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, FEBRUARY 15, 2012 · VOL. CXXXIV, NO. 92 · yaledailynews.com
INSIDE THE NEWS MORNING EVENING
SUNNY CLEAR
40 46
CROSS CAMPUS Yale, you are beautiful, no
matter what the college dating site DateMySchool says. According to the website’s “hotness ratio,” Yale has the least attractive students in the Ivy League. The complex ratio, which the site determined by looking at how often its visitors saved profile pictures of students from each school, showed that Yale women are the least attractive in Ivies, while Yale men are at least cuter than those at Harvard, Cornell and Penn.
Want to connect? A new
website launched on Tuesday allows students to communicate with others in the same classroom or library. Circa:Yale, created by Daniel Petkevich ’12, asks students for their location; once they’ve been located, students can chat with others in the same class. The site came out of the student- run programming class HackYale.
Her favorite things. Oprah
Winfrey will join Lady Gaga and her mother, Cynthia Germanotta, for the launch of the Born This Way Foundation at the end of the month, Gaga announced on Tuesday.
Were they hungry? Two men
robbed Five Guys Burgers and Fries at gunpoint late Sunday night, the New Haven Independent reported. The two came shortly after closing, demanding an employee give them cash as he took out the trash.
Slipping. A report out today
from the state’s Office of Policy and Management shows that 80 percent of the 14,400 men released from Connecticut’s prisons in 2005 were re-arrested by 2010, and just under half were imprisoned again, according to the Hartford Courant.
Looking abroad. Last quarter, Yale bought a $23.2 million stake of stock traded on the China exchange, marking the University’s biggest purchase in the quarter. It also purchased a stake in Zipcar worth nearly $400,000, while selling its $800,000 stake in TiVo, Bloomberg reported Tuesday. Roman Mother? In a piece
published in The Wall Street Journal, humorist Joe Queenan points out that Yale Law School professor Amy Chua’s claim that Chinese mothers are the best started a string of articles and books claiming that, in maternal matters, one ethnicity reigns supreme. “If I had to do it all over again, I’d come back as an ItalianAmerican kid — in part because of the warmth, the affection, the passion and the generosity, but mostly because of the manicotti.” THIS DAY IN YALE HISTORY
1967 A group of students from Yale and other Connecticut schools travel to Hartford to encourage the legislature to lower the voting age to 18. Submit tips to Cross Campus
crosscampus@yaledailynews.com
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DRAMA SCHOOL APPS CONTINUE THREE-YEAR HIGH
CRIME
WINTER WEATHER
W. BASKETBALL
Connecticut crime at lowest ebb in 44 years, data shows
STORES SUFFER FROM LACK OF SNOW, HIGH TEMPS
32 years after coaching debut, Yale coach earns 500th win
PAGE 8-9 CULTURE
PAGE 3 CITY
PAGE 5 CITY
PAGE 14 SPORTS
Yale lags in diversity goals GRAPH FAS LADDER FACULTY 30 25
% Female
% Minority
20
AFTER 2007 ARRESTS, PLAINTIFFS AWARDED RECORD $350,000
15 10
BY NICK DEFIESTA AND BEN PRAWDZIK STAFF REPORTERS
5 0
Fair Haven raids case ends in settlement
one-third behind its numerical targets, said Frances Rosenbluth, deputy provost for social sciences and faculty development. With the current diversity initiative set to end in a little over a year, administrators turned their attention in September to the future of their diversity efforts, and both female scientists and minority faculty members interviewed said they feel Yale has room for improvement. “When I came here [40 years ago] there were very, very few women on
The federal government is paying $350,000 to 11 New Haven men who claimed their constitutional rights were violated during immgiration raids in 2007 as part of a settlement announced Wednesday. The plaintiffs were among approximately 30 people arrested during the raids, which took place in the Fair Haven neighborhood in June 2007. The lawsuit, originally filed in October 2009, describes U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents forcefully entering four households without consent or search warrants, sometimes with guns drawn. At the time, the plaintiffs and critics of ICE’s actions — including Mayor John DeStefano Jr. — charged that the raids were in retaliation for the city’s contro-
SEE DIVERSITY PAGE 4
SEE ICE RAID PAGE 7
2000- 2001- 2002- 2003- 2004- 2005- 2006- 2007- 2008- 2009- 20102001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
20112012
SOURCE: OFFICE OF INSTITUTIONAL RESEARCH
The University has not fully met its 2006 goals to increase the proportion of FAS faculty members who are women and minorities.
WITH CURRENT INITIATIVE SET TO END IN 2013, FACULTY DIVERSITY STILL UNDER CONSIDERATION BY ANTONIA WOODFORD STAFF REPORTER Despite administrators’ efforts, the University is still trailing the goals for faculty diversity it outlined six years ago. Yale launched a faculty diversity initiative in 2006 that set targets for hiring more women and minorities to the Faculty of Arts and Sciences by June 2013. The initiative called for the Uni-
versity to hire at least 30 new professors from minority backgrounds and at least 30 female professors specifically in the sciences and economics — fields in which women have historically been under-represented. But though Yale hired an additional 56 minority faculty and 30 women between the start of the initiative and November 2011, the University has retained only 22 and 18 of those new professors because of faculty departures and remains about
Underclassmen navigate mixed-gender restrictions BY MADELINE MCMAHON STAFF REPORTER While administrators have not yet decided whether to extend mixed-gender housing privileges to juniors, some underclassmen have still found ways to live with the opposite sex within the current system. Seniors were first permit-
ted to live with members of the opposite sex in the 2010’11 school year, and administrators are currently reviewing a Yale College Council proposal that would give the option to juniors as well. But some underclassmen have created unofficial mixed-gender suites by opening fire doors between suites or sharing com-
State Dems hopeful on death penalty repeal
munal spaces. Marichal Gentry, dean of student affairs, said although current undergraduate housing regulations prohibit juniors from living in mixed-gender suites, residential college deans ultimately designate room assignments, adding that administrators cannot control where students spend their time after rooms
are assigned. “There’s no way for us to tell who is living with who,” Gentry said, adding that he supports the extension of mixed-gender housing to juniors. Brendan Harrington ’13, a Berkeley junior who called his suite mixed-gender, said the arrangement arose because the vacant octet could not be
SEE DEATH PENALTY PAGE 4
SEE HOUSING PAGE 4
D I G I TA L R E S O U R C E S
Library considers future role
