 4 · 5:30 pm Marquand Chapel 409 Prospect St., New Haven Presented in collaboration with Yale Divinity Student Book Supply. Free; no tickets required. ism.yale.edu
Music of Charpentier
friday, december 12 · 5 pm christ church episcopal · 85 broadway at elm, new haven free; no tickets required. ism.yale.edu
YALE DAILY NEWS ¡ TUESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2014 ¡ yaledailynews.com
PAGE 9
AROUND THE IVIES
“High above Cayuga’s waters/ There’s an awful smell./ Some say it’s Cayuga’s waters;/ I say it’s Cornell.� POPULAR PARODY
C O R N E L L D A I LY S U N
Route 13 closed during peaceful Ferguson protest in Ithaca BY ZOE FERGUSON Cornellians and local residents came together Tuesday night to hold a vigil and peaceful protest on the streets of Ithaca for Michael Brown, a black, unarmed teenager shot by police in Missouri in August. Last Monday, a grand jury in Ferguson, Missouri, decided not to press charges against Darren Wilson, a white police officer, for fatally shooting the 18-year-old
Brown during a conf ro n ta t i o n on Aug. 9, The New York Times reported. In light CORNELL of the decision, scores of students and Ithacans met in front of the Tompkins County Courthouse on North Tioga Street Tuesday evening to hold a vigil for Brown.
Over 100 people were present at the vigil — titled “We Stand With Ferguson and Mike Brown the Day After the Grand Jury,� — which started out as a “calm, peaceful and contemplative� forum, according to WHCU Radio. After candlelit speeches and prayers, the vigil evolved into a nonviolent protest that blocked traffic in parts of Ithaca and — for about an hour — shut down Route 13.
T H E D A I LY P R I N C E T O N I A N
‘No justice, no peace’ for Michael Brown BY MICHAEL GRANOVETTER AND JESSICA LI At its peak, over 300 students marched in protest along Prospect Avenue starting at midnight Tuesday morning chanting “Hands up, don’t shoot,“ “No justice, no peace� and “Black lives matter,� in what was probably the largest public protest at the university in recent years. The protest occurred the night before Thanksgiving break, a night known for students going out to the eating clubs — also located along Prospect Avenue — and partying before leaving campus for the rest of the week. The protest looped around both sides of the Street against the backdrop of a separate group of students that vied for entry into one of Princeton’s 11 eating clubs. The protests occurred hours after a grand jury ruled that Darren Wilson, a policeman from the suburbs of St. Louis, Missouri., will not face charges in the shooting of unarmed African-American 18-year-old Michael Brown. Wilson shot Brown multiple times in broad daylight on a residential street in August. The grand jury deliberated for several months, and the aftermath of the shooting featured several protests in Ferguson, Missouri. Proceedings began in Frist Campus Center shortly after 11 p.m., where students gathered to write signs protesting the grand jury’s decision, with messages including, “I am Mike Brown,� “Brown deserves justice� and “Black lives matter here and everywhere.� Students, led by Terrence Fraser, Yoselin Gramajo, Briana Payton and Destiny Crockett, among others, organized the event shortly after the decision was made in Missouri, with
emails going out to several residential college listservs an hour before midnight, PRINCETON as well as an email sent to students in the Black Student Union. Fraser sent a Facebook message at around 10 p.m. to approximately 24 people in an attempt to rally support for the protest. According to Deputy Dean of the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students Thomas Dunne, present at the protest, the idea for the gathering was originally proposed at an event sponsored by the Fields Center. The protesters began marching across central campus shortly after departing from Frist Campus Center, and the line continued to grow as the group arrived at Prospect Avenue close to midnight. Students at the scene noted that the line of students grew each time the activists circled the block. By 12:30 a.m., enough students were present to populate both sides of the Street. “It’s really warmed my heart how people walking to the Street have joined us,� Miranda Bolef, who participated in the protest, said. Students were not the only individuals in attendance. Dunne, with other University staff members, walked at the front of the procession, while several local police officers, as well as officers from the University’s Department of Public Safety stood by. Dean of Undergraduate Students Kathleen Deignan was also present. DPS deferred comment to University spokesperson Martin Mbugua, who explained that ODUS and DPS always become involved when campus protests
occur. “We are aware that there are students who are expressing themselves in and around campus, and, as we do during such events, we urge them to be respectful of others and their surroundings,â€? Mbugua said. “Our students are usually very responsive and do so responsibly.â€? “We’re just here to support student protests, which is ‌ a normal function of our responsibilities,â€? Dunne explained. Dunne added that he has not directly seen this number of students participating in a campus protest during his time as dean. The Princeton Police Department declined to comment at press time. “The verdict is an atrocity. We are doing this because of a bunch of apathy with regards to racial brutality on campus,â€? said Fraser, one of the student organizers. Fraser explained that the event was initiated by the Black Leadership Coalition during an art event last week. After the verdict came out, the coalition, a union of the Black Student Union and Princeton African Students Association, among others, used communication resources including listservs for all residential colleges and of various identity groups on campus to call for protestors. Fraser said he was grateful for the diversity of students who showed up to protest. The protesters marched across Prospect Avenue several times, passed through Prospect Garden, paraded across Nassau Hall and finally convened in front of Robertson Hall. Organizers of the event asked all protestors for a moment of silence, which went on for 4 minutes and a half, to represent the 4 and a half hours that Brown’s body was left in the streets of Ferguson.
UPCOMING CONCERTS DEC 5
MINGUS BIG BAND “The hippest big band in the universe� celebrates the music of Charles Mingus
DEC 6
ANGÉLIQUE KIDJO The Afro-pop star performs with the Yale Percussion Group, Shades, and more
DEC 10
MELVIN CHEN, PIANO Prokofiev and Brahms
DEC 11
NEW MUSIC FOR ORCHESTRA Shinik Hahm conducts new pieces by student composers. With the Yale Camerata
ANGÉLIQUE KIDJO BENEFIT CONCERT ¡ DEC 6 SAT, 3 PM ¡ WOOLSEY HALL
TICKETS
MUSIC.YALE.EDU
Box Office: 203 432-4158 Sprague Hall, 470 College St.
