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1111 OCTOBER 16, 1991
TheNewJournal The magazine about Yale and New Haven
Volume 25, Number 2
October 16, 1992
STANDARDS _________________________________ 4 Between the Vines: An American Outside Paris. by Kate Brewster. 29 Afterthought: A Union Unravels. by lvo Banac.
FEATURES __________________________________ page 4
page 8
6
True Faith. by Josh Auerbach. Yale s new chaplain, the Reverend Frederick ]. Streets, preaches a philcsosphy oftolerance that draws fire from campus evangelicals.
8
The Struggle to Respond. by Jackie Cooperman. Will the university s sexual assault services measure up to the now-defonct Response?
II
A Dubious Distinction. by Josh Civin. For centuries, Yale alumni have crowded Congress. Why have only thtee occupied the Oval Office?
14 Easing the Pain. by Erika Fortgang. Connecticut Hospice aims to soothe the trauma ofterminal illness for patients and their families.
16 A Gentlemen's Game? by Emily Bazelon. Tang, Yaks traditional downand-dirty beer Jest, sloshes on. 21
Family Feuds. by Charlotte Brooks. Behind New Havens city government lie the byzantine machinations oflocal politicians.
24 The King of Chapel Street. by Cheryl Sheinkopf. joel Schiavone, New Havens most flamboyant and controversial business tycoon, stands behind his vision for the Elm City.
page u
26 On the Road. by David Gerber. Students who defer a year before college often learn more in the real world than in the ivory tower.
page 16
Cover Design by Annerre Kirchner-Cover Phoros Courresy ofChani Warerho~.
CVoiUJn< 25. Number 1) ~ Nnu J•,.,.,u;. publi>h«< fivt times during tht school yc:u by The s~ journal at Yak, Inc., Pou Offkt Bo" 3<432 Yak Sarion, Nnv lUvm, CT 06520. ~t 1992 by The N~ journ<ll at Yak Inc. All ridm ~. Rcproduct~on .-.thcr on ,.hole or on pan "'1thout WTOncn pcrmissoon of tht publisher <lnd editor-in-dUd"" prolubned. This rn.as;Wnt,. published by Yale Colltgt studmu. ana Yalt Univ~'r is noc resporuoblc for ots conttnu. Eleven thous<lnd copies of each o.ssuc arc dutributcd free to members of the Yak University communn:y. n.r Nrw jtJ~<nutl" printed by Turley Publicaoons of P~mcr, .\1A. Bookkccpong and bollong ~o<:cs arc provodcd by Colman Booldte.ping of New lUvcn, CT. Office addrcs.: 305 Crown Street, Offoc:c 312. Phone: (203) 432-1957. Subscripoons arc avaolablc to thcic oursodt the Yale communuy. R.arcs: One yc:u, SIS. 'rwo yean. $30. ~ Nn~~ J-1 encourages letters to tht cduor and comment on Yale and t:J~ Ha'~ issues. Wntc co ~thy Rcoch, Editorials. 3<432 Yale Sacoon, N~ Haven, CT 06520. All letters for publocatoon must include address and sognacure Nrw jtJumAI r<SCI"« the nght to odic alllcncrs for publocauon
n.r
0croBER 16, 1992
THE NEw JouRNAL 3
An American Outside Paris Kate Brewster
C
ulture shock, you hope, means stumbling off the Prague's buildings, the giant angels on the roof of the Musee plane in Paris on a freezing January night and let- d'Orsay in Paris. But I worried (mostly in the company of ting the reality of all those movie images overwhelm other Americans) that I had not learned to stop seeing you. In an instant, you find what lures the thousands of things academ1cally, that I couldn't stop reducing all but the backpackers who sleep on train station floors each summer. most overwhelming encounters to a cool discourse on C ulture shock means fa lling in love with strangers in the Culture. After a day of museums in Rome, I wrote: "Do I Metro and never letting the trivial bother you, because in spend all my energy packing Paris even trivialities feel profound. these things into a series of In May, after four months in Paris, I was still stereotyped cubbyholes in my memory?" waiting for culture shock. The last weeks of the When May came and semester rolled my Eurail pass expired, I by and the city wanted a summer job. still eluded me. "You'll never find a job," Ten-year-olds carsaid my host family's maid, a Moroccan rying baguettes and craggy old men woman who has smoking in cafes, cooked for them and young couples in the cleaned their plush p ublic-d isplay-ofapartment for the last affection capital of the 25 years. "Are you world, the Luxembourg crazy? What can you Gardens-they all do, anyway?" I looked annoyingly like winced. In spite of the cast of characters on my triumphant the postcards in the independence, I felt useless. I to urist-trap stores on the rue d e R ivoli . A photo could argue with opportu nity on every cork t the Centre train conductors, find free ner-so what? T he city for culture shoe a toilets, and scrape by academically, serious seemed so fragile, a curtain TouristS hope about nothing except my frustrated gropings for the "real" too beautiful to have anyParis. But I wanted to do something: As it rurned out, I thing but air behind it. could have herded goats in the Pyrenees, but before I got Even when I tried to pull the curtain aside, too many that offer I had accepted another from Evelyne, the ruthrituals stood in the way: the English I spoke every day, the lessly cheerful matriarch of a bed and breakfast and dairy papers I wrote, the American movies I saw. Like the rest of farm in Courtomer, Normandy, a town with fewer people the fo reign student mob, I wasn't living in Paris; I was than it has cows. "studying" there. My Eurail pass and battered copy of Lds Courtomer presented the kind of culture shock you Go Europe defined the time that fell between the horrenmight expect from joining the circus. To make ends meet, dously lonely first few weeks and the brief final barrage of Evdyne had just added evening meal service to the bed and papers and exams. My busy, distant host family couldn't breakfast. Her lively two-year-old, the 40 cows, and her reduce the gap between me and the city that surrounded me hopeless disorganization made exploiting a foreigner like b ut left me cold. me the only way to get through the day. I discovered within a couple of days that Evelyne had wildly misrepresented More than enough experiences kept me happy: food and the ocean in Italy, the astonishing pastel color wheel of what she expected of me. In exchange for room, board, and 4
THE NEW jOURNAL
OCTOBER 16, 1992.
$20 a week, I scrubbed toilets, pumped gas in the rain, and played "Happy Birthday" on the violin for guests. After a 12-hour workday, I scrambled to help serve dinner to 14 people, while the eight members of the household juggled their own meals in the kitchen. Marcel, the nutty old gardener, was supposed to finish the dry bread, as Evelyne's husband and mother-in-law dutifully ate the leftovers of two-year-old Marie. Marie ate whatever she felt like, her sheer stage presence and sense of humor dissolving any attempt at order. The teenaged sons and hired help fought over the ketchup, teased each other, and conspired against Evelyne, who came back into the kitchen to stomp ruthlessly over the rebels and turn down the music. "Why do you put yourself through these things?" said a friend who visited me in July. "This place is hell." I thought of the few hours I had to myself as heaven, but when I came back down into the big kitchen, I felt more awake and engaged with the world than I have since the excitement of freshman year at Yale. Everyday life as a contact sport in a circus ring left me no time to wait around for culture shock the way :1 had in Pa.ris. Neither did life in Counomer leave time to-t.ievelop "cultural understanding," that erudite state too m~y people confuse with looking for more accurate stereotypes. More than anything else, life with Evelyne demanded attention, usually in eight directions at once. The day her 15-year-old son chased 23 escaped cows across his grandmother's pasture, I tried wildly to appreciate the humor and French-ness of the crisis, but I had to chase cows too (I lost a shoe at the critical moment, and the cows plunged into the corn patch). Looking at postcard figures in Paris and running after cows in Counomer felt as different from each other as listening to music and playing it. ut six months in Europe don't undo three years at Yale. After months of trying to experience France on its own terms, I stopped fighting my own mental mannerisms. I would not have survived the first grueling month in Counomer without Middlnnarch to retreat into, and Evelyne's tyranny would have driven me crazy if I hadn't been able to stash her away in a long series of imaginary five-page papers. Chaos made the experience, but my own efforts to give the chaos an intellectual structure kept me from drowning in it. When Evelyne left me in charge of Marie at a family reunion, I tried to keep her from running all over the room and finally surrendered. I recorded: "I'm completely encir-
B
Ocroau. 16, 1992.
Notr~ Dam~
in Paris is a magn~t for world trav~krs.
ded by dancing French people in a long line holding each other's shoulders. Accordion music makes the whole thing feel like a cross between Faust and Our Town, some can keep a beat and some can't, smiles and hands reach down to us, I am sitting on the floor with Marie... " Evelyne would find it hilarious that I couldn't simply remember this event, but also had to label it as the perfect metaphor for the whole summer. Whatever else Yale does to your mind, it teaches you to try to make sense of circuses. And a university education also gives you enough of a tast'e of what's out there that you can and will stumble around the world until, through persistence or just luck, you find it-whether you call it circus or culture. 1111 Kau Brrwstn; a smior in SiUiman Co/kg~. is on tiN staffof TNJ. THE NEw joURNAL 5
True Faith josh Auerbach After Harry Adams retired from his post as Yale's uni~ versity chaplain last year, a special search committee sought to fiJI his shoes with a bridge builder-someone who could serve as a liaison between Yale and New Haven. They chose Rev. Frederick]. Streets (DIY '75), a pastor at an inner~cicy congregation in Bridgeport and a committed urban advo ~ care. Streets, the first black and the first Baptist to serve as university chaplain, brings with him a reputation for toler~ ance and a commitment to the community. But his appointment has alienated some of Yale's most religiously active students. The controversy surrounding the new chaplain centers on his refusal to reject non~Christian religious beliefs. "I have come to understand that there is more than one way to God," Streets ¡said. "The way that I have found is through Jesus Christ, but I would not insist to someone else that this is the only way." As university chaplain, Streets hopes to help students explore various paths to spiritual truth. One of his goals, he says, is to foster an atmosphere at Yale in which spiritual questions receive attention as legitimate and worthwhile areas of inquiry. But he emphasizes the process of inquiry itself, rather than the validation of any particular belief sys~ rem. " I would be honored if a student were to ~ay it was because of my involvement that he opened up to becoming a Buddhist," Streets said. Streets' relativistic position has alarrned members of Yale's evangelical community. "Most of the people I've spoken to tell me they are disappointed with him," said Sean Robertson (MC '94}, a member of the Campus Crusade for Christ. According to Marena Fisher (GRD '92}, a member of the Yale Standard Bible study group, evangelism insists upon the absolute and ultimate authority of Christian scriptural texts. "Streets' position is an outrage for anyone who has really committed himself to Christ," Fisher said. n light of Streets' stance toward non-Christian faiths, evangelical students feel that the university chaplain is not a true Christian. "The idea that one can say, 'Jesus might be Lord, but I might be wrong,' is to say that one has not met with the lord," Fisher said. "Streets is either fudg~ ing his position, or he is not a believer. He is talking out of both sides of his mouth. If he is a Christian, he has betrayed his Lord with that kind of a position."