BY HOON PYO JEON CONTRIBUTING REPORTER Democrats in the state legislature are optimistic that this will be the year they succeed in abolishing the death penalty in Connecticut. New Haven representatives Gary Holder-Winfield and Roland Lemar are leading a campaign to end capital punishment in the state, the latest in a series of efforts in Hartford that have so far been unsuccessful. Holder-Winfield said the Judiciary Committee will likely raise a bill repealing the death penalty in early March, at which point it will be presented at a public hearing, and the committee will likely vote on the bill in late March. Legislators said they believe that the bill can pass the State House of Representatives and Senate, and Gov. Dannel Malloy has said he will sign it into law if it arrives at his desk. “Anything is possible,” Holder-Winfield said. “I will be doing everything possible to get the requisite number [of votes] to my position.” With Malloy and Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman at the helm of the state’s executive branch, a death penalty abolition bill passed by the House and the Senate would not
filled entirely with one gender. Harrington said he, five other males and two females asked Berkeley College Dean Mia Genoni if the group could fill the octet. The dean agreed, and the octet was converted into a male sextet and a female double, which has doors to both
A
decade ago, the University Library helped launch a system that allowed students to borrow books from partnering schools. But as libraries have increasingly focused on acquiring digital resources, a similar program for electronic materials faces formidable challenges. SHARON YIN reports. JENNIFER CHEUNG/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
To prepare for the recent round of finance internship interviews, students aiming for a position with banks or hedge funds had a new resource that Yalies before them did not: access to the Vault Guide to Finance Interviews, which provides over 150 practice questions along with answers and explanations. The Vault Guide, acquired this year by the Yale University Library, is just one of the many digital databases that the library provides to Yale affiliates. Current students, faculty and staff can use the library’s digital resources on campus or log into the Yale Virtual Private Network, which provides remote access for Yalies off campus. Over the last few years, the library has been “aggressively acquiring electronic resources across all disciplines,” said Daniel Dollar, director of collection development for the University Library. University Librarian Susan Gibbons added that the proportion of the library’s genSEE LIBRARY PAGE 7
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YALE DAILY NEWS · WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
OPINION
.COMMENT “When did South Korea eclipse the US in the frivolous lawsuits departyaledailynews.com/opinion
GUEST COLUMNIST XIUYI ZHENG
Learning from Lin T
he moment I hopped into a cab at Union Station on Saturday morning, the driver turned and bellowed into my ears: “Have you heard? LIN-SON-ITY!” At first I thought I was getting kicked off the cab, but the huge grin on his face and the paper he held in his hand gave it away. One man dominated the entire front page as conspicuously as he had dominated Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers the night before. Of course I’ve heard. How could I not have? From roundthe-clock SportsCenter coverage to walls of ecstatic Facebook posts, Jeremy Lin has rocked the entire nation. He’s living the classic underdog story: The undrafted rookie from Harvard seems on his way to rescuing the entire New York Knicks franchise from a decade of ineptitude and dysfunction.
JEREMY LIN IS BREAKING STEREOTYPES Despite one dazzling performance after another from the sensational point guard, the conversation surrounding Lin has not always stayed on the basketball court. In particular, much of the commentary has focused on his ethnic background. After all, although he’s not the first Asian American to play in the NBA — that would be Wat Misaka, who also played for the Knicks, but in 1947 – he is joining a pretty exclusive club. It’s no secret that the Asian population as a group is significantly underrepresented in professional sports. Therefore, Lin’s breakthrough seems to be cause for celebration indeed. Yet perhaps it is still premature to say that Jeremy Lin has single-handedly overturned the stereotype of the nerdy and unathletic Asian. If anything, the astonishment and almost universal jubilation that followed his rise testifies to the sheer power and scope of that stereotype. In the months leading up to his magical run, no one expected Lin to make it big in the NBA — perhaps not even those who have become his biggest fans. When my beloved Houston Rockets cut Lin to make room for the signing of Samuel Dalembert in December, I hardly flinched. I thought that Lin would be a quality pick up for Yao Ming’s Shanghai Sharks, a professional basketball team in China. Stereotyping is most
ment?”
The dangerous Dixwell myth W
destructive when we begin to internalize it and buy into it ourselves. It shackles our imagination and robs us of spontaneity, inspiration and, ultimately, a chance at greatness. I’m not saying that Asians shouldn’t be engineers and doctors but rather that we should all think more deeply about why people assume that we will. I know that if I truly wanted to, I could choose to work in a field that’s generally not associated with my ethnicity, but I might suspect that the path was unpopular for a reason. Maybe there’s something inherent about me — about us — that will always put me at a natural disadvantage in those professions, no matter how hard I try. It is difficult to be a trailblazer, to walk the less-trodden path. There are no guides to point the way, no guarantees, no assurances; there is only the darkness of the unknown, and it’s scary. It’s scary for you, for me and for our parents, who try their hardest to secure a promising future for us. Yet the mere fact that we can gauge how promising a future career might be suggests it is known to us, at least to some degree. Often, we stare so intently at the options that convention has made available to us that we lose sight of what can be. Sometimes we actively choose to buy into stereotypes because they can provide an easy way out. They narrow our field of vision so we can avoid facing the unknown and cuddle in the coziness of the familiar. Stereotypes can even serve as an excuse for laziness, because to succeed where you’re not expected to requires so much more effort. Perhaps this is precisely why Jeremy Lin’s story is so extraordinary. From the getgo, he rejected the Asian stereotype and refused to settle for any excuses. Instead, he dreamt big, and to every obstacle and every challenge on his way he responded with determination, hard work and unrelenting belief in God’s will. I suspect that’s the reason why his story has such profound appeal across ethnic and cultural boundaries. As I reflect on my own future, I wonder if I’ll have Lin’s courage. I’m already a fan of Jeremy Lin. Now I just want to be a fan of myself. XIUYI ZHENG is a sophomore in Davenport College. Contact him at xiuyi.zheng@yale.edu .