Cornellians who attended said the protest was peaceful and not disruptive. Jessica Eustace grad said she believes the vigil was not “hijacked� by angry protesters, but that the demonstration evolved naturally as “an emotional process.� “I didn’t go expecting it to be just a vigil and neither did the girl I went with,� Eustace said. “I know a lot of people are just as angry as I am, and the only way
to show that is to be disruptive. We didn’t aim to hurt anyone. We aimed to stop traffic.� Eustace said the demonstration was mostly centered around grief, though anger surrounding Brown’s death played a major part in the protest. “I would characterize it as emotional, and I believe all that happened reflected that,� Eustace said. “What I mean by that is that it started with a vigil so everyone could process their
grief.� Eustace said she believes the American police force is a “racist� institution. “Black children are being killed by police officers and they face no consequences,� she said. “As a result, we are angry. How could we not be when we can see how racist an institution the police [are] in the United States?� Though the protest evolved to include expressions of anger, the vigil was initially calm.
Interested in illustrating for the Yale Daily News?
CONTACT THAO DO AT thao.do@yale.edu
PAGE 10
YALE DAILY NEWS 路 TUESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2014 路 yaledailynews.com
YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2014 · yaledailynews.com
PAGE 11
BULLETIN BOARD
TODAY’S FORECAST
TOMORROW
Rain, possibly mixed with sleet after 3pm. High near 39. Wind chill values between 20 and 30.
High of 53, low of 35.
THURSDAY High of 44, low of 27.
EARLY SOCIAL MEDIA BY JOHN MCNELLY
ON CAMPUS TUESDAY, DECEMBER 2 4:00 PM The Market Gardener: Jean-Martin Fortier. Join organic micro-farmer and author of “The Market Gardener,” JeanMartin Fortier as he leads a workshop on successful small-scale organic farming. Fortier professionally entered agriculture by operating low-tech, low-carbon and high-yield market gardens, and you can too. Saint Anthony’s Hall (483 College St.) 4:15 PM Silicon Valley and the Pentagon. Come to a lecture by professor Paul Bracken, as he analyzes the dynamic relationship among Silicon Valley, the Department of Defense and the Intelligence Community: Past, Present and Future. Parking on street only. Yale Community Only. Evans Hall (165 Whitney Ave.), Rm. 4200.
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 3 7:00 PM Unbroken (USA, 2014) 35mm. Partake in a special preview screening of the film Unbroken, directed by Angelina Jolie. Q&A with production designer Jon Hutman will follow the
TESLA UPDATE BY JOHN MCNELLY
screening. Whitney Humanities Center (53 Wall St.), Aud. 7:30 PM Yale Jazz Ensemble — The Nutcracker Swings! Enjoy a performance by the Yale Jazz Ensemble, directed by Thomas C. Duffy, for a seasonal concert featuring Duke Ellington/Billy Strayhorn’s arrangement of Peter Ilych Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker Suite.” Admission is free of charge. Sprague Memorial Hall (470 College St.), Morse Recital Hall.
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 4 5:30 PM Literature & Spirituality Series: The Givenness of Things. Acclaimed author Marilynne Robinson will be giving the Lana Schwebel Memorial Lecture in Religion and Literature in honor of the former faculty member at Yale Divinity School. Presented by the Institute of Sacred Music in collaboration with the Yale Divinity Student Book Supply. Open to the Public. Sterling Divinity Quadrangle (409 Prospect St.).
Interested in drawing cartoons or illustrations for the Yale Daily News?
y SUBMIT YOUR EVENTS ONLINE yaledailynews.com/events/submit To reach us: E-mail editor@yaledailynews.com Advertisements 2-2424 (before 5 p.m.) 2-2400 (after 5 p.m.) Mailing address Yale Daily News P.O. Box 209007 New Haven, CT 06520
Questions or comments about the fairness or accuracy of stories should be directed to Editor in Chief Isaac Stanley-Becker at (203) 432-2418. Bulletin Board is a free service provided to groups of the Yale community for events. Listings should be submitted online at yaledailynews.com/events/ submit. The Yale Daily News reserves the right to edit listings.
CONTACT THAO DO AT thao.do@yale.edu
To visit us in person 202 York St. New Haven, Conn. (Opposite JE) FOR RELEASE DECEMBER 2, 2014
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle
CLASSIFIEDS
CROSSWORD Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Lewis ACROSS 1 Netherlands export 5 “500” initials on Wall Street 10 Important time periods 14 Outfielder Crisp nicknamed for a cereal box character 15 Acting award 16 Night in Nantes 17 Modest abode 19 Armory supply 20 Galena or hematite 21 Currier’s partner 22 One in a congregation 24 Winnebago owner, briefly 25 Defendant in a defamation case 26 More orderly 29 Weak 30 Grads 31 Tusked porcine animals 32 Spot for rest and relaxation 35 Gimlet fruit 36 Urge forward 37 Help to withdraw 38 Neighbor of Isr. 39 Attorney general under Reagan 40 Map out 41 Seize, as a chance 43 Grab greedily 44 __ City: Oz locale 46 Tiny energy source 47 Title for Bovary and Butterfly 48 Landed 49 ROTC school near D.C. 52 Good buds 53 Windblown desert plant 56 To be, to Bizet 57 Prop for Picasso 58 Inland Asian sea 59 Like Easter eggs 60 Gin berries 61 Lock maker DOWN 1 Reverberate 2 Sullen
12/2/14
By Bernice Gordon
3 Top 4 Unruly group 5 In any way 6 Peter of Peter and Gordon 7 Cpls. and sgts. 8 Aswan or Hoover 9 Opening night showing 10 Tooth cover 11 Folding feature of an old roadster 12 Actress Anouk 13 Put away for the future 18 Exists 23 Recedes to the sea 24 Hoarfrost 25 Sailor’s time off 26 Hard to believe, as a story 27 Nastase of tennis 28 Hogwarts headmaster 29 Force unfairly (on) 31 Naan, for example 33 Jardin du Luxembourg, par exemple
Monday’s Puzzle Solved
SUDOKU EASY
4 3
©2014 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
34 Lit. collection 36 Seriously reduces 37 “Kapow!” cousin 39 Respectful address 40 100 bucks 42 Wiped off the board 43 Motion picture frames 44 Fix firmly
12/2/14