I
6 THE NEw JouRNAL
Univ~rsity
chaplain Fr~derick]. Struts hopes to fost~r an of faith and tol~ranu at Yale.
atmosph"~
The breadth of the theological gulf between Streets and Yale's evangelical students first surfaced during the chaplain selection process. During meetings between the university community and prospective candidates, students asked Streets to address a wide range of issues, including the morality of abortion and homosexuality. Associate Dean Judith Hackman, who co-chaired the chaplain search committee with religious studies professor Wayne Meeks, said that students were extremely rigorous in their questioning. During the meeting, Streets emphasized the good that can come from people with different viewpoints disagreeing in a spirit of "Christian love." "That's extremely important in an ecumenical community," said Rebecca Parkhill (DIY '93), who participated in the discussion. "The big point he tried to make was that he wanted to have an open line of dialogue. He's a really good listener." OCTOBER 16, 1992
But Fisher remembers the interview differently. "Streets took a less clear stand on the issues than any of the other candidates," she said. "He was asked about the abortion issue and simply did not answer." Students repeatedly questioned Streets about his stance on homosexuality. The chaplain condemned homophobia and said that he would be extremely unsympathetic to any religious group that wanted to exclude a person from its membership on the basis of sexual preference. "I am glad to be part of a congregation that is open and affirming of people with d ifferent sexual orientations,., he said. Many evangelicals believe that Streets' tolerance of homosexuality directly contradicts the Bible. As a result of his stance toward the authori ty of Scripture, Streets' most formidable challenge may be reconciling the position of university chaplain with his role as pastor of the United C hurch of C hrist's Batte!! congregation. As chaplain, Streets has pledged to promote and celebrate diversity. Yet evangelicals argue that a Congregationalist pastor must advocate a particular set of religious beliefs. According to Reginald Roberts (T C '94), a member of the Black C hurch at Yale, Streets has so fur failed to explain his plan to negotiate the tensions between his two responsibilities. The university itself recognizes that they are separate and perhaps even contradictory; on Oct. 4 it broke with tradition and installed Streets into the two roles at separate ceremonies. Streets contends that his emphasis on tolerance will facilitate rather than hinder the reconciliation of his duties. "As chaplain, I am informed by my faith community, but my role is not to make the university-nor its students and faculty- Congregationalists," he said. ''I'm there to help people to address the questions of faith in their lives." Former chaplain Adams defends Streets' position. "There is a great difference between affirming one's own tradition and d enying other people's traditions," he said . Adams added that a chaplain who aggressively sought converts would not be appropriate in a university serting. Evangelicals label such assertions as rationalization . "There is a feeling of disillusionment among students with this mealy-mouthed approach to the chaplain's position," said Fisher. "If you're going to have a chaplain that is worthy of the name, he ought to be first and foremost committed to his religion. There is an earnest desire among studen ts to have a chaplain who believes in something." The schism between Streets and the evangelical community at Yale places the chaplain in an unusual position. While he may be in line with the mainstream views of his constituency-the university as a whole--he stands at odds with a large proportion of those who will take the most OcToBER 16, 1991
active interest in his tenure as chaplain. Streets seems ready to grapple with this quandary. "I will be called a heathen or a converted person by some in the Christian community," he said. "One might even say I am being hypocritical. I don't think so. I think I am being faithful to my understanding of the Gospel."
T
he chaplain will fuce less opposition in his efforts to draw Yale and New Haven closer together. Streets bridges both worlds. While completing his studies at the Divinity School, he served a term on the New Haven Board of Aldermen. In addition, he has been the pastor of an inner city congregation in Bridgeport for the past 16 years. "Over time, he has built up a network of relationships in the city which will be a tremendous resource to the university," Adams said. Within the university, Streets will preside over ceremonial functions , such as memorial services , Association of Yale Alumni meetings, and Fresh person Assemblies. He will coordinate the umbrella organization for all of Yale's denominational groups and will act as a counselor to members of the university community. In addition, Streets will continue Adams' policy of mediating disputes between the university and its labor force. Streets' background amply qualifies him for these various roles. He holds a master's degree in social work from Yeshiva University and, as pastor of Bridgeport's Mount Aery Baptist C hurch, helped establish programs to provide affordable housing, health care, education, and daycare to city residents. He also founded the first church-based AIDS outreach program in Fairfield County. "We were looking for a person who could be a moral leader within the university and at the same time be a human being people would really respect," Associate Dean Hackman said. "Jerry Streets fulfills these expectations, and does so with great humility." Streets' ability to focus on a variety of activities at once is perhaps the greatest asset he brings to the multi-faceted position of university chaplain. His capacity to keep a finger in every pie will be severely tested in the coming years, as he attempts to act as a spiritual leader within the university, while guiding Yale into a closer relatio nship with New Haven. H owever, the new c haplain will likely face his toughest challenge from campus evangelicals. The approach Streets rakes to the dash between tolerance and scriptural authority will redefine the chaplain's role in a university that in recent years has come to embrace fa iths beyond the Christian fold. IIIJ
josh Aunbach is a junior in Calhoun
Co/kg~. THE NEW JOURNAL
7
The Struggle to Respond jackie Cooperman ast July members of Response, Yale's rape crisis hocline, received a disturbing letter from their parent organization, Rape Crisis Services (RCS) of the Greater New Haven YWCA. Since 1986, state-trained student rape crisis counselors have staffed a nightly hotline at Yale. But RCS director Marianne Kelly abruptly informed them that as of September, Response would shut its doors. The closing of Response has thrown the future of rape crisis peer counseling at Yale into doubt. Without RCS on board, Yale administrators may try to shift students from an independent hodine to university-sponsored outreach ¡ efforts. And the process of reassigning Response's role has pushed administrators, former counselors, and students to examine the services that Yale provides for both prevention and treatment of sexual assault. Without Response, students who want crisis counseling must turn to the general RCS hotline. Student counselors hope to set up hours three times a week when callers can request a Yale counselor, but no such schedule currently exists. And no organization has yet taken over the sexual assault education al outreach that Response provided. "Certainly something's wrong," said Danna Schneider (BR '93), a member of Women Breaking the Silence, a group formed last year in reaction to an alleged campus date rape. "We need services and we need them fast." RCS Director Kelly gave several reasons for her decision to close Response. Because the organization received an average of only two to four calls every month, with most callers asking for information rather than crisis counseling, Kelly questioned the need for the hotline. Even for crisis callers, Kelly dismissed the id ea that peer counselors could help where others could not. "When you're in crisis, all categories slip away," she said. "You don't care if you're speaking with a Yale student or not." Kelly also expressed concern that student counselors worked too independently of RCS. "I felt my own ability to supervise the Yale counselors was unsatisfactory," she said. As a working mother, she often found it difficult to attend the evening meetings most convenient for student coordinators. Kelly's memory of working as a student rape crisis counselor at the University of Connecticut in the 70s fueled her fear that without proper supervision, students could do
L
8 THE NEw JouRNAL
more harm than good. "I remember feeling totally overwhelmed, like I'd been thrown to the wolves," she said. "It's a huge responsibility for a college person involved in a million other things." Kelly's misgivings led her to worry about student discretion. Concerned that a slip-up could further traumatize survivors, as well as jeopardize RCS state certification, Kelly did not allow the Yale counselors to speak to anyone other than RCS supervisors about any facet of their cases. "You've got to be very careful," she said , "or you might make surOCTOBER 16, 1992
vivors think that they can't come to you or trust a counselor's confidentiality." Bound by RCS's strict confidentiality policy, Response never issued public statements, either about individual cases of alleged sexual assault or about general patterns of behavior. Response gave priority to providing help for individual survivors and their loved ones and spent less time on activism. The organization limited its outreach efforts to an annual Rape Awareness Week in April and periodic tabletents. Response's refusal to divulge information brought it into conflict with the Yale administration. Because they had no authority over student counselors' decisions, Yale administrators viewed the group with apprehension. "Response got little support from Dean Trachtenberg," said Norman Kim (TD '93), a former Response member and current Walden counselor. While they valued counselors' commitment to keeping their cases secret, administrators objected to Response's insjstence on withholding basic facts. Despite adminstrators' promises to protect survivors' identities, Response counselors refused to speak with Yale officials about their cases, and the administration claimed that the group's confidentiality policy prevented the university from aiding survivors, either by providing counseling or taking legal action. "We can't act on hearsay," said Betty Trachtenberg, Yale's Dean of Student Affairs. "We need people to come forward. How can we be responsive if we don't jcnow what's going
onr
T
~
he present dearth of sexual assault services on campus does not reflect Yale's past record. In 1986, Yale became one of the original members of the Connecticut Consortium for the Prevention of Sexual Assault on University Campuses, founded by former RCS director Barbara Moynihan. The Consortium, which RCS operated from its New Haven office, quickly expanded to include most colleges in Connecticut. Then-Associate Dean Patricia Pierce became one of the most active college representatives in the Consortium, and spent about 20 percent of her time working on issues of sexual assault. However, because of budget cuts the university chose to eliminate Pierce's position as Dean of Academic Life. Dean Trachtenberg, whose job already included student affairs and freshman life, inherited Pierce's responsibilities. "It was really a big job to add on to Dean Trachtenberg's existing duties," said Pierce, now Dean of Student Affairs at the School of Management. At some universities, health service staff guide effons to address sexual assault as well as care for survivors. Wesleyan's health service employs a medical educator who creates proOcToaÂŁJt 16, 1992
grams for sexual assault prevention, substance abuse, and eating disorders. "One of my first efforts was to create a campus-wide coalition on sexual assault," said Carol Grant, Wesleyan's director of Health Education. Grant brought members of the faculty and administration into a campus coalition on sexual assault and helped form two student groups: one to hold informational talks at residence halls, and another to prepare resident advisors to deal with date rape. Yale's University Health Services (UHS) has no comparable position. Joan Wexler, a social worker on the UHS staff, spoke with this year's freshperson counselors about
The closing ofResponse has thrown the foture ofrape crisis peer counseling at Yale into doubt. how to discuss sexual assault with first-year students. Several counselors expressed dissatisfaction with Wexler's talk, saying she gave the wrong legal definition of rape, neglected to mention basic procedures that survivors who want to prosecute must follow, and gave scant attention to date rape. "Overall, the freshperson counselor preparation was very good," said freshperson counselor Karen Alexander (BK '93). "But the sexual assault talk was the weakest part." RCS has also reduced its support of campus services. As director, Moynihan helped two Yale studen ts found Response. "When I left RCS, things with Response were in place," she said. But when Kelly replaced Moynihan in 1989, she lost the help of an RCS staff member who had previously stayed in touch with the campus. In hindsight, Yale officials question the wisdom of Response's past connection to RCS. "Many of Kelly's concerns were always present," said Dean Pierce. "It may have been a mistake for students to affiliate themselves with an outside group." Because Response counselors answered only to supervisors at RCS, Yale officials remained outside the loop and lost the opportunity to work with students on sexual assault prevention. Without an RCS liaison or specific staff member from UHS's Mental Hygiene department to spearhead the effort, Yale has not yet charted a course for the future of sexual assault services. "We're trying to figure out how concerns can be dealt with," Wexler said. "We have no conclusions yet." Dean Trachtenberg and Lorraine Siggins, chief psychiatrist at UHS, have called for the formation of a committee to establish a new peer counseling group, but have not yet defined the way in which they want the group to function. TH.E
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THE New jouRNAL
"I really don't have any particular agenda in mind," S iggins said. "Obviously we want to get started as soon as possible, but there are issues of organization and training and people getting to know one another." Dean Trachtenberg wants the new group to shift from an exclusive focus on peer counseling to include educational outreach, moving more of the task of providing care to UHS. The dean hopes that student ideas will further shape the new group. "I want to open this committee up to the community," she said. Yet the Dean's office has put out little publicity about a steering committee for the new peer counseling group, and students remain skeptical about the administration's attempts to replace Response. "I think the committee is a step in the right direction," said Schneider. "But I am a little waty that setting up the committee is just another way of avoiding the real issue--which is that rape is becoming a bigger problem on campus." For students, the current confusion raises questions about Yale's commitment. "I chink that generally Yale doesn't see sexual assault as a serious problem," said former Response counselor Kim. Yale's existing services do not seem to inspire student confidence. Last year, no undergraduate pursued a case before the Sexual Assault Grievance Board. And Mental Hygiene is a common target of student complaints. To supplement Mental Hygiene care, students express hope that the peer counseling aspect of Response will be resurrected. "While UHS is equipped to deal with sexual assault, one of the purposes of peer counseling is that you're talking to a peer, not a professional," Kim said. "That can be very therapeutic." But with ties between RCS and Yale severed, Kelly will no longer permit students to train at RCS and counsel at Yale. She instead envisions a
relationship with Yale like the one RCS has with other area campuses, where it trains resident advisers, speaks in classes and dormitories, and meets with administrators. "We will come to Yale," she said, "if Yale wants us."