‘THE_LORAX’ ON ‘DONGGUK LAWSUIT HEADS TO TRIAL’
hen I arrived at Yale as a freshman, I knew almost nothing about New Haven. Even growing up in New York and Connecticut, virtually the only information I had going in was vague cautions from family friends to be careful; New Haven was different and dangerous, they said. Once at Yale, I got the same warnings, only more specific. Other students who seemed to be in the know warned of New Haven’s dangers and sketchiness. One word came to epitomize those fears: Dixwell. For the uninitiated, Dixwell is the neighborhood just northwest of Yale often summoned as the epitome of the city’s supposed crime-ridden seediness. It was known as the no-go zone whose warning signs were Payne Whitney and Popeye’s. If you’ve already talked about the weather, chances are that mentioning Dixwell in casual conversation with another Yalie can form a bond of knowing looks, eye-rolls and slow, sad shakes of the head. It is time to drive a stake through the heart of that perception and put it down for good. Our neighbor to the northwest is not only safer than perceived, but in absolute terms it has become the safest area in the whole city. One of the most common fears for a Yale student is the thought of being mugged. But there has not been a robbery in
Dixwell since 2011. This is not to say that there haven’t been plenty in the past or that there won’t be one tomorrow, but the fear is overblown. COLIN ROSS You’d do just as well to be careGangbuster ful on Chapel or York Streets in the heart of campus, where there were two pick-pocketings and one pursesnatching in January alone. There have been two shootings this year in Dixwell in which people were wounded — though, like in the rest of the city, no murders yet — and we shouldn’t sugarcoat gun violence. But the shootings and stabbings that can break out at the city’s downtown nightclubs are at least as great a risk as the personal disputes that characterize violence in Dixwell. And those two shootings are Dixwell’s only two violent crimes of any type so far this year. Dixwell’s low amount of crime owes something to its size: It’s a relatively small neighborhood of roughly 5,000 residents packed into three-fifths of a square mile. But it owes more to smart and effective policing and civic engagement. Sergeant Donald Harrison is the
New Haven Police’s district manager for Dixwell. As he and I walked and drove around the neighborhood last week, we couldn’t go 60 seconds without running into someone he knew and with whom he would discuss community goings-on. We stopped in at the house of a former alderwoman to wish her a speedy recovery from pneumonia and to drop off a gift card signed by the sergeant and his officers. Later, the current alderwoman called up the sergeant to chat. I felt as though I was escorting a local celebrity as Harrison drove down Dixwell Avenue, waving out the windows to residents shouting hellos. There has been much talk citywide of reviving community policing. As Harrison said, “In Dixwell, community policing never died.” Harrison knows the troublemakers as well. As in the rest of the city, a small minority of criminals — a group that Harrison estimates numbers about 15 to 20 in Dixwell — commit the bulk of the crime. He keeps an eye on them and also gets weekly reports about criminals exiting jail who might be tempted to resume their ways. A close-knit community and an array of civic and service organizations are another key component. With the help of many Yale volunteers, organizations such as New Haven Reads help provide activities for the neighborhood’s kids,
while community management teams and churches bring focus and attention to problems that need fixing. Part of the area’s bad rep stems from the fact that because Dixwell Avenue runs beyond the bounds of the actual Dixwell District into the towns of Hamden and North Haven, whenever a crime happens on the avenue, it’s easy to associate it with the neighborhood. Another part is that Dixwell fits the image of what most expect of a violent area: poor and predominantly black. But Dixwell actually extends deep into Yale. In fact, if you live in Morse or Stiles, you are a Dixwell resident. Dixwell is a potent reminder of the truth in the cliché that Yale is a part of New Haven and the fallacy in the perception that New Haven is not a great city. Dixwell and New Haven are great not because of wealth, power or prestige, but because of their people — they’ve got grit. They care deeply about their community and are willing to work hard and sacrifice to help make it better. And as Dixwell shows, that grit can produce results. It makes me proud to be a neighbor of Dixwell and, even if only temporarily, a resident of New Haven. COLIN ROSS is a senior in Berkeley College. His column runs on Wednesdays. Contact him at colin.ross@yale.edu .
The price of living on campus W
hen I made the decision to attend Yale, I was absolutely sure I would live on campus all four years — indeed, the beautiful residential colleges, the suite structure and the quality of on-campus facilities were all factors in my decision to apply. Two years later, as we enter the stressful season of choosing suitemates, roommates and room assignments, I’m reasonably confident that I want to live off campus next year. This is mostly due to reasons beyond Yale’s control, varying from my personal relationships with a number of people to the inevitable sophomore year disenchantment with campus life and its 2 a.m. noises, crammed living spaces and shared bathrooms. What Yale can control, however, is its unreasonable and discriminatory meal plan. As it stands, students living on campus must enroll for the Anytime, Full or Any 14 Meal Plans, at a cost of $2,817 per semester for the Anytime plan or $2,750 for the other two. That’s at least $5,550 per year, only $1,200 below what we pay for housing. It’s a completely reasonable number if you eat breakfast, lunch and dinner at the dining hall. It might be reasonable if you always eat lunch and dinner on campus — Yale seems to think so, as it does
not offer any real discount for selecting the Any 14 rather than the Full Meal Plan, instead giving students a mere $150 HARRY per semesLARSON ter to spend at Durfees or Nothing in other overpriced venues. particular But I, like a number of students, rarely or never make breakfast and seem to miss a lunch or dinner fairly frequently, whether due to a scheduling conflict or a simple tendency to eat out. It should also be noted that for vegetarians, the dining hall options are often severely limited, pushing them to eat out more often if only for variety’s sake. Such students are paying for a significant number of meals that they will never eat, and they do it as the price of staying on campus. By moving off campus, students can escape the meal plan entirely. Though they would still either have to pay for groceries or eating out, it seems reasonable to assume that they would spend at least some of this money anyway. A less radical option would
be to purchase the genuinely discounted 5 Meal [a week] Plan ($809 per semester), allowing students to continue eating lunch on campus between classes. Perhaps I’m unique, but the sense that I am grossly overpaying for a meal plan that I don’t fully use will play a large role in my decision about where to live next year. This should not be the case. Yale sells itself to prospective students as a campus-centered institution. The residential college system is based on the idea that Yale is better off when students live with each other in tightly knit communities. It should be doing what it can to encourage students to remain either within their colleges or in on campus annex space their junior year. At minimum, it should not inadvertently push them to move off. Perhaps the simple economics of the meal plan require that Yale coerce its students into buying more meals than they are likely to consume. After all, the fact that Yale has Commons and a dining hall for each college is a defining part of the undergraduate experience, but keeping open so many dining venues can’t be cheap. This is the only valid reason I can imagine for Yale to require that students living on campus purchase a minimum of 14 meals. If this is the case, however, there
are solutions less drastic than the 14-meal mandate. There’s no real reason why each dining hall needs to be open for breakfast every day — every time I’ve been to a JE breakfast, the dining hall has been deserted. Opening only four colleges and Commons for breakfast would save money and more than adequately serve early risers. If fewer students were buying into the full meal plan, less money would need to be spent on food and staff at all meals. And if, after such cuts, Yale still can’t break even on its meal plan, the cost is a reasonable one if it means that more students will stay on campus and residential college communities will remain more cohesive. After all, I’m sure it’s not financially sensible for Yale to have as many libraries as it does — Yale pays for them because they reinforce the intellectual atmosphere and diversity Yale strives to create. If losing a little money on the meal plan means that more students live on campus — a goal Yale claims to support — then Yale should be prepared to lose away. HARRY LARSON is a sophomore in Jonathan Edwards College. His column runs on alternate Wednesdays. Contact him at harry.larson@yale.edu .