45 Title role that won Borgnine a 15-Across 46 “Tiny Alice” dramatist Edward 48 “Are not” retort 49 Wang known for wedding gowns 50 Supper, e.g. 51 Out of a job 54 Delta rival: Abbr. 55 Method
5 8 1 6
3 7 8 5 3 6 1 8 5 9 2 4
7 5 4 1 6 7 1 4 3 2 1
7 6 3 4
PAGE 12
YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2014 · yaledailynews.com
SPORTS
“My brother is my best friend. Usually, when I’m fencing, I can hear his voice.” ERINN SMART U.S. OLYMPIC FENCER
Champion elected football captain FOOTBALL FROM PAGE 16 Rymiszewski ’17, Dale Harris ’17 and Jason Alessi ’18 joined Champion to form the youngest unit on the team. This captaincy is not Champion’s first official leadership role: He served as captain of his high school football team in 2011, when he led the St. Thomas Aquinas Raiders to a berth in the state playoffs. He was on the 2008 and 2010 Raiders squads that were voted national champions in the USA Today/National Prep Poll. He graduated as the school’s leader in career tackles. Champion then excelled from the moment he stepped on the field at the Yale Bowl. He topped all Eli defensive backs in both solo and overall tackles in his freshman and sophomore seasons. In 2013, he was named second-team all-Ivy after recording 49 solo tackles and 78 overall, in addition to three interceptions and four fumble recoveries. “Cole is a great leader who works hard everyday, comes to work and really knows what his responsibilities to the team are,” defensive tackle Jack Rushin ’17 said. “He’s played the whole time he’s been here. He’s not the most vocal leader, but he leads by example better than anyone else on the team. He puts in extra effort whenever he can, and we try to emulate that.” This year, Champion tallied 30 solo and 51 total tackles while starting all 10 games. Against Brown, he intercepted a pass inside the red zone that stopped the Bears from scoring, and also set up the Elis for a field goal that would eventually decide the game. Vashel said that Champion’s experience as a key defensive contributor gave him the confidence necessary to hold himself and his teammates accountable. In his first three years, Vashel noted that Champion was unafraid to set a high standard and utilize his capability to keep his teammates focused. “I like to think that I was elected for who I am right now,” Champion said. “I’m going to continue being myself. Obviously, I have more of a speaking role now, but I’m not going to change much.” As is tradition at Yale, only one player can serve as captain for each varsity team. Champion is just the second Yale football captain from Florida in history, and he is the eighth defensive player to be elected captain in the past nine years. The only offensive captain since 2006 was Champion’s predecessor, wide receiver Deon Randall ’15, who led an 8–2 Eli squad and also broke Yale’s record for career receptions with 219 catches in his four years. Champion also served under former defensive end Beau Palin ’14 in his sophomore season. “He’s had two captains that were great role models in Beau Palin and Deon Randall,” Reno said. “Cole has absorbed every
Top-10 finishes for Elis FENCING FROM PAGE 16
KEN YANAGISAWA/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
Champion replaces former captain Deon Randall ’15, who is Yale’s all-time reception leader with 219 catches. bit of it, and he’ll take what he’s seen work well with Beau and with Deon and add his own element to it, take it to another level.” Champion noted that he will follow the example that Randall set in connecting with every player on the team. As captain this season, Randall formed relationships with younger players by spending last summer on campus with many underclassmen. Though Randall served as an example for Champion, he noted that Champion will have the opportunity to pave his own path during the offseason. “Obviously it’s overwhelming at first, everyone wants to congratulate [Champion] and share advice,” Randall said. “I told him I’d be there as a soundboard for him … I just encouraged him, told him he’s going to do a great job. I tried not to overwhelm him because I think the beauty of being captain is trying to figure things out on your own.” Randall is graduating this year, along with several key offensive players who contributed to the highest-gaining offense in the Football Championship Subdivision this past season, such as wide receiver Grant Wallace ’15, running back Tyler Varga ’15 and offensive linemen Ben Carbery ’15 and Will Chism ’15. The graduation of so many offensive starters seemingly left an opportunity for a player from Yale’s previously young defense to step up as captain. Champion said he did not know why defensive players have so often been elected captain, but like Randall did many times throughout this season, he acknowledged the presence of other leaders on the field that do not share the title of captain. “[Quarterback] Morgan Roberts ’16,
[tight end] Sebastian Little ’16 and [offensive lineman] Luke Longinotti ’16, all three of those guys and a couple others are great leaders on offense,” Champion said. “I feel that there won’t be a discrepancy between offense and defense. We have many leaders on this team.” There is no doubt that Champion will lead a 2015 Yale squad that looks quite different from this year’s team, which surprised many fans with its performance. With Randall, Wallace and Varga — the three Yale players with the most all-purpose yards in 2014 — all graduating, the Bulldogs will likely need elevated performances from players on both sides of the ball. Champion’s defense, though still young, will have to build on experience gained this past season, and the offense will have to replace the graduating players in order to match its output this past season. Champion said that the captain’s role in the offseason is to facilitate the growth of younger players, but he added that the team is not yet concerned with its performance a year down the road. “Right now, we’re worried about getting stronger and faster and closer as a team,” Champion said. “As long as we do that every day, and take it one day at a time in the weight room and the film room, that’ll take care of itself, as far as progress we want to see in the offseason.” Winter workouts for the Yale football team began this morning.