S
tudents also suggest new directions for the educational efforts of the future group. "I'd like to see a lot more outreach to men," said Alexander. Wesleyan has tried men's outreach through a pamphlet entitled ''Aquaintance Rape: The Facts. Not for Women Only," written by a former undergraduate. Currently, Yale provides no such literature to its students. But the present lack of action on issues of sexual assault at Yale may soon end. While many students criticize the Administration's past record, they also recognize the new group as a positive development. " I think it's too bad there's a gap right now," said one former Response counselor. "But I can see Trachtenberg's group being successful, certainly in terms of providing education to the campus." Student opinions hinge on the question of when and how the new collaboration between students, administration, and UHS will take shape. If university officials want student counselors to channel survivors to Mental Hygiene, UHS must ensure chat it can provide competent and timely care. While most students support the administration's concept for future services, they wonder how it will operate in practice, and fear the void that exists in the meantime. "I am really confident that Dean Trachtenberg is sincere in doing what's best for the students," said fresh person counselor Alexander. "But it will take a long time for Yale to do a responsible job--and I don't know if Yale can afford that . e. " om jacki~
..
Cooperman is a Saybrook Co/kg~.
sophomor~
in
OCTOBER 16, 1992.
A Dubious Distinction josh Civin or the first time in United States history, two Yale University alumni face each other in a battle for the presidency. The election is not only a contest of Republican versus Democrat, but also of Old versus New Blue. While incumbent George Bush (DC '47) will try to break the curse of single-term Yale alum presidencies, Governor Bill Clinton (LAW '73) hopes to introduce a completely new concept to the Oval Office: a Democratic President from Yale. The outcome of the contest will either preserve or destroy the small and exclusive club of presidential Yalies with traditionalist Republican leanings, short terms in office, and monosyllabic names like Taft, Bush, and Ford.
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eighing a portly 225 pounds, William Ho.ward "Big Bill" Taft graduated in 1878. At that ti~e, Yale offered only required courses like Latin and Euclidian geometry. "A few ancient things were studied intensively under tutors," wrote historian George Pierson, "while many modern things were examined briefly and rather superficially under the professors." Yale permeated Taft's life. He had a family well-stocked with alumni, and after his own graduation he went on to serve as a Yale Corporation member and Kent Professor of Law. Whatever his country might have thought of him, Taft could take comfort in the fact that Yale and its alums considered him the university's finest product. "He was immensely popular with his own class and by the time he was a senior, he was the best known and most admired man at Yale," wrote historian David H. Burton. "To know him was to believe in him." Members ofTaft's class even argued about who first gave him political backing. Taft was more an amiable Bonesman and man-aboutcampus than an intense intellectual. Although he earned salutorian honors upon graduation, the future president viewed his school exercises as obstacles to overcome. "Taft stood high," wrote classmate Herbert W Bowen, "but that was because he was a plodder-not because he was bright." In all his pursuits, Taft felt pressure from his overbearOcrosÂŁR 16, 1992
ing fa~her, who filled his son's college days with the anxiety of inadequacy. "You expect great things of me," Taft once wrote to his father. "You mustn't be disappointed if I don't come up to your expectations." At times his frustration exploded into violence. One evening two classmates visited Taft, who asked them to leave him alone to study. When they refused to go, he became dangerously angry and flung books and other objects at the fleeing men. Nevertheless, Taft's diligence inspired classmates, who admired the moral example he set by avoiding liquor, tobacco, and most rowdy social events. Upon graduation, Taft entered the Cincinnati bar, obediently following the path prescribed by his father. His prominent family and Ivy League background ensured a steady progression of political appointments. In a few years he rose from assistant prosecuting attorney in Cincinnati to become the first American Governor General of the Philippines. His energy and zeal caught the eye of President Theodore Roosevelt, who designated Taft as his preferred successor. But Taft never wanted the presidency. His was a judicial rather than a political temperament. As in his course work, Taft viewed each political appointment as another obstacle to the Supreme Court. "I would much prefer to go on the Supreme Bench for life than to run for the presidency," he lamented. "In 20 years of judicial service I could make myself more useful to the country than as president." Although Taft eventually reached his goal, he first blundered through a frustrating term in the Oval Office. "Taft had the ill fortune to be a conservative at a time when the country was consumed by progressivism," said history professor emeritus John Morton Blum. "He was not a mediocre man, merely a mediocre president." Taft's privileged upbringing did not prepare him to tihker with the status quo or accept reforms. Comfortable with a hands-off presidential role, he shied away from the strong executive style of his predecessor Roosevelt. Congress rather than Taft initiated the notable legislation of his Presidential term. eorge "Poppy" Bush came to Yale from patrician Old Blue roots similar to Taft's. Yale counted Bush's great-grandfather, father, and several other relatives among its graduates. The future president deviated only slightly from his family's scholastic path. Instead of
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heading directly to Yale from Andover, Bush e nlisted in the Navy in 1942 . When he finally reached Yale after the war, Bush found its sport jacket and greyflannel conservatism to his liking. H e attended a university that had evolved remarkably little since the days of "Big Bill" Taft. But a few things had changed. Five thousand servicemen entered the university in 1945-the largest class in Yale history. Bush participated in a special program for ex-G is, completing his course of study in two and a half years. Like the rest of the former soldiers, he was obsessed with doing well , getting ahead, and making up for lost time. Bush concentrated less on in tellectual inquiry than on the
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jfied the "vision-free Yale experience." " Poppy," with his Skull and !Bones and varsity baseball credentials, !exuded the same charismatic confi!dence as Taft. "He was one of those !fellows who was sort of a golden boy. jEverything he did, he did well," noted !classmate Senator John C hafee (RlRl). "I guess my first impression of ihim was that he was in the inner set, !one of the movers and shakers." But lin his classes at Yale, Bush never !demonstrated unusual initiative. !" Bush took the curriculum that was !there," Sm ith commented . " There iwas no quest for an overriding sense iof purpose." In contrast to other !Presidential alumni, however, Bush !appeared to have set his sights on the !O val Office. :' !G erald Ford(LAW '4 1) had to i beg his way into Yale. A star football player at the niversity of Michigan , the futu re
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presidenr dreamed of going on to law school. Yet his lack of funds forced him to rake a coaching job at Yale College rather than enrolling in the university. Yale's deans, who did not want to burden Ford with the dual responsibilities of coaching and studying, refused to allow him to enter law school. After several seasons of coaching, Ford convinced them to relent. In a class that included Potter Stewart, Byron Whi re, Sargent Shriver, andCyrus Vance, Ford per-
forma:! solidly. The future president's resi lient determination to get through law school characterized his future political career. He won his first Congressional race with resourceful perseverance, campaigning from one farm in Michigan co the next. Once in Congress, Ford progressed chrougiJ che leadership ranks as easily as Taft and Bush had climbed the government ladder. Still, Ford seldom demonstrated much imagination. "Although I believe that Ford is underestimated, I also think chat he was just an able guy who didn't want to gee beyond a certain level," said Yale Law School Dean Guido Calabresi. " He was just comfortable not being out on a limb too much ." Professor Smith agreed. "Ford was che center on the football team, not the quarterback," he said. "The center helps carry che line through. Ford could work with people of a broad range of views to generate consensus, bur he was noc the executive leader type." No one, especially Ford himself, ever considered him presidential material. Unlike Bush and Taft, Ford was a OcroeeR 16, 199:1.
self-made man who originally had no elite family connections to ensure his success. Yec no matter what road these three men took co prominence, they all rode into the Oval Office on the coattails of predecessors who were impressed by their steady and workmanlike dependability. Taft, a loyal 'trouble-shooter under Roosevelt, attracted that presidenr's eye and later his endorsement. George Bush wooed moderates to the Reagan ticket while tailoring his policical views to those of his running mate. And Ford joined Nixon to shore up his floundering admi nistration at a time when Watergate threatened the president's future. Political science professor Sceve Skowroneck suggests that the same men who brought these Yale alums to power doomed them. Roosevelt, disgusted by Taft's inertia, ran against him on the Bull Moose ticket in 1912. Ronald Reagan's fatherly persona and immense popularity boosted Bush into office, but the vice-president never attracted a sim ilar following. And tainted memories of Nixon haunted Ford from the time he pardoned the ex-leader until Jimmy Carter defeated him in 1976. No matter what the result, Nov. 3 p romises to change che history ofYale p residencies. If George Bush wins the election, he will become the first ever Yale president to capture a second term in office. And if Bill Clinton succeeds in his bid for the presidency, he will be the first alumnus of the post1960 "New Blue" university to occupy the Oval Office. Wichouc the shadow of a strong president to hang over him, Yale's first Democratic p resident could break with several of the less illustrious precedents set by Taft, Bush, and Ford. 1&11
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Easing the ·Pain Erika Fortgang en Anne Graham was dying of cancer, she didn't want to burden her family and friends with the onstant care that she required. Her doctor told her about Connecticut Hospice, a program that provides services for the terminally ill. Graham thought the idea verged on the morbid. "Some people are just attracted to tragedy," she said. But when she called a volunteer, she found that the woman had once been ill herself and had hated being dependent on others. The woman brought Graham medications and did errands, freeing Graham's family to spend more time with her. Over the years, thousands of people have turned to Connecticut Hospice. Founded in 1974, the non-profit organization specializes in anticipating and treating the needs of the terminally ill. While its focus appears unconventional to some, Hospice staff and volunteers believe that dying people and their families have unique needs that merit special care.