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Naming Yale
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I
don’t really go to Yale. I go to a school up north. On the East Coast. Like an hour forty from New York. I’ll concede Connecticut if you ask me three or four times and narrow it down to New Haven if you are persistent. But its name, Yale, won’t come out unless you ask, “You’re that guy who goes to Harvard, right?” I’ve turned circumlocution into an art form, and I deliver diffuseness with the facility of everyday parlance. I bury Yale’s name in reticence, and something tells me that I’m not alone: 463 people liked the Yale meme that featured the words, “Where do you go to college? Connecticut,” superimposed on that DiCaprio-witha-squint scene from Inception. Another 259 people liked, “It is with a mere façade of humility that I respondeth to thy query by revealing vaguely the geographic locus of mine alma mater.” “One does not simply go to school ‘in Connecticut’” scored 142 upvotes. It began the summer before freshman year. I was at Target, shopping for school supplies (composition notebooks and con-
doms, both of which went unused for a whole semester), when the girl at the register asked me where I was going to school in the fall. Yale, I made to say, but reconsidered. It felt like over-sharing. She was just making conversation, I thought. Why should I burden our pleasantries with the truth? It would just make things awkward. “Connecticut,” I said casually, but she pressed: “What’s in Connecticut?” In those days I hadn’t quite mastered the ways of circumlocution, so I responded with “New Haven,” which was awkward. “Well, what’s in New Haven?” she insisted and, backed into a corner, I had no choice but to mumble the school’s name, which she misheard as “Yeah,” forcing me to blurt out, too loudly, “Yale.” So you’re that guy, I could hear her thinking. You’re the guy who goes to Yale and thinks he’s special. You’re the guy who thinks he’s above everyone else just because his diploma will bear a glorified four-letter word. She didn’t say that, of course — she said, “Oh, cool!” and handed me my bags — but I know she was thinking it.
Over the years, my coyness has evolved into a well-rehearsed performance, put on for the benefit of waiters, store attendants and strangers on airplanes. The initial moments of a conversation are like a minefield, and any misstep might detonate the Yale bomb. But if I manage to navigate my way through the first five minutes, I can talk for hours without being asked whether I go to UConn, Trinity or Southern Connecticut. I’ve been told that my tendency towards circumlocution is silly, but I always defend my right to convolute. As a word, Yale isn’t great. Its monosyllable is awkward in conversation, too full of itself. It rolls off the tongue with the weight of a boulder and leaves in its wake an awkward, silent vacuum. On the few occasions where I’m forced to divulge my true provenance, I couch its name in other words. “I go to Yale” sounds much better than simply, straightforwardly, “Yale.” But I also don’t want to be that guy. I don’t want to be the smug Yale student, whose sense of selfimportance is only match to that
of other Yale students. It’s no accident that the Condescending Wonka is one of four memes that Yalies use correctly: “Oh, you didn’t get any sleep last night? That’s so impressive.” “Oh, you take tea at the Lizzy? You must be so cultured.” “Oh, you taught English to underprivileged children overseas? You must be such a good person.” The irony, of course, is that I am that guy. I don’t take tea at the Lizzie, and I haven’t taught English to underprivileged children overseas, but my aversion to Yale’s name betrays an infatuation with its connotation. The fact that I’ve upvoted the memes above says as much about their subjects as it does about myself: Out of my own self-importance, I look down upon the self-importance of others. Maybe it’s time to stop. Next time someone asks, I’ll just say that I go to Yale. TEO SOARES is a junior in Silliman College. Contact him at teo.soares@yale.edu .
YALE DAILY NEWS · WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
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PAGE THREE TODAY’S EVENTS WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 15
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Number of bird species recorded in Connecticut.
The list kept by the Avian Records Committee of Connecticut includes five types of grebe, three types of loon, the cackling goose, the white-faced storm-petrel, the Blackburnian warbler and the rare magnificent frigatebird.
Sex Week offers STI testing
12:30 P.M. Lunchtime Chamber Music. Students from the Yale School of Music will perform chamber music. Sprague Memorial Hall (470 College St.), Morse Recital Hall. 4:00 P.M. Reinventing Fire: A Conversation with Amory Lovins. Lovins, co-founder of Rocky Mountain Institute, will discuss his book “Reinventing Fire” which maps business-led pathways for the United States to phase out fossi fuels. Kroon Hall (195 Prospect St.), Burke Auditorium. 4:30 P.M. 2011-’12 CEAS Japan Colloquium Series. Mary Alice Haddad, associate professor of government of East Asian Studies at Wesleyan University, will discuss how Japan responded to the triple disaster on March 11, 2010. Anthropology Department (10 Sachem St.), Room 105.
CORRECTIONS TUESDAY, FEB. 14
The photographs for the article “Peabody serves ‘Big Food’” were incorrectly credited to the Peabody Museum. In fact, the photographs were taken by Michael Marsland. CHRISTOPHER PEAK/SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER
BY LILIANA VARMAN STAFF REPORTER
I think the more that people are able to recognize what’s around them and begin to really observe, the more they will care about taking care of our surroundings. DAVID HEISER Head of Education, Peabody Museum of Natural History The Citizen Science program is the biggest joint initiative between the Peabody Museum and Office of Sustainability, Heiser said. Newman said that the partnership between the two institutions has been successful. “It’s a great demonstration of what can come when two Yale entities partner together,” she added. “It really draws on the strengths and expertise between both of our offices.” Citizen Science training sessions will be held at noon on March 1 and March 26 in the Peabody Museum auditorium. Contact LILIANA VARMAN at liliana.varman@yale.edu .