Yale three-peats SWIMMING FROM PAGE 16 yard freestyle the same day. He was followed closely by Brian Hogan ’16 in second place. The Bulldogs continued to take home wins with Alwin Frimansyah ’15 winning the 200yard IM and James McNelis ’16 winning the three-meter dive with 317.55 points. The only event that Yale did not win on the first day was the 400-yard medley relay, falling to La Salle University by 0.40 seconds. At the end of the day, the Elis were in first with 517 points. On day two of the competition, the Elis struggled to get their footing. All three of the 200-yard medley relay teams were disqualified for early take-offs. But Hyogo turned the tide back into their favor with a win in the 400-yard IM, and Firmansyah followed with a second-place finish in the 100-yard butterfly. “We were all pretty exhausted at that point, as some of us had rough doubles the night before,” Zhang said. “It was fine, though, and we could definitely handle it.” Hyogo and Rob Harder ’15 finished first and second in the 200-yard freestyle, giving Hyogo the highest amount of individual points of any swimmer on the day. In the one-meter dive, McNelis took home third place after scoring the highest amount of points in the preliminaries. The final event of the day, the 800-yard freestyle, was a sound
victory for the Bulldogs as Jonathan Rutter ’18, Hogan, Hyogo and Harder took first by five seconds. At the end of the day, Yale was in first place by over 300 points. For a typical meet, first place in an individual event earns a team nine points while a win for a relay gains 11 points. Day three began with Hyogo winning yet again, this time in the 1650-yard freestyle, with teammates Hogan and Ben Lerude ’17 taking fifth and sixth. Then Harder took third in the 200-yard backstroke. Victories in the 100-yard freestyle and 400-yard freestyle relay were the last wins of the day for the Elis, rounding out the competition with 1,762 points, over 600 points higher than secondplace Bucknell. Over the winter break, the Bulldogs plan to ramp up their training for second-semester competition. “We don’t have any specific workouts to do over winter break, but I know that we will be training fairly hard,” Rutter said. “If we don’t, the January training trip will be even more painful than it’s already going to be.” The Elis will compete at home for the last meet of 2014, against Boston University and Rutgers, on Dec. 6. Contact SYDNEY GLOVER at sydney.glover@yale.edu .
JANE KIM/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
Captain Andrew Heymann ’16 finished the 200-yard breaststroke in third with a time of 2:02.83.
Contact GREG CAMERON at greg.cameron@yale.edu and MAYA SWEEDLER at maya.sweedler@yale.edu .
“I fenced a lot of really good fencers and went overtime with a couple of them, having a lot of close 5–4 bouts,” Vella said. “I thought it was a really good start to the season for me.” Reed Srere ’17, who placed in the top 20 at last year’s NCAA tournament along with O’Cinneide, finished 16th in the saber. Both Srere and Vella noted that the tournament presented a chance to see how the team would manage to fill the holes left by graduating seniors. In particular, the epee squad lost all three of its starting members last year. “It was nice to see a lot of people stepping up,” Srere said. “It was nice to see all these fresh faces showing up and performing well.” Four women placed in the top 20 in their events as well. Joanna Lew ’17 finished sixth in the saber event and Ilana Kamber ’18 finished close behind in 15th. Captain Lauren Miller ’15 led the charge in the foil event, snagging an eighth-place finish.
Olivia Briffault ’17 also finished in the top 20 in the women’s epee event, behind Miller. Lew noted that the women’s team has already seen dramatic improvements this season, particularly in regard to their footwork. Beyond simply focusing on the outcomes of matches, Lew remarked that the team is seeking to improve on its technical skills. “I think our primary goal is to clean up our bladework — make everything neater, cleaner and more organized,” Lew said. Along with Vella, Lew said that the Garret Open was unlike individual matches where fencers are often isolated from each other. Instead, this tournament offered a chance for both the men’s and women’s teams to support and encourage their teammates in a less-pressured environment. The next competition for both the women’s and the men’s teams will take place at the Brandeis Invitational on Dec. 7. Contact ALEX WALKER at alex.e.walker@yale.edu .
YALE DAILY NEWS
Jake Stein ’17, Jin Ishizuka ’16 and Brian Wang ’16 all finished in the top-20 in the foil competition.
Clash with Monmouth awaits W. BASKETBALL FROM PAGE 16 State, the Bulldogs almost seemed to regain momentum as a layup by Tamara Simpson ’18 with just six seconds left sent the game into overtime tied at 46. Unfortunately, the Broncos effectively ended the Elis’ hopes with a three-pointer from Yaiza Rodriguez at 00:16 to go up by four. “Since coming back from our trip to Alaska, the whole team is playing very hard and is very excited to play two good teams this week,” center Emmy Allen ’16 said. “We learned a lot about ourselves as a basketball team during our Thanksgiving trip, and we are all very focused and are ready to play Monmouth Tuesday and Boston University Saturday.” In addition to team practices, the players have been putting in extra hours in the gym in hopes of improving shooting accuracy, according to guard Lena Munzer ’17. Yale is shooting just 33.4 percent from the field this season, last in the Ivy League and 316th out of 341 teams in Division I. Monmouth will not be an easy opponent, however. Having just defeated their former conference foe Wagner 82–59, the Hawks enter today’s game riding a threegame winning streak. Junior guard Sarah Olson will be the biggest threat on offense. Starting all four games this season, Olson averages 14.3 points per game, the best on the team, largely thanks to a stellar 0.417 percentage from threepoint range. Right behind her is 5’11” sophomore guard/forward Jenny Horvatinovic, who is averaging 11.3 points and 5.8 rebounds per contest. When asked about how the team plans to stop Monmonth’s aggressive offense, Halejian noted that rebounding the ball will be key. “We will try to pressure the ball handlers and passers in order to force turnovers and keep them
JIAHUI HU/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
Forward Katie Werner ’17 boasts a 100 percent three-pointer percentage through the first five games of the season. from finding open shooters,” Halejian said. Defensively, the Bulldogs must not overlook freshman Christina Mitchell. The 6’4” forward has made an instant impact off the bench, producing her second career double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds in the game against Wagner. Though facing a winning team like Monmouth, the Bulldogs are still confident in their chances for a victory, said Halejian. “Everyone is hungry to get
back on the winning track, and our practices since returning to campus have been productive as a result,” Halejian said. “We are excited to be playing at home this week and feel confident that we can get a win.” After the Elis’ game against Monmouth tonight at 7 p.m., Boston University comes to town on Dec. 6. Both games will be at Payne Whitney Gymnasium. Contact JULIA YAO at julia.yao@yale.edu .