Community leaders, hospital administrators, and physicians throughout the state praise Connecticut Hospice for not only providing superior medical care, but also for coordinating the services of physicians, nurses, volunteers, and agencies such as AIDS Project Mew Haven and the State Welfare Department. The organization provides home care to over 1,000 patients each year, regardless of their ability to pay, and operates a 52-bed hospital in Branford. Connecticut Hospice, ranked among the top five percent of health care providers in the United States, has become a leader in the movement to personalize health care, matching advanced medical techniques with individual attention. "Hospitals would be well-advised to study the pain control methods used by Hospice," said Dr. Robert H. Gifford, Associat~ Dean at the Yale School of Medicine. Connecticut Hospice specializes in palliative caresymptom management and the alleviation of pain . Patients who have more than six months to live, or who want to seek curative treatment, are not eligible for the program. "I understand why Hospice has to limit their services," said Dr. Margaret Drickamer, Associate Chief of Staff for Geriatrics and Extended Care at the West Haven Veteran's Administrat ion Hospital. "If they tried to do all sorts of other care as well, they would use Hospiu "cmtly hono"d U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro for her support on health care issues. From left: U.S. up their resources Sm. Jay Rockefeller (D- WV), Hospice President Rosemary johnson-Hurzeler, DeLauro. on ten patients."
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said Peter Kuritt, Director of Pastoral Care. After careful screening by Hospice, volunteers enter a seven-week orientation program in which they learn about bathing, feeding, and dental hygiene in order to assist the homecare nurses. "I've done everything from taking people on walks to making soup," said volunteer William Farrell, New Haven's retired chief of Hospic~ volunu~r joan Robbins h~lps a home care patient cut rous in his garden. police. Hospice has also created Patients turn to Hospice when they have exhausted possia network of artists and writers who encourage self-expression bilities for a cure. "A lot of times the patient tells you that they and creativity in patients. A metalsmith helped a die cutter don't want any more high-power invasive procedures," said craft two swan pendants for his daughters. Yale writing Dr. Fitzhugh Pannill, assistant professor at the Yale School of instructor Donald Faulkner, a former Hospice staff member, Medicine. Hospitals, concerned with fighting disease, often engaged patients with srories and poems. "I have come to recmake pain management and family input lower priorities. ognize the value of the story that each individual has to tell, Hospice tries to offer an alternative tailored to the desires of and of the deep value of memory as a cohesive process that lends . itself to the transcendence of pain," he wrote in the patient. Palliative care, however, has met with criticism from medC"ativity and th~ Clcs~ ofLife, a Hospice publication. Hospice concerns itself with the needs of the individual, ical professionals, who feel that Hospice over-prescribes narrather than the disease to resist a 'professionalization' of death. cotics. Hospice workers argue that if a patient is at the last stage of a disease, fear of addiction has less relevance. The "In a situation like Hospice's, where staff interactions are so organization's pharmacists specialize in preparing medications tightly-knit and family input is actively sought, patients receive better care," said Lynn Hallarman, a student at the Yale School to maintain a high level of alertness in the patient. "Our goal is to improve life in the short term," said Dr. Fred Flatow, a of Medicine who spent a rotation at the in-patient facility in Hospice physician. Hospice has received hundreds of letters Branford. The hospital assigns each nurse to only three patients so that he or she can provide emotional support as well as medfrom grateful families, who say that the expert alleviation of pain gave them important moments with their ill relatives. ical care. "You have to be ready to do this kind of nursing," said Kathy Miller, Head Nurse at the in-patient facility. "However, the nurses here really support each other. The high ratio of ospice patients stay at home with their families, while doctors, nurses, social workers, and volunteers help nurses to patients makes the work very satisfying." Through its network of support services, Hospice offers a the household to anticipate the needs of the patient. "Every week there's something new that's lost, like her being unique, inclusive approach to health care. Dr. Gifford believes able to hold a coffee cup by herself," said the husband of one that families have popularized the program because it fills a gap Hospice patient. "It makes you wonder what's going to hap- within health care and community service. "Hospice wouldn't pen next." After a patient dies, Hospice stays in contact with exist," he said, "if families didn't want it." Patients claim that Hospice helps them to maintain their his or her family for at least a year. "The emotional support that the families receive is enormously effective for the sur- dignity. "Before they come, most people consider the Hospice vivors," said Rosemary Johnson-Hunder, CEO and President facility as a waiting room for death. I know I did," said a curof Connecticut Hospice. "They can get back to life and pick rent patient. "That is not its primary function. Hospice has made me stronger, taken away my pain, and helped me make up the pieces." my own decisions." Ill) Connecticut Hospice relies heavily upon 400 trained volunteers, 50 of whom work in the greater New Haven area. Although the program offers spiritual support through a net- Ann~ Graham is a psrodonym. work of clergy, Connecticut Hospice has no religious affiliation. "Proselytizers are gently dissuaded from volunteering," Erika Fortgang is a senior in Branford College.
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OCTOBER 16, 1991
THE NEW jOURNAL
15
A Gentlemen's Game? Emily Bazelon ak's tru~ task is to uach its mm to drink, "tkc/am an associau proftssor and Tangjudg~ m 1952. With a churfrom th~ crowd, h~ points a gun to th~ sky. "Lath~ raa b~gin. " ( ( y
When Tang drinkers kneel at the table in the backyard of the Delta Kappa Epsilon (DKE) fraternity, they become part of a Yale tradition that refuses to die. Yale's campus today bears little resemblance to the all-male bastion of oldtime prep schoolers who created the drinking competition. But to the delight of some of today's (supposedly) more sophisticated students, Tang sloshes on. According to myth, Air Force soldiers in T imothy Dwight and Silliman Colleges began the drinking duel in 1940. The first record ofTang dates from 1951, when 10 men from the TO "Prexies" and the Silliman "'Manders" downed 40 glasses of beer in two rounds and attracted overflow crowds to the back of one of their college courtyards during Derby Day, then Yale's annual end-of-the-year extravaganza. The competition has since developed a detailed set of rules, expanded to include all the residential colleges, survived a university ban by moving from Cross Campus to DKE, and adjusted to coeducation by including women in 1988. What began as a lark turned first into a popular event on Cross Campus and then into Yale's biggest frat party, featuring die-hard competition and live entertainment. Scheduled for the first Saturday of reading period, Tang absorbs the wave of spring fever that hits the campus as classes end. DKE claims that between 20 and 25 percent of Yale undergraduates show up during the day to drink about 85 kegs of Milwaukee's best. The crowds also come to cut loose. "People here are so uptight and wound up, they forget how to have fun," said Gretchen O'Neal OE '94). "If drinking is the only way to break down those barriers, then maybe we should do it more often." ~calr and riffi from th~ B~av~r Brown Band b/ar~ from th~ cmur of Cross Campus in 1980. Hands cupp~d around thrir g/asus, th~ uams ry~ ~ach othn- across a low tabk, 10 on ~ach sitk. As th~ first drinltn-s bang th~ir glasm down on th~ tabk, th~ no:t compnitors tilt th~ir h~ads back and pour b~n- down th~ir throats. 16
THE NEW jOURNAL
In the 70s, Tang's popularity led the university's Social Activities Committee (SAC) to sponsor pre-race practices. The competition expanded to include t~ams from all the residential colleges and moved to Yale's most spacious and central location: Cross Campus. In those glory days, Tang featured live bands, 100 kegs of free beer from the Miller Brewing Company, and the tacit support of the administration. But in 1983, the Connecticut legislature raised the
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drinking age from 19 to 20, and President A. Bartlett Giamatti pressed the Council of Masters to cut the tap. When the council prohibited the use of SAC funds and banned the race ftom the Yale campus, Tang's future seemed doomed. DKE, then Yale's only fraternity, stepped into the breach. Tang moved off-campus to the frat house, where it . has remained in residence ever since. Team members chip in $10 each to cover the cost of practice beer, but DKE pays for the parry and runs the show. "It's a lot of work, but we OCTOBER 16, 1992.
• like doing ic," said Dave Holland (ES '93), who managed the evem lase year. DKE has made Tang the centerpiece of Wooly Goat Weekend, which also includes keg suck, an endless round of pre and aft:er parties, and, of course, a live goat. Some students look back wistfully to the days when Miller kegs got delivered to the center of campus. "I chink it's coo bad chat Tang's held at DKE," said team captain Gretchen Stockmayer (SM '93). "I know that there's no
t-shirts, climb onto th~ stag~ ut up in DKE's backyard. As th~ womm brau th~mulvu at th~ tabk, a judg~ bangs a pitch~r onto th~ tabk and bur skJsh~s onto th~ir cwth~s. Instant w~t tshirt conust. In 1988, DKE nodded to equal opportunity and added a women's competition. "We started women's Tang to be the P. C. DKE that everyone knows and loves," said Jim Langford (BR '94). In the past four years, the number of colleges with women's teams has gone from six to eleven. ~ Women who Tang say they draw strength from team ~ togetherness. "A big part of it, for me," said Stockmayer, "is ~ the female bonding." ~ Women competitors see themselves as pioneers pushing ] the boundaries of traditional gender roles. "The idea chat ~ Tang is a place where women don't belong pisses me off 'G and makes me wane to get in there," said Stockmayer. "I ] have the same right co do a stupid thing that I think is
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~ But some male Tangers chink chat the women are fool{ ing themselves. "Women's Tang started to make things equal, and because there were some good women drinkers, but it's not the same serious tradition," said Adam Shaw (MC '93). He believes chat most men watch the women for the spectacle, not their drinking prowess. "Guys are more of the audience, and they won't remember which women's team won. People are imo women's Tang more for the entertainment chan the competition." Th~
nat uams turn from th~ tabk to [au th~ crowd. To th~ Piau I Lov~. ,. thry wiggk out ofth~ir rob~s and stand in th~tr und~rw~ar, rro~a/ing broad baclts tatoo~d with th~ir co/kg~ logos. "Niu butt, • y~tis a fan. tun~ of "Tak~ M~ to th~
way, with laws and image the way they are, chat the university could allow it to happen on Cross Campus. But it would be nicer. We wouldn't have to kneel in sloppy beer mud." Today's administrators have no plans to lift the ban imposed by Giamatti. Indeed, the very thought of the evem makes them bristle. "I think chat Tang is disgusting," said Betty Trachtenberg, Yale's Dean of Studem Affairs.