During the final two days of Sex Week 2012, over 100 students were screened for sexually transmitted infections in what organizers called the first testing service offered on campus outside of Yale Health. On Monday, the Community Healthcare Van — which provides health services throughout New Haven — tested 20 students on Park Street behind the Yale Cabaret, and on Tuesday students could visit the Women’s Center for STI testing conducted by the Connecticut Department of Public Health. On both days, New Haven’s Department of Health offered HIV counseling and testing in William L. Harkness Hall. Allie Bauer ’12, a Sex Week director who organized the testing services, said the event was intended to provide care to students who had never been tested or had difficulties arranging an appointment at Yale Health. In a survey of 2,364 Yale students conducted by the Sexual Literacy Coalition, 55 percent of respondents who said they are sexually active have never been tested, according to Bauer, the organization’s co-president. She added that roughly 19 percent of respondents having vaginal sex
never or rarely use barrier protection. Bauer said students without physical symptoms must schedule an appointment at Yale Health, which she said makes many students feel “getting tested was not worth the wait.” Wanda Richardson, an epidemiologist for the Connecticut Department of Public Health’s STD Control Program, said many students who were screened on Tuesday mentioned that they have to wait or make an appointment to be tested at Yale Health. At the two-day event, students could learn the results of an HIV test in 20 minutes, while other tests take a few weeks to process. Mara Dauphin ’12, who used the services, said the event made the process of getting tested much more convenient. “STI testing coming to campus made it easy for me,” she said. “It takes a really long time … to get gynecology appointments at Yale’s Health Services.” A receptionist for Yale Health’s Student Health department reached Tuesday afternoon said they had openings within two days. Director of University Health Services Paul Genecin could not be reached for comment. Yale Health had initially planned to partner with Bauer to hold the event, she said, but by the time administrators approved Sex Week in Decem-
ber, Yale Health staff were already booked with appointments and could not help with the efforts. Richardson, who offers testing at other schools in the area such as Wesleyan University, the University of New Haven and the University of Connecticut, said she usually sees around 50 students on an average school day, while they tested 80 at Yale on Tuesday. Patrick Armstrong, the coordinator for AIDS Counseling & Testing Services at New Haven’s Department of Health, said many Yale students formerly used the city’s services to get tested about twenty years ago, but when the department began to focus more
on people who with higher-risk behaviors, Armstrong said many Yale students felt the service was no longer for them. Bauer said she hopes the event’s overlap with Valentine’s Day reminds couples that getting tested is an important part of “trust and intimacy,” adding that “there’s no better Valentine’s gift than a little testing.” For free and confidential STI testing throughout the year, students can make an appointment at Yale Health or call the New Haven Department of Health. Contact CHRISTOPHER PEAK at christopher.peak@yale.edu .
BY THE NUMBERS SEXUAL LITERACY COALITION SURVEY 55 58 19.2 37
Percent of sexually active respondents who said they have never been tested for STIs. Percent of respondents whose last sexual relationship was a one-time encounter.
Percent of respondents having vaginal sex who never or rarely use barrier protection.
Percent of respondents having anal sex who never or rarely use barrier protection.
State crime at 44-year low BY JAMES LU STAFF REPORTER Crime is at a 44-year low in Connecticut. That statistic was one of several laid out last Friday by Mike Lawlor, the state’s undersecretary for criminal justice policy and planning, as he addressed the state legislature’s Judiciary Committee on crime trends statewide. Though Lawlor touted positive state data, including a 11.4 percent drop in arrests in 2011 and a 10 percent drop in criminal recidivism over the past three years, New Haven officials and community leaders said these statistics may not be representative of New Haven’s recent experience with crime. “The good news is that crime is down, and down significantly,” Lawlor said in his address. “Like most states, we have adopted proven best practices and they are working. Community policing, state of the art technology and risk-reduction interventions for offenders are all paying off.” While Lawlor said “no one knows” what is causing the fall in crime rates, no one factor is the sole reason. He added that reduction in criminal activity reflects a national trend — crime rates have been steadily dropping nationwide since a peak in the early 1990s, according to data in the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Uniform Crime Reports. Last year, New Haven experienced a 11 percent drop in violent crime even as homicides rose to 34, a 20-year high. Violent crimes in 2012 are down more than 25 percent compared to the numbers from this time last year, according to the New Haven Police Department data, and no homicides have been recorded so far this year. Crime in the Elm City has fol-
GRAPH CRIME IN CONNECTICUT
20,000
200,000
150,000 15,000 100,000
50,000
Property crime
Beginning this semester, the Yale Office of Sustainability and the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History have partnered to create Citizen Science, a new initiative that aims to engage Yale community members with urban ecology on campus. The goal of the Citizen Science initiative is to train a group of Yale students, faculty and staff to survey and record the biodiversity on campus, said David Heiser, Peabody’s head of education and outreach. The program is currently focused on identifying local bird species, and held its second of five bird walks Tuesday afternoon, he added. “We’ve been pleasantly surprised with the reception we’ve received with the bird walks,” said Julie Newman, director of the Yale Office of Sustainability. She estimated 50 people participated in Tuesday’s walk, which consisted of “a complete mix” of Yale faculty, staff, undergraduates and graduate students. Seventeen unique species of birds were recorded on the first bird walk held on Jan. 23, Heiser said. Fifteen different kinds of birds, including cardinals, robins and turkey vultures, were observed on Tuesday, Newman added. While some participants have prior bird-watching experience, Newman said that any member of the Yale community, regardless of experience, can get involved. “It was something unlike anything I’ve done before,” said Sarah Armitage ’12, who attended Tuesday’s walk. She added that the walk allowed her to explore unfamiliar areas of campus while learning how to identify different bird species and distinguish their calls. “One of the great things about Yale is that you can become involved in things even if it’s not your main focus,” Armitage said. In addition to hosting monthly bird walks throughout the semester, the Peabody will also hold a series of training sessions in March for those interested in becoming “citizen scientists.” Citizen scientists will be trained in bird and plant identification, and will play an active role in data collection, Newman said. Over the years, she added, the data collected will be compared with climate and weather data to understand
bird migratory patterns and plant phenology. The idea to create the Citizen Science initiative arose from Yale’s 2010 Sustainability Strategic Plan stating a commitment to developing ecosystem and land management plans as well as a commitment to understanding biodiversity within the urban ecosystem, Newman said. Although the program is in its early stages, Heiser acknowledged possible expansions of the initiative. One possibility, he said, is to divide Yale’s campus into sections, each containing a “section captain” who would potentially coordinate monthly bird walks with other citizen scientists and serve as an authority on the likelihood of finding certain species. He said there are plans to survey plant, butterfly and dragonfly species this fall. “I think the more that people are able to recognize what’s around them and begin to really observe, the more they will care about taking care of our surroundings,” Heiser said.
