Yale Daily News

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T H E O L D E ST C O L L E G E DA I LY · FO U N D E D 1 8 7 8

NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT · WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 11, 2012 · VOL. CXXXIV, NO. 68 · yaledailynews.com

INSIDE THE NEWS MORNING EVENING

SUNNY RAIN/SNOW

39 35

CROSS CAMPUS Closer to heaven. Gourmet Heaven closed from Dec. 19, 2011 to Jan. 3 to renovate the interior of its Broadway store. The furniture on the upper level of the store has been replaced with wooden tables and benches, the walls and ceiling were repainted (orange and off-white, respectively) and the floors were waxed.

RECRUITING GENEROUS AID DRAWS ATHLETES

LABOR

HEALTH INSURANCE

ASTRONOMY

Yale Police negotiations signal continued tensions with University

BUCKING TREND, CT TO RUN ITS MEDICAID PROGRAM

Geology and Geophysics Department collaborates on exoplanets

PAGE 14 SPORTS

PAGE 3 CITY

PAGE 3 CITY

PAGE 5 NEWS

Admins divided on interviews

SCIENCE HILL

New library counters architectural challenges

SOME GRAD SCHOOL DEPTS. QUESTION VALUE IN ADMISSIONS BY ANTONIA WOODFORD STAFF REPORTER

Things Fall Apart. After months encouraging students to dine trayless, the Silliman dining hall finally removed trays Monday in what was supposed to be a semester of trayless dining. But in an email Monday night, Master Judith Krauss told the Silliman community that early reports named the initiative an “unmitigated disaster.” Trays have returned to the dining hall.

Programs in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences will be required to interview doctoral candidates this year before offering them admission, but not all departments are pleased with the new policy. Graduate School Dean Thomas Pollard said he asked departments to conduct interviews — whether in person, over the phone or via Skype — after a “growing number” of programs found them useful for making admissions decisions. Interviewing is common among Yale’s graduate science programs, which can often use grant money to bring applicants to campus. But some departments, particularly in the humanities, have reservations about a practice they say does not fit their needs.

Fall of print. The New Haven

Register’s printing operations — that is, its actual printing press and distribution center — will close down in March, the New Haven Independent reported on Tuesday. The move will cut 105 jobs. The Register will remain in print, its papers now printed on the Hartford Courant’s presses.

More open news. The Register

is also planning to shut down its operations in Long Wharf and move to an open newsroom in downtown New Haven.

Wild bear hunt. With nearly 3,000 bear sightings in the past year, the state of Connecticut is deciding whether to implement a hunting lottery, used in states such as Maine, the Hartford Courant reported Tuesday. Megacourses. Two days into shopping period, three courses have potential enrollments of over 500 students on the Online Course Selection system, according to course demand data accessed at 11 p.m. Leading the pack is “Introduction to the History of Art,” with 584 shoppers, while “Great Hoaxes and Fantasies in Archaeology” has 519 and “Philosophy and the Science of Human Nature” has 505. By the people, for the people.

The Yale College Council emailed on Tuesday a midyear report on its activities and achievements halfway through this academic year, as part of its promise for greater accountability, the report stated. The report groups achievements into categories from dining to gender-neutral housing. Top achievements include expanded dining hall services over Thanksgiving break, the Bluebook app and emailed grade notifications. THIS DAY IN YALE HISTORY

1965 The New Haven Railroad files a petition asking permission to end service between New Rochelle, N.Y. and New York City, as part of an effort to end passenger service on the bankrupt line. Submit tips to Cross Campus

crosscampus@yaledailynews.com

ONLINE y MORE cc.yaledailynews.com

SHARON YIN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

The new “info commons” in the Kline Biology Tower is, administrators hope, a step toward a friendlier environment in KBT.

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oday marks the open house for Yale’s new information center in the basement of Kline Biology Tower, a space that will not only provide a home for the Social Science Library and StatLab but also promises to attract students to a building notorious for its intimidating architecture. NATASHA THONDAVADI and SHARON YIN report. Looming and austere, the 14-story Kline Biology Tower — Yale’s tallest building — rises up from between Sachem and Edwards streets on Science Hill. Those trekking to class cannot fail to notice the overbearing structure, designed by modern architect Philip Johnson in 1965.