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0croBER 16, 1991
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Tang teams have always looked for clever ways to strut their scuff. Once in the days of old, TO entered on the shoulders of toga-dad freshmen, while "slave girls" fed them grapes and trumpets heralded the entrance of the caravan. Not co be outdone, Silliman sec up an outhouse over a manhole in their college courtyard. Team members dressed in black tie climbed up from the manhole and exited one by one from che outhouse onto the field as an emcee announced their names over a loudspeaker. In the '80s, some men's and women's teams started to THE NEW JouRNAL 17
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use body paint, team uniforms, and strip teases to add to their a llure. . When watching the race becomes tedious, the crowd can ogle the team with the craziest style. " I guess the actual competition isn't that in teresting," said Raoul Bustillo QE '93). All the hoopla has an added benefit: in the women's competition, what you don't wear can help your score. "Sometimes the judges start the watches later because a team wears risque outfits or is good-looking," said one female Tanger, who declined to be identified. "The whole reason we took off our shirts was that we thought we'd get points for it," said another woman. "Th e DKE brothers were telling us that the more clothes we took off, the better we'd do." H ollarid dismisses the accusation th at judges favor women in bras. "A judge wo u ld never tell someone to · take their clothes off," he said. "That's just some DKE brother joking who people took too seriously." Not everyone b uys DKE reassurances. "With the women, of course the hotter team might have the edge." said Shaw. "What do you expect? They're frat boys." For some women, the attitud e of some jud ges and spectators comes as an unexpected blow. "Regardless of how good our team felt going into it, when we got there we were h it with th is attitude of men gawking at women, and it's not right," said O'Neal. "It's almost like the team with the biggest set has the advantage." In the playoffi, the bleary-eyed competitors hoist themselves onto the stage with difficulty. Two drinkers fail to finish their glasses to the last drop, and two more spill beer Mwn their chins. A judge who wears a wet suit comes over to make a penalty call When he adds the one and two second penalties onto the drinking times, the judge declares the team that apparently finished last the winner. A shouting match follows, full pitchers fly, OCTOBER 16, 1992
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~ hadn't joined the In 1962, the f.,:; team," said TO team created a Jennifer Groeber set of rules for Tang • ~ (DC '93) in reaction to ~ As the big Silliman's sloppy i day draws near, C>. • h eats up, performance the practtce year before. The and some teams captains agreed on meet four or five penalties for minor times during the and gross spills, last week, no holds leaving beer in the barred. "In Morse, glass, and fa lse 12 guys go starts. "We're tired through a keg in of seeing them toss an hour," said beer over their team captain shoulders," said Shaw. "Usually captain Pete Gale guys throw up two (TO '62). "What or three times in we're interested in that many hours. is a test of skill and We're famous for a gentlemen's game, what we call the 'booting window' and this year we've -......-. in the basement got some rules to make sure it stays "Timothy Dwight .Praies outguzzk SiUiman 'Mandns"-Yak Daily Nnus, 1952. room that we use that way." to practice in." Today the same rules apply, with a th~ bur-slop mud cr~aud by spi//~d Tang captains claim that team few refinements: a standard measur~ pitch~rs and many pairs offut. Thq members who drink themselves into for the amount of beer left undrunk paus~ to m~ditau: a ritual sanctifi~d by oblivion do so of their own free will. (the bottle cap) and a five-second a y~ar's worth ofpractiu. Th~ mommt " If there's peer pressure, it's because you feel you're part of something and penalty for cheating. Complaints com~s to an ~nd wh~n on~ m~mb~r about fairness and foul play still slumps ov" and almost falls offth~ tabk. everyone's there and you want to do abound. According to DKE brothers, your best," said Stockmayer. At some Tang judges make some of the toughSome Tang teams tap their first keg practices, members who dorrt w'ant to in the initial weeks of the school year. In drink chug water instead of beer. And est umpire calls outside of professional sports and must be well-seasoned to most colleges, practice sessions often turn a high level of alcohol consumption into parties. Regulars see Tang as the doesn't promise victory. The stay on top of the job. "We train a couple of young brothers each year, so excuse that students need to let go. "It's Davenport women, last year's winners, there are always people with experihard for Yale students just to be social practiced with water and didn't start sometimes," said O'Neal. "Tang practice meeting until the last two weeks of ence at the table," said Holland. classes. Tang organizers chalk up most of is an organized framework, so people fed At practice, veterans coach budbetter about spending time on it." the accusations about unfair calls to ding young talent in the technique of the special mixture of victory-driven Many Tangers point to the social benefits of hanging out with fellow ream- the open throat that is key to speed and beer-befuddled competitors that the event produces. "When people members-people they might not other- drinking. "Chugging beer is really a have been drinking all day and practic- wise have known. Frosh meet older stu- mental thing," said Holland. "You ing all year, they're going to be frusdents and different parts of the college have to force your body to do sometrated and mad if they lose," Holland community come together, all in the thing it's not supposed to." name of Tang. "The best thing about To conquer the gag reflex, individsaid. Tang was that I met a group of senior uals lean on the support of the group. For th~ finals, two luclty uams knul in women who I wouldn't have had a way "Tang is more than drinking, it's deep
l
OCTOBER 16, 1992
THE NEw JouRNAL
19
bonding," said Shaw. "It's important to get together a bunch of guys who care. " Rumors fly about teams who bond by mixing their beer with each other's bodily fluids. Even if such tales are exaggerated, most competitors make Tang practice a priority. "People must be taking Tang pretty seriously," said Darren Grow OE '93), "if all year they're saying 'No, I can't do my homework tonight, I have to get shitfaced."'
More and more students crowd into the yard to watch the final rounds. The frat house and port-a-potties can't absorb the rush for toilets, and when the urge hits, some stutknts stumble into the comer of the yard. Their work done, they zip their flies or wipe their mouths and go back for another beer. A cop car slows down as it approaches the house, and then drives on.
Seychelles 1020 Chopel Street, New Hoven lOom t;l8pm mondo., - sotu.dolf sundo., noon to 5pm 2031498-2700 20 THE NEw JouRNAl.
The Yale and New Haven police handle Tang like other frat events: with caution. Yet they have never broken up Tang by enforcing underage drinking laws. DKE brothers say that for the last few years they have received threats from the police about Tang weekend. But most of the tension arises over keg suck, which takes place at a secret location at the intramural playing fields each year, rather than Tang. The DKE house seems to lie outside the boundaries of police action. "I think the police mostly play it by ear," said Bustillo. "They keep an eye on us, but they tend to assume that Yale students are responsible drinkers. I think it's true of drinking in general here that there's a lot of trust on the part of the police." To DKE brothers, the lack of interference on the part of Yale's administration and police is welcome, if puzzling. Although Tang takes place off-campus, the university could still step in because the participants are
students. Yale's willingness to turn a blind eye especially surprises DKE brothers because they feel that their fraternity gets a bad rap from the university. "Let's put it this way: If Dean Trachtenberg wanted to rush, she wouldn't choose DKE," said Grow. "I don't know why she doesn't do anything about Tang." Yale's administratotS hope every year to hear Tang's death knell. "That a frat has seen fit to take it over signals to me that it's a tradition whose time has come and gone," said Dean Trachtenberg. "Most students care about more important ways to express themselves." ¡ To Trachtenberg, the participation of women in the down and dirty frenzy only adds to Tang's utter lack of charm. "For women to feel that they have to prove themselves by taking part in that kind of traditionally male macho behavior is a violation and denial of the inherent strengths that women have," she said. Some students try to play down the competition's seamier side. "You can see Tang as a meat market that glorifies drinking, but it's also other things," said Davenport's Groeber. "We're doing something silly, but we're also competing for our college." Although Tang is not for everyone, its fans always show up, either to show off or to watch the show. Despite the social changes of the last four decades, the beer continues to flow, leaving naked, screaming, and most of all drunken students in its wake.
At the day's end, a ftw stragglers sit propped against the DKE house, too sick to Leave. Their faces and clothes are streaked with mud. The goat comes wer to sniffthem, and then wanders off to check out the more appealing mud in the g comer ofthe yard. Emily Bazeion, a senior in Pierson College, is managing editor of TNJ. OCTOBER 16, 1992
Family Feuds Charlotte Brooks
~
Hillary Clinton strode to the microphone ac a che city. We have a good organization." recent rally on the New Haven Green, prominent Local Republicans agree. "Not only does the machine ocal Democrats flanked her on every side. Smiling, exist, but it also dominates," sai d Republican Town waving, and looking for all che world like an Osmond family snapshot, che politicos attempted co conceal the factionalism that divides their party and the city it dominates. But only the Secret Servicemen were fooled . To jaded residents of the Elm City, the demonstration of Democratic unity constituted just another humorous scene in the complicated comedy of New Haven politics. Once upon a time the Democrats were a much happier family. A post-World War II coalition of Irish party hacks and newly-recruited Italian-Americans pushed the Democratic ticket of Richard Lee into the mayor's office in 1953, ending years of Republican domination of City Hall. The new regime sti fled dissent within party ranks and awarded perks to loyal workers. Backed by his organization, Lee went on to win another seven terms, using his connections and doling out favors to loyal henchmen along the way. The well-oiled Democratic machine ran New Haven from 1953 to 1977, when A lderman Frank Logue challenged the entrenched powers of his own party and captured the mayor's office. In 1979, hoV\oever, Biagio DiLieto took City Hall back for the machine. Despite such shifts, the office has remained firmly in Democratic hands ever since 1953. Younger city voters tend to shudder at the term, but many old-time New Haven politicians insist that the machine has played a positive role in the city over the last 40 years. "A per- Local politicos flanked Hillary Clinton at a recent rally on the Green. son will call it a machine if he asks for something and doesn't get it. If he asks for something and gets it, Committee member Mark Chenoweth (BK '95). " I he then calls it an organization," said Arthur Barbieri, who wouldn't suggest election-rigging, but I think that the has been Democratic Town Committee Chairman since machine does everything short of it. The Democrats control 1953. "The organization is just the leaders of all sections of all of the places that give out permits for businesses and 0crOBBR 16, 1992.