BY CHRISTOPHER PEAK CONTRIBUTING REPORTER
10,000 90 19 91 19 92 19 93 19 94 19 95 19 96 19 97 19 98 19 99 20 00 20 01 20 02 20 03 20 04 20 05 20 06 20 07 20 08 20 09 20 10
Yalies hunt for biodiversity
Sex Week director Allie Bauer ’12 and Wanda Richardson from the Connecticut Department of Public Health tested 80 students for STIs on Tuesday.
19
The article “Economy Drives Growth in Master’s Apps” quoted American Studies Director of Graduate Studies Kathryn Dudley discussing a 13 percent rise in applications to the Ph.D. program in American Studies. Dudley was in fact not referring to that statistic — which encompasses applications to American studies as part of combined Ph.D. programs — but to a 24 percent increase in the number of applications that were either to American Studies programs alone or to multiple programs with American Studies as the primary application.
Violent crimes
MONDAY, FEB. 13
SOURCE: FBI
lowed a different trajectory from the rest of Connecticut, said Bishop Theodore Brooks, who until last Friday served on the city’s Board of Police Commissioners.
Community policing, stateof-the-art technology and risk-reduction interventions for offenders are all paying off. MIKE LAWLOR Undersecretary for Criminal Justice Policy and Planning, State of Connecticut “I think New Haven is unique in itself — while other crimes are down, it’s been the violent crimes that have been noticeable,” he
said. Decreasing violent crime in New Haven requires “changing the culture on the street,” Brooks said, adding that this is precisely what NHPD Chief Dean Esserman is hoping to accomplish through his renewed focus on community policing strategies. In addition to community policing, Lawlor said his office was “fully invested” in initiatives in New Haven to stop the “senseless killings of young African-American men.” This will be done by focusing policing energies on the groups, including gangs, responsible for the shootings and the specific neighborhoods in which they operate, he said. Many of those committing violent crimes are repeat offenders — Mayor John DeStefano Jr. and other city officials stressed last year that a high percentage of violent crime is committed by people returning to the city post-incar-
ceration. While violation of probation is the number one crime for which people serve jail time in Connecticut, the number of offenders under probation has dropped more than 10,000 in the past few years, Lawlor said. Combating recidivism in New Haven requires coordination between the NHPD, probation and parole officers, Connecticut’s state attorney’s office and the community, NHPD spokesman David Hartman said. The NHPD is also establishing a task force to investigate unsolved non-fatal shootings and prosecute offenders to “keep them locked up,” one of the unit’s leaders told the New Haven Register. According to Lawlor, 72 percent of the state’s prison population is African-American or Latino. Contact JAMES LU at james.q.lu@yale.edu .
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YALE DAILY NEWS · WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
FROM THE FRONT
“Capital punishment is the most premeditated of murders, to which no criminal’s deed, however calculated, can be compared.” ALBERT CAMUS WRITER AND PHILOSOPHER
Faculty diversity goals not met DIVERSITY FROM PAGE 1 the faculty,” said Joan Steitz, Sterling Professor of molecular biophysics and biochemistry. “We have made some progress, but we haven’t made nearly enough progress. Yale does not go out of its way to take steps to diversify the faculty.”
GAUGING PROGRESS
While Yale has not matched its target diversity figures, the University has made progress over the past six years. When the current faculty diversity initiative began in the 2005’06 academic year, 25.4 percent of FAS ladder faculty members were female and 14.7 percent were minorities, according to data from the Office of Institutional Research. Those figures have since risen to 29.3 percent for female faculty members and 17.6 percent for minorities. But disparities also exist across academic disciplines and levels of ladder faculty appointments. The humanities contain the highest concentration of tenured female professors, at 30.2 percent, as compared to 24.8 percent in the social sciences, 18.8 percent in the biological sciences and 11.1 percent in the physical sciences, according to OIR data. In all areas except the physical sciences, there are lower percent-
ages of minority faculty than women. There is also less diversity among tenured faculty than among term faculty like assistant professors. While all eight female and minority faculty members interviewed said Yale’s efforts to diversify the faculty are important, they had mixed views of how successful the University’s actions have been. Lynne Regan, a professor of molecular biophysics and biochemistry, said she believes the initiative has allowed the University to make more female senior faculty hires but has not affected the hiring of assistant professors. She added that the percentage of female senior faculty members in the sciences is still “clearly nowhere near” that of female undergraduate majors and doctoral students in those fields. Meg Urry, chair of the Physics Department, said the initiative has helped facilitate the hiring of women in her department and in other sciences. “[Women] hired [through this initiative] turn out to be superstars much of the time,” Urry said. “To think that they wouldn’t have been part of our faculty, had we not had this little nudge to give them a chance, is appalling.”
FUTURE STEPS
Since September, a group of faculty members has met on a provost’s advisory committee to review Yale’s ongoing efforts toward faculty diversity and to develop a plan for increasing diversity moving forward, Rosenbluth said. The council has not yet decided what form the new diversity initiative will take, Rosenbluth said, and whether the efforts would address faculty across the University or just the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. She said Yale might continue to set numerical diversity targets or designate a budget for diversity initiatives. Provost Peter Salovey said administrators and council members are also considering whether to possibly appoint a deputy or associate provost to handle diversity issues. He and faculty members interviewed said Yale must focus on both hiring a diverse faculty and retaining those professors. “We have to recognize that recruiting is just one strategy,” Salovey said. “We also need to mentor and develop talented female and minority faculty from within so that they are promoted to tenure positions.” Members of the advisory council declined to comment for this article. Yale is also part of a group
of nine universities that meets annually to discuss issues related to diversity. Known as “MIT 9,” the organization was started by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology after a 1999 study on women in the sciences at MIT exposed disparities in salaries and other inequities between male and female faculty, said Hazel Sive, associate dean of MIT’s School of Science.
We have made some progress, but we haven’t made nearly enough progress. JOAN STEITZ Sterling Professor, Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry Members of MIT 9 have taken different approaches to diversity issues like those Yale is currently weighing. The University of Pennsylvania, for example, plans to allocate $100 million to faculty diversification efforts over the next five years, said Lynn Lees, the university’s vice provost for faculty. Neither MIT nor Penn set numerical targets, administrators at the schools said.