YALE DAILY NEWS 路 TUESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2014 路 yaledailynews.com
PAGE 13
P&D P&D P&D P&D P&D P&D P&D P&D P&D P&D PRODUCTION & DESIGN
design@yaledailynews.com
recycleyourydndaily
recycleyourydndaily
recycleyourydndaily
recycleyourydndaily
recycleyourydndaily
recycleyourydndaily
PAGE 14
YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2014 · yaledailynews.com
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY A little bit of wine may not be bad for baby MARTHA LONGLEY CONTRIBUTING REPORTER Drinking during pregnancy may not be as simple as was once thought, a new Yale study has found. While the surgeon general has condemed all prenatal alcohol consumption since 1988 for causing birth defects and developmental problems, the recent study showed that low-to-moderate prenatal alcohol consumption in the first and third trimesters of pregnancy is not associated with lower birth weights, smaller birth lengths and head circumference, congenital anomalies or preterm delivery — some of the physical symptoms associated with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. Their findings suggest that there is a threshold at which alcohol causes fetal damage, challenging the previously held notion that any alcohol consumption could lead to malformed embryos. The findings were published in the Annals of Epidemiology on Oct. 15. “In order for alcohol to act as a teratogen [an agent that causes malformation of the fetus], the alcohol has to build up a high enough concentration in your blood stream to pass through the placenta to reach the baby,” said study co-author and professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at the Yale School of Medicine Jessica Illuzzi. “But there’s no one amount of alcohol that causes this — it depends on the women’s metabolism.” Since there is no single amount of alcohol that is acceptable, she admitted that it is a risky message to send patients. While many studies have examined the adverse effects that heavy drinking has on fetal development, this study sought to examine the spectrum of alcohol consumption. The study also looked at various elements of nutrition during pregnancy including caffeine, alcohol and certain micronutrients. It evaluated 4,496 women, recording what they ate and drank during pregnancy to avoid any recall bias. The data show that there was no link between lowto-moderate prenatal alcohol consumption and pre-term delivery, infant head size, length and weight. In fact, there was actually a curvilinear relationship with the lowest
levels of consumption, meaning that the best birth outcomes came with low levels of alcohol consumption — not any alcohol consumption at all. But Katherine Campbell, who has a fellowship in maternal fetal medicine at the medical school, said these findings should be interpreted with caution. “I don’t know if anyone would say at this point that [low amounts of alcohol] are really protective against [the dependent variables measured in the study] because when you do an epidemiological study, it’s possible that the population that they’re studying already has protective effects,” Campbell said. In other words, although the study corrected for certain variables like education, race and age, more variables could be at play behind the improved birth outcomes. Due to budget constraints, the study could not collect extensive data from the second trimester, so Illuzzi said she would like to see future studies examine all three trimesters. She would also like to see studies that follow the babies through childhood to see if they exhibit symptoms of FAS, which cannot be diagnosed until later in a child’s life. “It’s important for future research to investigate the mechanisms of prenatal alcohol exposure across the spectrum of low level exposure to chronic exposure” said Lisbet Lundsberg, a research scientist in obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at the medical school and a co-author of the study. That would include drinking patterns and beverage types. Despite the findings, Campbell said she will not alter her message to patients to avoid alcohol altogether during pregnancy. She said that the data are important because they can be comforting to women who drank before realizing that they were pregnant and want to know their risks. But since it is unclear how much alcohol is safe, it is better to refrain from drinking completely, she said. According to the Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Website, FAS is the leading non-genetic cause of mental and behavioral problems in children. Contact MARTHA LONGLEY at martha.longley@yale.edu .
THAO DO/ILLUSTRATIONS EDITOR
Interest level may serve as predictor in autistic children BY EMILY XIAO CONTRIBUTING REPORTER Harnessing curiosity may allow researchers to design more effective treatments for children with autism, a new Yale study has found. Researchers at the Yale
School of Medicine and Oslo and Akershus University College (HiOA) in Norway found that in children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders, the level of interest in toys, activities and social routines was a strong predictor of their subsequent acquisition rate of verbal, nonver-
bal and social adaptation skills. Children with ASD who displayed more interest in the world around them at two years of age were better at picking up those skills than those who showed less interest in the activities. In the study, the researchers also developed a novel scoring
system, the Interest Level Scoring for Autism (ILSA), to quantify interest level in toddlers with ASD. The study was published in the journal Autism on Nov. 14. “Curiosity about the environment and drive to explore it is likely to play a very powerful role in the learning and develop-
THAO DO/ILLUSTRATIONS EDITOR
ment of children with ASD,” said Katarzyna Chawarska, a senior author of the paper and a professor at the Yale Child Study Center. These results extend recent findings by study authors Lars Klintwall, a PhD fellow in behavioral sciences at HiOA, and HiOA professor Svein Eikeseth. According to Eikeseth, a previous study they conducted found that children with ASD showing higher interest in objects and toys also benefited more from ASD treatment than their peers who displayed less interest. Child Study Center associate research scientist and one of the study’s authors Suzanne Macari said that the current study adds on this past research by utilizing a larger sample of children, direct observation and more outcome measures. Chawarska explained that while some toddlers with ASD show significant progress over time with treatment, others receiving such treatment show limited or no progress. Therefore, a key area of research interest lies in identifying reliable predictors of treatment outcome at the time of diagnosis — in other words, why do certain kids respond better to treatment? “If we know what the risk factors for poor outcomes are, we can design new interventions to address challenges specific to this group,” Chawarska said. Ultimately, the study indicates that children at risk of poor progress in behavioral interventions can be identified as soon as two years of age, which Chawarska noted is remarkably early. She said she believes that designing more effective ways to naturally motivate such toddlers can allow researchers to improve their long-term outcomes. The ILSA scoring system that the researchers created was applied retroactively to video recordings of 70 toddlers, who were about two years of age at the time of initial examination. The researchers measured the children’s interest in 10 differ-
ent toys, routines and activities — all of which could potentially serve as positive reinforcers in a behavioral intervention — used in the assessment. They also collected data on the toddlers’ adaptive and cognitive function at the time of intake and after 16 months of treatment. The study discovered that the ILSA score was a far stronger predictor of the toddlers’ rate of acquisition of adaptive, verbal and nonverbal skills than several other independent variables. Those other variables included the severity of autism symptoms and cognitive and adaptive functioning at intake, Eikeseth said. Macari said that in addition to its findings, the study’s methods were also significant. “Our findings suggest that a relatively simple rating system [ILSA] allows us to quantify what we had previously considered to be a bit of an intangible quality in children,” she said. She added that the system could be used to identify and monitor the progress of children who may be at high risk for poor treatment outcomes. Nevertheless, the study acknowledged that the lack of control for the presence and types of intervention that toddlers received makes it difficult to conclude whether ILSA was predicting specific benefits drawn from early intervention. In this vein, Eikeseth suggested that further research could be carried out to investigate whether interventions can be made more effective by increasing children’s interest in objects. “[The] possibilities are endless if behavioral techniques are used to create reinforcers for children where few previously existed,” Macari said. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in 68 children in the U.S. has autism, a 30 percent increase from one in 88 two years ago. Contact EMILY XIAO at emily.xiao@yale.edu .
YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2014 · yaledailynews.com
PAGE 15
“Talent is an accident of genes — and a responsibility.” ALAN RICKMAN ENGLISH ACTOR
Protective alcohol genes protect some, not others BY BRENDAN HELLWEG CONTRIBUTING REPORTER African Americans and EuropeanAmerican women with a certain gene combination are protected from alcohol use disorder even if they grew up in difficult environments — something that typically increases risk of alcoholism, according to a new study by researchers from Yale and University of Pennsylvania. But this relationship does not hold for European-American men, meaning that childhood trauma will contribute to excessive alcohol consumption at roughly the same rate regardless of the presence of a gene combination that protects against alcoholism in other groups. “The idea is that under certain environments, genetic risk may be more or less likely to be expressed,” said Carolyn Sartor, the principal author of the study and assistant professor of psychology at Yale School of Medicine. “Childhood adversity has been a well-documented risk factor for alcohol-related problems as well as other psychiatric outcomes, so under those conditions you may see a different expression of genetic risk.” The study was based on blood samples from more than 4,000 Americans across the country who participated in six-hour interviews about their medical history and lifestyle, said Henry Kranzler, professor of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. Genetic information from
the sample was harvested and genotyped, or examined and compared, so that researchers could consider specific gene alleles and sequences in the context of the answers the respective subjects gave. All of these participants mentioned early childhood trauma in their interviews, ranging from sexual abuse to violence to extreme neglect. Participants were asked about the greatest number of drinks they had consumed over the course of a day — though answers were capped at 50 to avoid exaggeration, according to the study. Another factor used was a rating of dependence and abuse of alcohol determined during the survey. Answers by participants with the relevant alleles were compared to those without the protective gene combination in order to see the relationship between the genes and the environment. This relationship varied across races and genders. “In the presence of childhood adverse events, a normally protective allele, ADH1B, is not protective in European American men,” Kranzler said. The ADH1B gene is involved with the metabolism of alcohol. Along with another related gene, ADH1B helps clear the body of alcohol, leading to fewer adverse effects related to drinking and in general, protects against overconsumption and alcoholism, according to the study. This pair of genes is present in about 40 percent of Asians and between 20 percent and 40 percent of Israeli Jews.
Genes, however, can be expressed differently based on the surrounding environment a person may grow up in. The two genes typically combine to help prevent misuse of alcohol, but the combination may work differently in people with traumatic childhoods, the study claims. This study in particular sought to further establish this relationship in European Americans and African Americans, as the only prior study in this line of research focused solely on IsraeliJewish citizens. The study also found a strong difference between men and women in the prevalence of alcohol use as well as childhood trauma. Men consumed significantly more alcohol. On average, they had eight more drinks than women as their maximum daily consumption — 24 on average as opposed to 16 drinks in a day. Women, however, experienced significantly more childhood trauma than men did. The study further outlined the importance of strong early-childhood treatment in order to prevent widespread development of alcohol-related disorders, Sartor said. By ensuring less traumatic childhoods for more people, she said, it may be possible to reduce the prevalence of harmful alcohol use. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 16,749 people died in America from alcoholic liver disease in 2011. Contact BRENDAN HELLWEG at brendan.hellweg@yale.edu .
Babies’ faces capture attention best
THAO DO/ILLUSTRATIONS EDITOR
BY MONICA WANG CONTRIBUTING REPORTER Compared to all other age groups, infants have faces that are most successful at capturing attention, a recent Yale Child Study Center and University College London joint study confirmed. Researchers asked participants — 84 adult women, roughly half of whom were mothers — to complete a visual search task that contained three faces from the same age group. One face had a different eye color from the others. When infant faces were present on the screen, a much slower response time in identifying the different eye color was recorded than when faces of any other age group were shown. In particular, infant faces in distress effectively attracted the most attention, and thus distracted participants from completing the visual search task on time. The attentional engagement is further highlighted in the 39 mothers compared to the 45 non-mothers. Researchers found that participants did not process adolescent and adult faces differently, and thus gave neither preferential treatment. While sad pre-adolescent child faces also led to greater attentional allocation, baby faces ultimately won. “These findings further demonstrate the salience of infant faces in capturing attention, replicating our previous work, but also advancing it to understand this from a developmental perspective with increasing age of the non-adult faces,” said study co-authors Linda Mayes, professor of Child Psychiatry, Pediatrics and Psychology, and associate research scientist Helena Rutherford at the Yale School of Medicine. The researchers’ interest in the intrinsic salience of infant faces and its effect on caregiving behavior in parents initially sparked this study, they explained, adding that they are at the beginning of a series of experiments exploring the neuro-cognitive mechanisms at play in parenting. Past studies have already established that infant faces have a special capacity for attracting attention, but researchers remain unsure if this ability is unique to infants only. By incorporating pre-adolescent child and adoles-
cent faces into an existing visual search task that previously compared only infant and adult faces, Mayes, Rutherford and their colleagues at UCL illustrated an inverse relationship between attentional allocation and age. The emotional states of the faces, especially the display of negative emotions, and mother versus non-mother status of the participants also proved to be significant factors in engaging their attention. According to study contributing author and trainee clinical psychologist at UCL Chloe Thompson-Booth, this study demonstrates that the baby schema — the round face, chubby cheeks, large eyes, small mouth and tiny nose, features that people find extremely cute in babies — exists for a reason. Without verbal communication, infants must rely on facial expressions and vulnerability cues to engage the attention of their caretakers. “It is very important for babies to be able to attract our attention so that we can give them the appropriate care,” said Thompson-Booth, suggesting that there is something innate about their particular facial configuration. She added that the baby schema applies not only to human babies but also to the very young of all species, and this appearance seems to trigger a “biological drive for us to take care of these very cute and vulnerable-looking faces.” Mayes and Rutherford added that researchers hypothesize that parents may be biologically programmed to find infant faces rewarding, serving an evolutionary purpose to increase infants’ chances of survival. Their study is also of clinical interest, they noted, as understanding normal attentional allocation to human faces will help them examine possible factors contributing to lowerquality parenting, especially among mothers with anxiety, depression and addiction. Currently, Thompson-Booth is collecting data from a paternal sample completing the same task to examine attentional allocation in fathers. The study was published in the online journal PLoS ONE on Oct. 29. Contact MONICA WANG at monica.wang@yale.edu .