Though University planners meant for the tower to foster collaboration between science faculty and students, KBT’s “cold” design has impeded this sense of community, Yale spokesman Michael Morand ’87 DIV ’93 said in a December interview. This academic year, Yale has

I am anxious about what kind of door we open when we begin to assess … personability … We should instead be looking solely for intellectual brilliance.

made strides to make the building more user-friendly. Last fall, administrators opened KBT Cafe on the building’s first floor. Today marks another step in this initiative: the open house for the Center for Science and Social Science Information (CSSSI) in the basement of KBT will present what Yale administrators have called an “information commons” between the Social Science Library, StatLab and Kline Science Library. The complex marks a new home for both the Social Science Library and StatLab, and administrators hope CSSSI could become the model for other integrated academic support units on campus,

“I am anxious about what kind of door we open when we begin to assess, consciously or unconsciously, applicants’ personal self-presentation or even personability as an implicit [criterion] for graduate education,” Katie Trumpener, director of graduate studies for Comparative Literature, said in a Tuesday email. “We should instead be looking solely for intellectual brilliance.” But Pollard said interviews “bring the written application alive” and can help programs determine if applicants are able and motivated to succeed in graduate study.

SEE KBT PAGE 4

SEE GRAD INTERVIEWS PAGE 7

KATIE TRUMPENER Director of graduate studies, Department of Comparative Literature

Republican primary Prof. schools welcome new VP draws Yalies to N. H. BY MADELINE MCMAHON AND DANIEL SISGOREO STAFF REPORTERS Next fall’s arrival of Kimberly Goff-Crews ’83 LAW ’86 as vice president for student life will bring much needed oversight to student affairs, administrators said.

DOUBLE TAKE As part of her new role, GoffCrews will chair a new committee of student life administrators from Yale College, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and the professional schools. Future members of that committee said they have collaborated occasionally in the past but have lacked consistent coordination. Though students’ academic lives differ substantially across Yale’s schools, administrators said they would benefit from a more formal exchange of ideas and practices. “The management of student services and student life issues is highly decentralized at Yale,” said Lisa Brandes GRD ’94, director of graduate student life at the McDougal Center, “so I see the creation of this new position of vice president for student life as a

very positive step.” Martha Highsmith DIV ’95, deputy secretary for the University, currently chairs a committee of student life deans in the graduate and professional schools, but University President Richard Levin said Goff-Crews’ new committee will meet more regularly and include a representative from Yale College.

The management of… student life issues is highly decentralized… so I see [this] as a very positive step. LISA BRANDES GRD ’94 Director of graduate student life, McDougal Center Highsmith did not respond to questions about the committee’s operations or how Goff-Crews’ arrival would affect her own role. Dale Peterson, associate dean of student affairs at the Divinity SEE GOFF-CREWS PAGE 4

BY NICK DEFIESTA AND CLINTON WANG STAFF REPORTERS MANCHESTER, N. H — Although Tuesday’s New Hampshire presidential primary solidified former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s standing as the Republican front-runner, it also revealed a field as yet unsettled, with many voters expressing a lack of enthusiasm for the candidates. Romney, who won the primary with nearly 40 percent of the vote, edged out his nearest competitors Texas Rep. Ron Paul and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, who earned 23 percent and 17 percent of the vote, respectively. But dozens of voters interviewed said they were unhappy with the Republican candidates and, in a political climate that is regarded as advantageous to Republicans, displayed less enthusiasm than they had in 2008. “I don’t feel like any [of the Republican candidates] has caught fire with conservatives,” Michael Cassily, a Manchester resident who is undeclared. “I didn’t like any of [the candidates].” Just as New Hampshire conservatives supported a variety of

CHRISTOPHER PEAK/SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

Mitt Romney won New Hampshire’s Republican presidential primary yesterday with nearly 40 percent of the vote. candidates, Republican undergraduates at Yale also demonstrated a diversity of preferences as the voting in New Hampshire began Tuesday. Yalies have been most vocal in their support for Huntsman, said Nathaniel Zelinsky ’13, the president of the

William F. Buckley Jr. Program. Zelinsky attributed this in part to Michael Knowles’ ’12 role as the national co-chair for Huntsman’s youth campaign. “But I think there are not-soSEE NH PRIMARY PAGE 7


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