Death penalty repeal returns to fore
LINGERING CHALLENGES
As Yale looks to the future composition of its faculty, the University must address “unconscious biases” in hiring practices and better meet the needs of female and minority faculty, professors interviewed said. Several female faculty said they feel faculty hiring committees tend to rank male candidates above female ones, even when they have equally desirable qualifications — a phenomenon they say has been demonstrated in research. Regan said she thinks this problem partly results from the limited number of women and minority candidates that apply for faculty positions. She said that if a faculty hiring committee is only considering one female or one minority candidate, the committee is more likely to view that person in terms of his or her gender or ethnicity rather than intellectual accomplishments. Female faculty also said the limited availability of childcare at Yale can discourage women from pursuing long-term careers in academia, noting that it can take a year or more of waiting to receive a spot in University’s childcare centers. Women beginning postdoctoral programs or entering their
the common room of the sextet and the hallway, he said. Genoni did not respond to requests for comment. Berkeley Master Marvin Chun said in an email that the junior suite is designed as a “flexible configuration,” such that it can either be an octet or a sextet and a double, depending on the housing needs of a particular year.
I think gender-neutral housing has by and large been a success. MARY MILLER Dean, Yale College
Gary Holder-Winfield, left, who represents New Haven in the state legislature, spoke at a Law School panel in October 2010 about his unsuccessful effort to pass a bill repealing the state’s death penalty. DEATH PENALTY FROM PAGE 1 face the same fate as the one passed by both houses in 2009 only to be vetoed by former Republican Gov. Jodi Rell. Still, Holder-Winfield said, public opinion will likely pose a challenge to repeal. Holder-Winfield said public opinion in Connecticut is currently skewed in favor of retaining the death penalty, with recent polls showing 78 percent of state residents in favor of capital punishment. Resistance to death penalty abolition, he said, often stems from a misunderstanding about the possible consequences of abolishing the death penalty, he said. Opponents worry that without the death penalty, criminals would be able to get out of prison after serving only a part of their terms, he said, but the bill would actually replace the death penalty with life in prison without parole in order to prevent this outcome. Given a choice between the death penalty and life imprisonment without parole, Holder-Winfield said recent polls show 48 percent of Connecticut residents in favor of death penalty and 43 percent in favor of imprisonment without parole. Lemar said public opinion remains influenced by the 2007 Petit family triple murder, in which two men invaded the home of William Petit and sexually assaulted his wife and two daughters before killing them and setting their Cheshire, Conn. house on fire. Because of the severity of the incident, the per-
petrators of which have been sentenced to death, constituents have been more sympathetic toward capital punishment, he said. Holder-Winfield criticed the media for over-publicizing the Petit case, arguing that its notoriety has been an obstacle to public persuasion.
We cannot say the justice system is just if different people can get different results through the system. GARY HOLDER-WINFIELD State Representative, New Haven “To the media, Petit’s case is sensational and it drives viewership and readership,” he said. “However, we need to question why there is so much of incessant focus on this [Petit’s] situation.” Despite persistent popular support of the death penalty, Holder-Winfield said he remains convinced that its repeal is necessary. The capital punishment system costs much more than lifetime incarceration, he said, and several studies have shown that the death penalty’s administration has been racially skewed. “We cannot say the justice system is just if different people can get different results through the system,” he said. “If
we can make the system more just, even if we get nothing else, that’s enough for me.” Lemar said his support of ending the death penalty stems from his belief that the punishment itself is “simply unjust and unworthy of civilization of the 21st century,” and that it offers no “added protection” to society. The state has the duty to protect its citizens, he said, rather than condemn them to death. Proponents of the bill will face a tight vote, Lemar and Holder-Winfield acknowledged. “We will be doing a careful head count and make sure we have at least 18 state senators ready to vote for repeal,” said Martin Looney, majority leader of the State Senate, which has 36 members. “If we reach that number we will bring that bill forward for debate.” Should the Senate be split exactly down the middle, Wyman has said she would break the tie in favor of repeal. On campus, the Yale College Democrats are continuing to support legislators’ fight to abolish the death penalty. Dems President Zak Newman ’13 said repeal will “serve as a message to the rest of the country that this form of punishment is intolerable.” Newman added that the Dems will be canvassing, writing letters and lobbying representatives in support of death penalty repeal. There are currently 11 men on death row in Connecticut. Contact HOON PYO JEON at hoonpyo.jeon@yale.edu .
Contact ANTONIA WOODFORD at antonia.woodford@yale.edu .
Students get around restrictions HOUSING FROM PAGE 1
CHRISTOPHER PEAK/SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER
first faculty positions at an age when they may consider having children may feel a scientific career is incompatible with having a family because of Yale’s limited childcare offerings, said Megan King, an assistant professor of cell biology at the School of Medicine. Valerie Horsley, an assistant professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology, said improving access to childcare would be the “biggest single action” Yale could take to increase the percentage of women in its faculty. Minority faculty have also expressed concern that the University undervalues their work when it is not in the University’s more heavily researched areas, said Kamari Clarke, a professor of anthropology and African American studies who is black. “Sometimes there is a lack of appreciation for the work that they do,” Clarke said. “Their work is classified in a particular way, but not within the mainstream.” There are currently 672 ladder faculty members in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, according to data from OIR.
Harrington, who said he considers the two girls “suitemates,” said the living arrangement has been “fantastic” so far. “It takes a certain type of person to be okay living with the opposite gender, and I understand why people wouldn’t be comfortable with it,” he said, “but we are all very comfortable with one another.” In Morse College, junior Jennifer Friedmann ’13 technically has a single, but lives with a group of mixed-gender seniors in seven stand-alone singles on the eleventh floor of the Morse
tower — in what she called a “conveniently gender-neutral suite.” Because most of her former suitemates were going abroad in the fall, Friedmann said, she found a group of six seniors with whom she could enter the housing draw, two of whom are male. She said she thinks her case shows a compelling reason to extend mixed-gender housing to juniors, because her predicament almost led her to move off campus. “It’s not fair given the four year housing promise that Yale gives to all of its undergraduates that juniors are forced to live off campus because they want to live with people they’re not allowed to,” she said. The YCC proposal is awaiting consideration by the Yale Corporation, which cited a need for more time to analyze experiences of mixed-gender seniors when it considered extending the option to juniors last spring. Yale College Dean Mary Miller said residential college deans have reported only positive experiences with senior mixedgender suites. “I think gender-neutral housing has by and large been a success,” Miller said. There are currently 29 seniors living in mixed-gender suites. Contact MADELINE MCMAHON at madeline.mcmahon@yale.edu .