KONSTANTINOS VYZAS/CONTRIBUTING ILLUSTRATOR
Safer cancer treatment sought BY STEVEN LEWIS CONTRIBUTING REPORTER A group of Yale researchers has identified a novel delivery method to suppress cancercausing molecules and reduce tumors, with potential applications to other diseases. In a study published on Nov. 17 in the journal Nature, the Yale team targeted tumors by utilizing their acidity. They developed a peptide structure (pHLIP) that could be bound to an anti-micro RNA molecule. An anti-micro RNA is the mirror image of a corresponding micro RNA, which it binds to using base pairing. That binding dynamic is similar to the lock and key dynamic of enzymes and substrates. But instead of the enzyme breaking down the substrate, the anti-micro RNA inactivates the micro RNA. Micro RNAs are key in gene regulation because they can silence the expression of genes. The researchers used a mouse model for cancer in which a particular micro RNA was the predominant driver of tumor formation. “We have a viable strategy for delivering therapeutic agents with high specificity to the tumors themselves rather than the healthy tissue,” said study senior author and Yale genetics professor Peter Glazer MED ’87 GRD ’87. “And this specificity is based on the acidic environment that is found in tumors.” That increased specificity allowed the researchers to bypass non-tumor cells, leading to fewer side effects than occur in other treatments like chemotherapy. According to the study’s senior author and professor of chemical and biomedical engineering Mark Saltzman, the peptide pHLIP was also able to overcome many barriers to delivery into cells that previous micro RNA cancer treatments had faced. “One problem with many delivery systems used in treat-
ing cancer is that they go to other places other than the tumor,” he said. “And we clearly showed that these constructs don’t go to the liver, spleen, bone marrow or other places that cause common side-effects to chemotherapy.” Glazer said that most current cancer treatments have narrow therapeutic indices — the drug dosage that simultaneously achieves anti-cancer effects and tolerable side effects. He explained that the antimicro RNA the researchers use — anti-micro RNA 155 — works well because it has two levels of specificity. First, it only enters into cells that have low pH levels. Second, it silences a micro RNA that is only elevated in tumor cells and is not elevated in healthy tissues. The latter is important because, even if the treatment makes its way into healthy cells, there would be few adverse effects, as there are fewer of that specific micro RNA to bind with. This work could be applied to many different types of cancer, not just lymphoma, Glazer said. He noted that pHLIP could be used to target other micro RNAs, depending on the type of cancer. Theoretically, researchers could develop many anti-micro RNAs to attach to pHLIP for delivery into tumors. “One of the important biological lessons from the paper is that if you can deliver anti micro RNAs effectively to tumors, that this might be a new important therapy,” Saltzman said. “The power is that it is generalized. We’ve targeted a very general aspect of tumor physiology, the fact that they become slightly acidic because of how they grow, so the targeting part should work in any tumor that becomes acidic, and many do.” This project was years in the making and involved a collaborative, multi-disciplinary effort. Four labs across four departments at Yale contributed to the
paper. “There was a lot of intellectual synergism in the group enterprise because people were coming at the problem from different directions, and we learned from each other and got this project accomplished in a way that none of our individual labs could have done on our own,” Glazer said. Saltzman also credited the Yale Cancer Center for providing vital support on the project. “Micro RNA is an extremely exciting topic. It’s basically a new field in the last ten years,” said Associate Director of the Yale Cancer Center and Professor of Pharmacology Roy Herbst ’84. He added that the Yale Cancer Center is currently working on applying micro RNA treatments to breast cancer and lung cancer. “The biggest problem with micro RNAs has been how to deliver them. Once you deliver them, the ability to turn off or on the critical processes that are driving a cancer cell are phenomenal.” Saltzman’s lab specializes in nanoparticle drug delivery methods. The lab will be applying that approach to continue the project. He said his lab is currently working on putting pHLIP on the surface of nanoparticles that are loaded with anti-micro RNAs. This would allow each nano particle to deliver many anti-micro RNA compounds that could also be slowly released into the tumor site, possibly making the effect of the drug more durable. Glazer said that his lab and Donald Engelmann GRD ’67 are working to improve pHLIP, in collaboration with Carnegie Mellon chemistry professor Danith Ly, before moving to testing in humans. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States. Contact STEVEN LEWIS at steven.lewis@yale.edu .
THAO DO/ILLUSTRATIONS EDITOR
IF YOU MISSED IT SCORES
EPL Man City 3 Southampton 0
EPL Tottenham 2 Everton 1
NBA Washington 107 Miami 86
SPORTS QUICK HITS
y
NBA San Antonio 109 Philadelphia 103
FOR MORE SPORTS CONTENT, VISIT OUR WEB SITE yaledailynews.com/sports
“The congratulations were nice. But after a couple days, you want to get back to work [and] start working out with the guys.” COLE CHAMPION ’16 FOOTBALL
JUSTIN SEARS ’16 AND JAVIER DUREN ’15 HONOR ROLL The duo came up big over break and both were named to the Ivy Honor Roll. Duren led the way against No. 25 Providence, scoring 21 points and contributing seven boards and five dimes. Sears, meanwhile, posted a double-double versus Hartford and added five blocks.