THE NEW jOURNAL 21
things like that. There has to be some arm-twisting happening." In the past, New Haven's "organization" rewarded loyal followers with public works jobs funded by govern-
((There are a lot of working-class white people there who feel the Democratic party is too black now. " ment money. But today, the scarcity of city dollars has crippled the machine's power to deliver. In fact, younger New Haven Democrats argue that Barbieri's beloved "organization" is only a memory. "The reality is that there is no machine," said Alderman Michael Morand (D-1). "Today, New Haven politics are based on individual candidates. Barbieri is a symbol of what has been, and while that's important to a lot of people, it's also the past." Without an omnipotent party to steer the city's course, the checks and balances of New Haven's "system" have hampered political action in recent years. Despite its small size, New Haven is broken up into 30 wards, each represented by an elected alderman. Together, these representatives form the Board of Aldermen: a legislative body that has veto power over the mayor's budget, the allocation of federal grants, and some appointments to the boards that control various departments of the city. However, the mayor does not need an aldermanic seal of approval for his choices of police commissioner and members of the influential boards of finance and education. The competing interests of aldermen, boards, the mayor, and other groups often stymie the decision-making process. "If I had my choice, I'd 22 THE NEw JouRNAL
probably reduce the size of the Board of Alders from 30 to 18," said Morand. "While it's important that parochial interests not be sacrificed, the system often leads to gridlock." Parochial battles not only occur between parties, but within them as well. "The Democratic Town Committee meetings drag on because there are a lot of factions," said committee member Janna Wagner (JE '95). "Everyone wants to speak, which is good, but we never resolve the questions we first addressed." Old members of the Democratic Party acknowledge that they can no longer keep disagreements private and internal. For instance, Town Chairman Barbieri endorsed John Daniels' primary opponent John DeStefano in the 1989 mayoral contest, and other older party members deserted Daniels when he stood for reelection in 1991. Nothing has arisen to take the place of the old Democratic monolith. "Mayor Daniels is a product of the old machine," said Paul Bass OE '82), editor of the New Haven Advocate. "But when he ran against it in 1989, he never really built an organization of his own." Bass cites the growth of "minimachines" as the wave of the future. "Wendell Harp is really the power behind the scenes in the black community," he said. "He has his own kind of machine and people depend on him, while Arthur Barbieri is still the head of the remnants of the old Italian machine." Despite the existence of such factions within the party, drawing clear lines based on race, ethnicity, or class had become impossible in New Haven politics. The Advocate recently ran an article claiming that local businessman Harp, angered at the independence of ex-crony and State Senator Chuck Allen (D-1 0), pushed his wife Toni Harp to announce her candidacy for Allen's office. Regardless of what actu-
ally inspired Harp to throw her hat into the ring, she split the AfricanAmerican vote and carried off the party's endorsement. Factionalism divides the party rank and file as well as insiders. Indeed, the city's Democratic party has suffered from the same defections that have cost its national counterpart the past three presidentiaJ elections. "There are a good chunk of Democrats in this city who are what you'd call 'conservative' Democrats," said Andy Siegel (TC '93), chairman of the Democratic Coordinated Campaign at Yale. "They have no qualms about opposing local Democratic candidates. For instance, there are five Republicans on the Board oÂŁ Alders now, which is a substantial increase from four years ago." The Elm City's GOP minority has taken advantage of the rise in conservatism. "Th~ Republicans have a great deal of support on the East Shore, and Fair Haven Heights is also turning a
Younger New Haven Democrats argue that Barbieri's beloved ((organization" is only a memory. lot more Republican," said Bass. "There are a lot of working-class white people there who feel the Democratic party is too black now." Republican leaders see the swing to the right as a ballot-box rebellion against the overarching control of the Democratic party rather than as a racial issue. "People don't want to register Republican because they know that the Democrats rule everything. It's not smart to declare yourself their enemy," said Republican Town OcroBER 16, 1992
Committee Chairman Ralph Marcarelli. "But obviously a lot of people are not loyal Democrats. If you count all the Republicans and unaffiliated voters in New Haven, that number would still not account for the 44 percent of the vote we won in the 1991 mayoral election." Indeed, Alderman Jonathan Einhorn's (R-25) close loss to Daniels in the 1991 race inspired more hope than disappointment. Bass and others believe that Republican leaders are trying to convince former State Senator John Esposito to run for mayor in 1993. His popularity and high name recognition may give his party a good chance of recapturing the mayor's office for the first time in 40 years. in 1991, Yale's tax-exempt tatus might again become one f the most heated issues of the next mayoral race. As the city's larges-t landowner and second-largest employer, Yale is a key player in the city's political game. Almost all of Yale's-. properties are tax-exempt, angering, local leaders strapped for cash. But Yale's substantial political influence has enabled the university to control much of the debate surrounding the taxability of its property. "The university has used its clout both locally and nationally to prevent a serious examination of whether it has the responsibility to pay taxes or not," said Bass. "One of the reasons that New Haven is so poor is that Yale has all of this non-taxable property." More than a few local politicians in both parties hope to pull the rug out from under Yale tax-free status. In the late 1980s, New Haven-based state representatives Pauicia Dillon (D-92) and Martin Looney (D-96) introduced a bill that would have removed many of Yale's tax privileges from the State constitution. ¡But Daniels opposed the bill and helped persuade the legislature to kill it. He then suuck
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his own deal with Yale. In exchange for allowing the university to buy the rights-of-way on parts of High and Wall Streets, Yale agreed to pay taxes on its golf course and to ante up for city-provided fire services. A fiery ratification battle ensued at the Board of Aldermen, and while Daniels won, the Yale agreement became a major election issue in 1991. Although the "tax Yale" issue and the battle between Harp and Allen indicate the extent of disagreement within the Democratic Party of New Haven, the group appears somewhat more united when supporting officials on the national level. Indeed, the ability of candidates like U.S. Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) to unite the city's various groups is nothing short of amazing. "She's managed to stay above the party warfare within the city," said Morand. "At the same time, many people feel that she should do more to bring the local party together." For the time being, factions within New Haven's ruling Democratic party have set aside their own petty interests for the sake of candidates like DeLauro and presidential hopeful Bill Clinton (LAW '73). Still, the postelection period promises a return to divisive politics as usual. But to the chagrin of the city's Republicans, the fractured Democrats still manage to maintain their electoral advantage in New Haven. "The genius of the Democratic Party here in New Haven is that, despite the factions, they ultimately come together by always keeping their eye on the ball, which is power and money," said Marcarelli. "They're not what you'd call a principled party. But I'm certain that if the Republicans had controlled the city and its money for 40 years, we'd have turned out the same." ..,.
Charlotu Brooks, a senior in Pi~rson Co/kg~. is managing ~ditor oJTNJ.
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The King of Chapel Street Cheryl Sheinkopf he built his high-profile business empire. His career began at the Harvard Business School with a pizza chain called Your Father's Moustache, branched out into such ventures as Connecticut Limousine and Grey Line Tran~rtation of New York, and peaked during the 80s with the rise of Schiavone Realty and Development Corporation of New Haven (SRDC), which owns much of the property along Chapel Street. Schiavone combines business acumen with his own unique style. He has camped out on the roof of the Coliseum to promote the New Haven Nighthawks, played banjo in The Galvanized Jazz Band, posed nude for his Yale 25th reunion book, and launched a campy gubernatorial campaign. At one event, he mounted a live elephant and proudly rode the Republican party mascot down Chapel, the street that symbolizes his success. "You need an ounce of flamboyance to move revenues," he said, linking his shenanigans back to business. Lately, however, Schiavone's style has not brought him success. His realty company faces serious financial difficulties, and Schiavone recently lost his New Haven landmark, the Taft Apartments, to Mutual of New York. The bank completed the foreclosure in September, three months after Schiavone's $7.5 million mortgage payment came due. At least one former tenant has accused him of bad business practices, and Schiavon~ has drawn Local 74's ir~ for mzploying non-union stag~ cr~s at his Palac~ Th~att!r. Schiavone is also waging war against a local union. he said. "The city needs low-scale restoration. That means Schiavone claims that his business difficulties result from the expiration of tax programs that helped his company neighborhood restoration." The Chapel Street district, which Schiavone renovated, embodies his hopes for New mushroom during the 80s. For years, Schiavone relied on phase-ins, the incremental taX payment plan that helped busiHaven. On a short walk through the slick and safe urban neighborhood, New Haveners can shop, go to a show at the nesses get off the ground by allowing them to pay gradually higher tax rates over a five year period. The city has recendy Palace or Shubert theaters, and have a bite to eat at any of a discontinued the program for Schiavone's properties. dozen restaurants. Schiavone became a New Haven neighborhood icon as Schiavone's critics claim that although he blames the
th its dilapidated buildings and closed storefronts, New Haven begs for the Midas touch. Developer Joel Schiavone (BR '58) thinks he's the man for the job, but no one seems to be listening. "I've been working 15 years on my vision of New Haven," said Schiavone. "I have spent $10 million on neighborhood revitalization and never made one penny back." In the past, Schiavone could afford to run his business on a vision. Now, as the city reels from the recession, his vision is crumbling before his eyes. Schiavone blames the city for his woes. Meanwhile, his critics wonder whether he wants to help the people of New Haven or just himself. When Schiavone talks about improving New Haven, he talks about neighborhoods. "New Haven is the only walkable, pedestrian-sized city in the state of Connecticut,"
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OCTOBER 16, 1992
city's tax policies for his financial misfortunes, his own mis- said. "He thinks he should own New Haven. He's a man management is the true culprit. He has often referred to his who would be king." In defense of his decision to lock out Local 74, real estate business as a hobby. When Schiavone ran for governor of Connecticut in 1990, SRDC t9ok the back seat to Schiavone asserts that the Palace Theatre cannot afford his unsuccessful political campaign. He spent $1.1 million . union labor. He said that the negotiating process has been of his own money to pay for gimmicks like the circus parade going on for over 15 years with little progress. Schiavone on Chapel Street. Still, Schiavone defends his political aspi- attributed the lack of headway to the union's refusal to rations as a means to bring change to the city he says he lower its rates and to Mangini's huffy behavior. "The guy is acting like a 1930s labor boss," he said. Schiavone added loves. But some say that Schiavone's actions do not back up that he would hire non-union New Haveners if he could his professed devotion to New Haven. Although he lives in have found a qualified non-union stage crew in the area, but the Taft Apartments, works on Chapel Street, and often eats since none existed, he had to go elsewhere. lunch at Spanky's, a local diner, some think his behavior masks less friendly intentions. Speaking from personal expelthough he sits atop a crumbling empire, Schiavone finds time to rail against the city. The proposed rience, they assert that Schiavone cares more about profits Taubmen shopping mall, ~ pet project of Mayor than people. Both Shalom Lemel, owner of Taft Cosmetics, and Ed Mangini, President of Union Local 74, view the John Daniels, particularly incenses him. Schiavone believes development tycoon's business practices as anything but that the interest alone on the city money needed to build neighborly. the mall would pay for him to restore the area from Wooster Square all the way up to St. Raphaels Hospital. "New ' emel relocated his store from the corner of College Haven needs revitalization through lower taxes for city and Chapel Streets to Whitney Avenue as a result of a neighborhoods," he said, "not revenues from tax increases fallout with Schiavone. Th_e Gap, a nationwide which are funneled into city projects." clothing chain, has taken over the space that the drug store The Daniels administration has a different vision for occupied for decades. Lemel finds the new tenant a strange city development. The mall, a longtime Daniels dream, will choice for someone who touts the importance of neighbor- cover 20 acres, spanning Route 34 on a transfer platform hoods. "My store was a social spot where everyone could go and incorporating land south of the highway. City officials to get their pharmacy goods or just get a Coke," he said. estimate that it will generate approximately $5 million a Lemel believes that Schiavone wanted him out and raised year for government coffers and create 4,000 jobs. Tony Bialecki, Economic Development Officer for the City of the rent so that he could not afford to stay. Schiavone ,disputes the charge, claiming that he wanted New Haven, argues that without the mall, New Haven faces Lemel to renew his lease, but could not afford to settle for fiscal doom. The city's already-faltering downtown retail the low rent Lemel asked. Lemel refused to pay any more district will soon have to compete with the new Ha~Y!den than $12 a foot, which Schiavone says is below the going Court mall. The mall will draw customers from New Haven rate for that property. "That guy," said Schiavone, "is the and surrounding cities and could put Chapel Square MaJl and swank upper Chapel Street out of business. biggest pain in the ass I've ever dealt with." Because New Haven must raise taxes to pay for the new Lemel is not the only sore spot in Schiavone's life these days. For several weeks, Local 7 4 has picketed his Palace mall, Schiavone thinks the city's plan will ultimately destroy Theater since Schiavone locked them out when union nego- his development business. With his Chapel Street properties tiations broke down in late September. The Local 7 4 stage already in trouble, he cannot afford to take many more losscrew is now out of work because Schiavone has hired cheap- es. But despite his economic woes and the harsh words of er, non-union labor from Poughkeepsie, New York. his detractors, he still boasts about his accomplishments on Mangini, president of Local 74, questions why a commited Chapel Street. "Now it looks like I will lose my $10 milneighborhood advocate would deprive New Haveners of lion," Schiavone said. "But the work I've done here, I jobs. "If this is the city he loves, has invested in, and taken think, will last a long time." 11111 to heart, then what he seems to be doing is taking the people of New Haven, slapping them across the face and saying 'to hell with you, I gotta get what I gotta get,'" Mangini Chuyl Sheinkopfis a ju"nior in jonathan Edwards Colkge.
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Bm Murray (DC '95) tkforr~d colkge to travel th~ East Coast.
On The Road David Gerber
T
wo months after high school graduation, Ben Murray (DC '95) was about to embark on the next major stage of his life. Not one to prolong goodbyes, he assured his parents that they had nothing to fear and walked out the door. He marched to the end of his driveway and turned left. Any similarities between Murray and other Yale-bound students ended there. Instead of heading for Yale, Murray continued walking until he had covered almost 15 mile.s, and he did the same thing every day for the next two weeks. All told, Murray wandered along the east coast for six months, going as far south as the Everglades and travelling by train, foot, ferry, bus, canoe, and thumbed rides. Along the way he supported himself with whatever work he could find, including a job making pizzas and a three-week stint at a Kentucky Fried Chicken in Daytona Beach. He befriended a 36-year-old ex-con and his pregnant wife, a hippie botanist, and a woman who let Murray stay with her and her family if he promised not to kill her. Though Murray rarely knew his itinerary for more than a day in advance, the trip itself resulted from months of planning. Since the beginning of his junior year, Murray had been contemplating an alternative to the standard high school-college progression. "I wanted to see stuff that I hadn't seen, and I wanted to do it on my own," he said. "I wanted to be self-sufficient on the bare minimum level. The trip was a confirmation of myself." :z.6
THE. NE.W' jOURNAL
From the earliest stages of arranging his year off, Murray encountered opposition to his idea. Yet he remained determined. When his parents' apprehension crescendoed into a threat not to pay his tuition if he meandered for a year, Murray retorted, "Then maybe I'm taking the year off and not going to college afterward." He was even willing to forego Yale's offer if the university did not approve of his plans. Murray had no reason for concern: ÂĽale has never refused a deferment request. Indeed, the university looks quite favorably on the option, known as "postponed matriculation" in admissions lingo. "I thin~t's a great idea, and I wish many more students would do it," said Yale Director of Admissions Margie Dahl. "The extra year of maturity and life experience makes kids that much more ready to tackle college." Students generally fill their year off with work, travel, or study, and they push these categories to new limits in the quest for "life experience." One student interned with a renowned puppeteer in Italy. Another worked in a hotel to raise money for college. Others have danced with the New York City Ballet. Many have participated in exchange programs or taken courses at other colleges. An interest in biology led one Yalie-to-be to the top of the Andes, where she studied indigenous birds. A typical crop of deferring students also includes at least one person involved in a significant dramatic role. Because she could not back out of her current contract this season, Sara Gilbert postponed Yale's offer last spring and continues to play Darlene Conner, the younger daughter on ABC's "Roseanne." A promising career, however, has not altered Gilbert's plans to study psychology at Yale starting next year. Whatever the interim activity, postponed matriculation now enjoys the approval of many major American universities. At a conference Dahl attended, the dean of admissions of a prominent university suggested that Ivy League schools require all future students to defer a year. Postponement advocates cite potential benefits &om a year off, but one perk consistently tops their lists: postponement's ability to rekindle waning academic motivation. For this reason Dr. Lorraine Siggins, chief psychiatrist for Undergraduate Health Services at Yale, staunchly supports deferment. "A&er 12 years of school, it's often very useful for someone to have experience doing something else for a year, to see themselves as a fuller person," she said. "If they take a year off, it's freeing to them. They feel they need to get off the treadmill." Amanda McKenna (BK '95) realized that she needed such an academic respite only after she graduated from high school. "I was very tired of studying," she said, "and I just 0CT088R 16, 1992
was not excited about being attached co books again right away." Unsure about how she would fill the 12-monch void, McKenna requested a deferment in mid-July, less chan six weeks before she had planned to leave for Yale. Though she had gotten tired of her own education, her excitement about helping ochers to learn propelled ~er into a tutoring posicion at an all-black boarding school in Mississippi. "I felt the need co volunteer then," she said. "I didn't want to wait, and it just seemed like the perfect time." Lace postponement requests like McKenna's raise few problems in Yale's extremely flexible and simple postponement process. For students who follow standard procedure, opting to defer a year entails checking off the third box on the marriculation card sent to all accepcees in early May. These students chen receive a statement that establishes registration and financial aid guidelines and explains Yale's policy of accepting no more than two course credits earned at another college. Finally, students must send a letter detailing plans for the year. The university has granted postponement as little as two weeks before orientation, in which case a single phone call replaced the usual stages. Despite the ease of deferment al)d its recognized benefits, only a handful of students select the option. Our of a class of about 1,330, 42 future Yalies deferred chis year. At just over three percent, Yale's rate of postponement ranks reasonably among private schools. Jane Reynolds, director of admissions ac Amherst College, re{>orted a one percent rate for an average class of 400, and Wesleyan University's rate hovers around 2.5 percent. At the heart of postponement's low numbers lies a Cacch-22. Because so few people defer, few hear about the option, and even fewer consider it seriously. Most high schools have yet to join the postponement movement, so the possibility of a year off never enters many students' minds. "I can't remember when we had a request like chat," said Vincent Gagliardi, former head of college guidance at Hillhouse High School in New Haven. In his 16 years at the predominantly black inner-city school, not one collegebound student postponed a year. At the other end of the socio-economic spectrum, Phillips Andover Academy typically has a seven percent postponement rate, a figure well above chose of most high schools. A ten-year Andover-sponsored study of these students revealed that 97% were white. The study also states that this group "is fairly affluent and that postponement is more likely to be pursued/\ , by students from well-to-do families." But Andover's above-average numbers do not rest on demographics alone. The school , actively promotes the option. By distributing
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OcroseR r6, 1992
a synopsis of its study that includes students' motivations, activities, and opinions to students and parents, Andover has instilled a widespread awareness of the potential of a year off. Director of College Guidance Carl Bewig often supplements information with personal encouragement. His belief in the benefits of a year off grew out of trends he observed at Oberlin College, where he was dean of admissions prior to moving to Andover. "They were invariably the most motivated sub-group in the school," he said of postponed matriculants. Without such strong support for deferment, few graduates of Waynflete School in Portland, Maine, delayed college enrollment until Henry Wishcamper (PC '95) and a friend began mentioning the possibility at the beginning of their senior year. "We were just hanging out, and we thought, 'Wouldn't it be cool to take a year off and drive across the country?'" Wishcamper recalled. "No one believed us at first." But as Wishcamper's plans solidified, his classmates' skepticism turned into passionate interest. "I think in some ways it was a snowball effect," he said. By the rime the snowball stopped rolling, an unprecedented eight students our of a graduating class of 50 had decided to postpone matriculation. Once a high school student triumphs over his or her own doubt and decides to take a year off. opposition from family, friends, and teachers may discourage further pursuit of the idea. Usually parents present the most immediate and formidable deterrent. Sometimes they put forth understandable objections, such as economic concerns. Tuition only increases with time. "Families are less sure these days," Dr. Siggins said. "They may have some money now, bur they're not sure about their financial status in a year or , two. Far more often, however, society's misconceptions about deferment make up the foundation of parental concerns. "Parents are often uneasy about their child raking a year off at any rime," said Dr. Siggins. "They fear their child will nor go through with college. That's not the case." Admissions Director Dahl believes this is an especially incorrect assumption at Yale. "I don't think that students who were accepted at Yale are going to be deflected from all academic interest with one year off," she said. Anxiety over lost time dissuades students as well as their parents. "Some students are very focused on a career that's going to take a long cime and are reluctant co stall that for a year," said Dahl. But after reach-~-rJIII~:I ing in Mississippi, McKenna fails
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to grasp this logic. "When people say, 'It's going to set you back a year,' I miss where it's setting you back from," she said. "They say you're a year farther away from being a doctor or a lawyer. I would hope that life doesn't begin when you become a doctor or lawyer." While some postponed matriculants do experience an initial disenchantment with college, the phenomenon usually dissjpates quickly. Jane Murphy (BK '95) toyed with the idea of deferring again during the first week of her freshman year after having spent nine months in Turkey, where the widespread poverty made a lasting impression on her. "It seemed very easy to get caught up with just work and classes, and I was upset with myself and what I was doing," she said. Though the fe.eling still lingers, Murphy has realized that she can make a differ~nce in New Haven while studying at Yale. As it did for Murphy, time off from the conventional paths of secondary and higher education can dramatically recast the way students view their lives. "There are certainly a number of people I know here who would enjoy their lives now more and enjoy college more if they had taken some time off;" the well-traveled Wishcamper said. While on the road, he had to fend for himself--economically and otherwise--for the first time, which significantly eased the move to college the following year. The novelty of taking classes after a year off and the painless transition convinced Wishcamper that he had done the right thing, and that others could benefit as well. "When you go to a private high school and then you're planning to go to an Ivy League school, there's a lot you miss," he said. By taking a year off, students like Wishcamper get a taste of the world before they enter the ivory tower. IIIII
David Gn-bn', a sophomorr in TrumbuU Colkg~. is on th~ staffof TN] . OCTOBER 16, 1992
AFTERTHOUGHT - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