TAMARA SIMPSON ’18 FIRST-TIME HONOREE Simpson played perhaps the best game of her nascent career against Boise State, resulting in an Ivy Honor Roll nomination. The freshman scored 13 points, including the game-tying layup to send the game to overtime, and also had two steals and two blocks.
NCAAW S. Carolina 90 N.C. Central 26
YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2014 · yaledailynews.com
Elis elect a Champion FOOTBALL
Bulldogs take third straight BY SYDNEY GLOVER CONTRIBUTING REPORTER While most Yalies traveled to Cambridge the weekend before Thanksgiving for The Game, the Yale men’s swimming and diving teams headed to Lewisburg, Pennsylvania.
SWIMMING After a multi-day contest, Yale took home first place in the annual Bucknell Invitational for the third straight year. “The Bucknell Invite is a great opportunity to gauge our midseason progress,” swimmer Brian
Clark ’16 said. “This year we won by the biggest margin yet, which showcased the team’s increase in roster depth over the past three years. It felt good to know we could soundly beat all those shaved and tapered teams in the middle of our season.” The three-day competition began on Friday, Nov. 21, with the 200-yard freestyle relay. Yale’s “A” team of Victor Zhang ’16, Aaron Greenberg ’17, Mike Lazris ’15 and Oscar Miao ’17 took first place over Bucknell, the host team. Kei Hyogo ’18 kept his winning streak alive by taking home first place in the 500SEE SWIMMING PAGE 12
KEN YANAGISAWA/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
Cole Champion ’16 totaled 49 solo tackles in 2013, best among all Ivy League defensive backs. BY GREG CAMERON AND MAYA SWEEDLER STAFF REPORTER AND CONTRIBUTING REPORTER There is no better way to make a statement about your goals than by naming a player with the last name “Champion” as your leader. Just two days after the close of its most successful season since 2007, the Yale football team turned the page by electing safety Cole Champion ’16 to captain the 2015 squad. Head coach Tony Reno introduced the new captain, who was elected the night
before Yale’s matchup with Harvard, at the annual Yale football banquet on Monday, Nov. 24. “As a player, [Champion] is an all-star,” defensive backs coach Steven Vashel said. “Cole has a strong passion for football. I think his biggest attribute is a real high capacity to accept and apply coaching … As a leader, he’s earned a lot of respect from teammates.” Champion, a Fort Lauderdale, Florida native, has started every game for the Bulldogs since week four of his freshman sea-
son. He will enter his senior campaign with 125 solo tackles, 205 overall tackles and four interceptions in his career as an Eli. The defensive back, who is the 138th elected captain, enters his new role with arguably the most leadership experience under his belt out of all the juniors on the team. In 10 games this season, Champion was the only starting player in the secondary who was not a freshman or sophomore. Teammates Foye Oluokun ’17, Spencer
Bulldogs hungry for win
SEE FOOTBALL PAGE 12
YALE DAILY NEWS
The Bulldogs took the Bucknell Invitational for the third-straight season — though this time by the widest margin.
Fencing season kicks off
BY JULIA YAO CONTRIBUTING REPORTER After weathering three straight losses over Thanksgiving break, the Yale women’s basketball team is ready to make a comeback in its next home game against Monmouth. Currently with the best winning percentage of all 11 teams in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, Monmouth will be no less formidable than the Bulldogs’ three previous opponents.
W. BASKETBALL Last week, the Bulldogs traveled across the country for a weeklong trip but were disappointed with three consecutive defeats at the hands of Washington, Alaska Anchorage and Boise State. Yale first faced the Washington Huskies in a fast-paced, back-andforth game, during which captain Sarah Halejian ’15 scored a team high of 19 points, and ascended to 14th on Yale’s all-time scoring list. However, the Bulldogs were unable to overpower the Huskies’ impressive 44.4 percent shooting and fell 81–51 to the highly-ranked Pac-12 team. In the next two rounds of the Great Alaska Shootout, the Bulldogs failed to rebound from their loss and fell to both Alaska Anchorage and Boise State. In the hard-fought match against Boise SEE W. BASKETBALL PAGE 12
YALE DAILY NEWS
After upsetting Alex Schneller of Penn State, captain Hugh O’Cinneide ’15 advanced to the quarterfinals. BY ALEX WALKER CONTRIBUTING REPORTER Both the men’s and women’s fencing teams got off to a strong start at the Garret Penn State Open last Sunday, with members of both squads finishing in the top 10 in their respective events.
FENCING JIAHUI HU/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
Captain and guard Sarah Halejian ’15 posts a 15.4 points-per-game average through the Elis’ first five contests.
STAT OF THE DAY 8
The open featured competitors from 12 different schools across the country, including the 2013–14 NCAA Champion Nittany Lions. Captain Hugh O’Cinneide ’15 led the Bulldogs with a eighth-place finish in the saber
competition, where he advanced to the quarterfinals before losing to Cristoph Ruenz of University of North Carolina — Chapel Hill. Meanwhile, Katherine Miller ’16 finished in a tie for third in epee with Safa Ibrahim of Temple University. The men’s team had an especially strong showing in the foil competition, where four Bulldogs — Jake Stein ’17, Jin Ishizuka ’16, Brian Wang ’16 and Paul Wong ’18 — nabbed spots among the top 20. Avery Vella ’18 performed well in his first meet with Yale, leading the squad in the epee competition where he finished 24th. SEE FENCING PAGE 12
NUMBER OF YALE FOOTBALL CAPTAINS ON THE DEFENSIVE SIDE OF THE BALL IN THE LAST NINE YEARS WITH THE ELECTION OF SAFETY COLE CHAMPION ’16. The junior, a starter since his freshman season, will lead a 2015 Yale squad that graduates many of its best offensive players.