A Union Unravels Ivo Banac s there any such thing as Yugoslavia? The terminology itself is confusing. Four of Yugoslavia's republics have declared independence. They are, in ch·ronological order, Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia, and Bosnia-Hercegovina. Three of these (Croatia, Slovenia, and Bosnia-Hercegovina) have received recognition by most governments, including the U.S ., and are members of the United Nations. The remaining two (Serbia and Montenegro) call themselves the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SRJ}, claim linear descent from Marshal Tito's Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRJ), but recognize none of the SFRJ's institutions, including the autonomy of Serbia's two autonomous provinces of Vojvodina and Kosovo, and have unilaterally promulgated a new constitution. The status of the SRJ is unclear. Its claim to be the exclusive successor to the moribund SFRJ is based on the notion that the other republics "seceded" from Yugoslavia, but this is disputed by the other successor states who claim that Serbia destroyed the Yugoslav federation and cannot now expect the benefits of former federal property and membership in international organizations. To Croatia and Bosn iaHercegovina, Yugoslavia is the integral and irretrievable sum of its former parts , not just any redefined portion of its former territory. To the United Nations, it is a rogue country that had to be expelled from this year's membership in the General Assembly, presumably to reapply at a later date as a new state (or states), but not as the equivalent ofTito's Yugoslavia, one of the United Nations' founding members. Then there is the question of the "war in Yugoslavia. " War is certainly raging in Bosnia-Hercegovina and is still simmering in Croatia, but not a smgle shot was ever fired in the country that still calls itself Yugoslavia. Is it simply our inability to catch up with the new political realities, or does something in Western political culture rebel against the fragmentation of states, even when (or perhaps especially when) the fragmented states are federal conglomerates? The bloodshed started in June 1991 when the Yugoslav People's Army ONA), with the connivance of the federal
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government of Ante Markovic, initiated an attack against Slovenia, which had just proclaimed independence. Croatia, which asserted its independence at the same time, was sidestepped in the attack and avoided resisting the army on behalf of its friendly and allied Slovenian neighbor. Croatia was already under attack, since its internal Serb insurgency, which was to a significant extent organized by Serbia's security agencies, was armed and backed by the federal army. After the army's half-hearted showing in Slovenia, which the Slovenes resisted with all of their limited might, the JNA agreed to the withdrawal from Slovenia. The federal army had already become an agency of Serbian expansionism. With no Yugoslavia in sight and no Communist vision possible, the men of Tito's army transferred their loyalties to their national communities. In most cases that meant that their loyalties were transferred to Serbia and its policy of carving out a Serbian state from parts of Croatia and BosniaHercegovina. The professionalism of the army was no longer evident. In Varazdin the CroatS l:>ought peace with cash. Elsewhere, the army took on various "reservists" and "volunteers," who then proceeded to establish their reputation for murde r and pillage throughout the inner rim of Croatia, from Vukovar to Dubrovnik. These vicious "militias" spearheaded the expulsion of Croats from the Serboccupied areas of Croatia. They continued this practice, now commonly called "ethnic cleansing," against Muslims and Croats in Bosnia-Hercegovina. What is the ideological basis of "ethnic cleansing"? The collapse of communism has engendered lethal and mutant forms of ideology. For example, until 1990 Serbia's strongman Slobodan Milosevic was the president of the League of Communists of Serbia, Serbia's branch of Yugoslavia's Communist party. Then he had his party renamed the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS). The controlled Belgrade press celebrated the event by setting Milosevic's portrait alongside those of Fran9ois Mitterand, Willy Brandt, Neil Kinnock, Bettino Craxi, and Felipe Gonzalez. The Western press kept saying that Milosevic was acruTH£ NEW jOURNAl.
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ally the last of the "hard-line" Communists. In fact, even when he still maintained the Communist label, Milosevic supplanted Communist ideology with Serbian chauvinism, but maintained all the institutions of the Communist party-state. His nonCommunist mass-based collectivism, which is anticommunist, antiliberal, and anticonservative, should be recognized as a form of laner-day fascism. Not the fascism of Auschwitz. to be sure, although the Serbian concentration camps in Bosnia-Hercegovina are instructive about the trends, but certainly the fascism of the early Mussolini "revolution" in Italy, which permitted forms of parliamentarianinsm until 1928 and fostered chauvinist "ethnic purification" in South Tyrol and !stria. In its essence, the ideology of Milosevic-led aggression holds that no state can be stable unless it is nationally homogeneous. The object of policy, and hence of war, is to create nationally homogeneous territory, if possible by persuasion, if not, then by violence. This ideology is consciously anti- historical, and seeks to reshape the patterns of national settlement that are a product of random processes of history.
T
he real danger with Milosevic's policies of "ethnic cleansing" is that he will set an example. The rampant retaliation against Serb persons and properry in Croatia and unoccupied parts of BosniaHercegovina are a case in point. But can we be certain that anti-foreign violence in Germany is entirely unrelated? The answer to the challenge of "ethnic purifiers" is not the acclamation of liberal utopianism, according to which states should be governed by a random doctrine of citizenship predicated on the rights of an individual, rather than by principles of national self-determination. States were not, in fact, founded to worship individuals, but to protect the community. Hence, 30 THB NEW jOURNAL
the protection of communal rights must be a part of constitutional order wherever minorities exist. Call it "quotas" or "cultural autonomy," but these protective practices cannot be eliminat-
The real danger with Milosevics ((ethnic cleansing" is that he will set an example. ed either because Milosevic wishes to do away with the minorities physically, or because liberal utopians wish to do away with the very idea of a minority. And yes, the minorities that ignore the sensitivities of the majority are acting provocatively and ultimately against their own interests. What can the West do to end the Serbian-sponsored meltdown of Southeastern Europe? The most succinct answer is that it must intervene. This need not mean only military intervention, and if it is military intervention , it need not necessarily be intervention by use of ground troops. On the escalating scale, intervention must mean the following: (1) stronger enforcement of existing sanctions against Serbia and Montenegro; (2) establishment of an air-exclusion z.one for Serbian aircraft over Bosnia and Croatia, thereby preventing the destruction of urban centers; (3) lifting of the UN embargo for arms import for the purpose of supplying the outgunned Bosnian and Croatian armies, thereby reestablishing a balance of power on the Bosnian and Croatian fronts; (4) introduction of limited air strikes against bridges and munitions plants that supply the Serbian troops in Bosnia and against Serbian artillery concentrations, for example at Sarajevo. These measures would strengthen the defenders of Bosnia-
Hercegovina. Those, like the writers in Commonw~al, who claim that it is not desirable in principle to escalate the war by permitting the "defenders of Bosnian independence ... to engage their attackers on a more equal footing" should realize that they are effectively aiding the aggressor. That is the lesson that should have been assimilated from Anglo-French diplomacy in the Spanish Civil War. _ But is any sort of limited engagement possible? On Sept. 27, theN~ l'Ork Tim~s carried an interview with General Colin L. Powell, the chairmat:l of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who rejected any number of military options for Bosnia, including limited air strikes, air-exclusion zones, indeed the very concept of limited military engagement, Instead of being fired for an inexcusable intervention in political matters, General Powell was merely rebuked by President Bush's decision on Oct. 2 to pursue the air-exclusion zone for Serbian aircraft over Bosnia. All the same, General Powell did have a point in demanding that any use of force "must begin with a clear understanding of what political objective is being achieved." Or, as Henry Kissinger put it in his New York Post piece of Sept. 22, in which he argued for the lifting of the Bosnia arms ban, "those nations willing to act ... should put forward a political program." The political program for former Yugoslavia need not be elaborate. It really need include only one principle: the inviolability of borders of all federal units of the former SFRJ. This approach would permit not just the independence of all republics of former Yugoslavia within their antebellum borders, but the application of the same principles for the remaining two federal units-the autonomous provinces of Vojvodina and Kosovo-which were the constituent factors of the Yugoslav federal system, but whose autonomy was utterly violated by Milosevic. In fact, the systemOCTOBER 16, 1992
MAIN GARDEN atic violation of Albanian national and human rights in Kosovo, where the Albanians constitute the absolu te majority, are the most egregious examples of an apartheid state policy under European conditions. Not only has Albanian language and instruction been almost entirely eliminated from the public realm, but Albanians have been banned from virtually all professions. The essence of the Yugoslav political problem was from the outset connected with the illegitimate aspirations of Serbia. The political and intellectual leadership of Serbia took all of former Yugoslavia on a course that started with mythologized and falsified history and ended in bloodshed and genocide. This is something that ought to be pondered by those who are tempted to seek blame in abstract nationalism. There is plenty of nationalism in Russia, for example, and not a few former Communists with nationalise lean:. ings in power-yet Yeltsin is not a Milosevic. The Milosevic phenomenon is not a product of predetermined forces. It is a result of special circum-· stances and individual ambitions and obsessions. The cure will therefore have to be nuanced, but at the very least must include a repudiation not
Chances ofescalation are mounting. just of Milosevic, but of Serbia's expansionist political program that dates from the 1840s, with or without the guise ofYugoslavism. Western policy toward Yugoslavia and former Yugoslavia, and especially the policy of the Bush Administration, has generally been a disaster. Instead of upholding political principles, by force if need be, Bush has settled for unrealistic rhetoric and the appeasement of Milosevic. Appeasement has taken the form of entirely unrealistic alternatives OCTOBER I6, 1992
to Milosevic: first the federal government of Ante Markovic, then nothing from June 1991 to the beginning of 1992, then the itinerant Prince Alexander Karadjordjevic, and now the returnee premier Milan Panic. Panic is a phrasemaker premier for Milosevicsponsored Dobrica Cosic, the president of Milosevic-created SRJ. Panic has no power. Cosic's power depends on Milosevic. As a friend put it, "Metaphorically speaking, in Belgrade we have a Stalin (Milosevic), a Chernenko (Cosic), and a Yeltsin (Panic). Only a Gorbachev is missing to tell them that the game is over." It would be an additional grave mistake for the U.S. to "play with Panic" to the detriment of real security arrangements that would prevent the escalation of war in the Balkans. The key strategic question: Can fascist regimes collapse without a powerful mass movement based on a real ideological alternative or without an outside military threat? Milosevic can be replaced by a Badoglio, but a Badoglio became possible only two weeks after the invasion of Sicily. The Serbian opposition is currently concentrating on weakening the determination of the West to maintain the sanctions. They argue, rather like Dusan Reljic in Vreme on Sept. 21, that the "West unaccountably exaggerated with its disciplining of Serbia, using only the stick without any carrot for Panic." If they are incapable of toppling Milosevic, the oppositionists would do better to concentrate on fighting against his ideology rather than against the little that the West has done to stop him. Otherwise, the current whirlwind of activities around Panic will simply postpone the final reckoning. In the meanwhile, since Milosevic will certainly not give up without a fight, the chances of escalation are mounting. We shall soon know by how much.
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