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NEWS
PAGE 5
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The billions of acres that the Amazon rainforest encompasses
The entire Amazon basin spans 1.7 billion acres and includes territory belonging to nine different nations.
Mild winter hurts Elm City retailers BY DIANA LI STAFF REPORTER
While New Haven has enjoyed a warmer-than-average winter, some downtown businesses, especially those specializing in cold-weather gear, have been struggling. The above-average temperatures have decreased demand for coats, boots and other winter gear, making business slower than usual for some stores, said employees of three Elm City shops. In response, they said, stores are bringing in spring items earlier than usual and holding clearance sales in an attempt to get rid of winter inventory.
We have a different sale every week, but we haven’t seen sales increase a considerable amount. DEREK HUMPHREY Manager, Trailblazer “People haven’t had too much of an eye for warm winter gear, and it just hasn’t been necessary,” said Derek Humphrey, the manager of Trailblazer, an outdoor gear store on Elm Street. “Weather can have a big impact, especially in the Northeast.” According to Humphrey, Trailblazer’s sales this winter are down about 30 to 35 percent from last season. For Denali, a local outdoor store on Broadway across the street from Trailblazer, sales have also
not met expectations. According to Denali key holder Chris Sciarappa, the store had expected a 10- to 15-percent increase in sales when winter began, but the warm weather has thwarted those gains. Ann Johnson, the manager at Laila Rowe, an accessory store on Broadway, said the city’s weather patterns have a significant impact on the success of her business. “Last February during that big snowstorm, we sold over a hundred pairs of boots in just a couple of days — we almost couldn’t keep up with it,” Johnson said. “Boy, that was fantastic. We sold boots, cold weather accessories, umbrellas … anything people needed to deal with the bad weather.” According to Johnson, Laila Rowe’s business is particularly responsive to even small changes in the weather. She noticed a spike in sales of cold weather accessories last weekend, when there was a forecast of snow. To compensate for slower sales, businesses have run promotions and marked down products. For Trailblazer, however, this approach has done little to boost sales, Humphrey said. “We’ve run a number of promotions since the last week of November,” he said. “We have a different sale every week, but we haven’t seen sales increase a considerable amount.” Similarly, Denali is marking down its winter clothes in an attempt to clear space for spring inventory, according to Sciarappa. Since the retail spring starts much earlier than the actual season, stores are already stocking up on warm weather apparel.
HENRY EHRENBERG/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
The unusually mild weather this season has left stores downtown such as Trailblazer and Denali with excess winter inventory. “Everyone wants spring stuff now, like scarves, so we’re still selling. We just still have winter inventory we need to get rid of,” Johnson said. Some stores have not been experiencing a downturn in sales, however. “Most people complain that the weather in the Northeast fluctuates a lot, and things have been the same as usual [for sales],”
said Dominika Grzybko, assistant manager of Thom Brown, a footwear store on Broadway. Five students interviewed all said they had noticed that this winter season has been warmer than usual, and so had made fewer purchases than they had anticipated. “My parents in Greece have had more snow this winter than I’ve had here,” said Fil Lekkas ’14,
originally from Athens. “I haven’t had a chance to even wear my winter shoes this year.” Claire Zhang ’15 said she bought sweaters and boots when it snowed, but that she didn’t bother to buy snow boots since they “haven’t exactly been necessary.” Other students interviewed, however, thought that the warmer weather would have helped sales.
“I would have thought that warmer winter would mean more sales because people would be more willing to go out,” said Kate Falkenstien ’12. According to the Weather Channel, the historical average high temperature for a February day in New Haven is 40 degrees. Contact DIANA LI at diana.li@yale.edu .
Yalie recounts Amazonian adventures BY JANE DARBY MENTON STAFF REPORTER Journalist and jungle explorer Scott Wallace ’77 returned to campus Tuesday to regale students with tales of his Amazonian adventures. Wallace recounted the 80-day journey he took to unexplored regions of the Amazon’s Javari River Valley in 2002, an expedition intended to locate a tribe of isolated indigenous people without disrupting their way of life. Roughly 50 students turned out to hear Wallace discuss the purpose of his expedition, dangers he encountered and the regions of the Amazon that still remain untouched by modern culture. “This may be the last big area [of the Amazon] that can be demarcated and protected,” said David Jackson, director of undergraduate studies for the Portuguese Department who attended the talk. Wallace began his career as a photojournalist, broadcast journalist and writer during the 1980s, reporting from wartorn South American countries including Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua. He has worked for major news networks
such as CNN and CBS, and written for publications such as the New York Times, National Geographic and Newsweek. Wallace initially went to the Amazon when National Geographic asked him to profile Sydney Possuelo, the head of the National Indian Foundation of Brazil’s Department of Isolated Indians and a longtime jungle explorer. Wallace said he joined 33 other men on the trip — including representatives from three “friendly” native tribes — and spent the next few months traveling uncharted parts of the Amazon. The excursion was designed to isolate and protect areas inhabited by the “Arrow People” — one of 26 Amazonian tribes that Wallace said are considered “uncontacted” because they do not interact with modern society and retain their traditional culture. The explorers were instructed not to contact the indigenous people, which could compromise their lifestyles and expose them to foreign diseases. “No matter how good the intentions, attempts to contact these [untouched] tribes has invariably resulted in massive deaths,” Wallace said. Wallace called the expedi-
tion “fraught with danger.” In addition to facing snakes, ants and piranhas, Wallace said the group was tracked by the Arrow People, who he said are known to be hostile to non-indigenous people and are named for the “deadly accuracy” of their arrows. At one point, Wallace said two members of the expedition disappeared after accidentally stumbling upon a village of Arrow People, though he added that they were later recovered by the group. As part of his presentation, Wallace showed videos of the expedition hacking through the jungle with machetes, building native-style dugout canoes, and hunting and cooking various animals. Seven attendees interviewed said they found Wallace’s talk engaging and that it gave them a perspective on culture in isolated areas of the Amazon. “I was so used to hearing about how the government wants to integrate native people,” said Zachary Belway ’13, who has taken two trips to other parts of the Amazon. “It was refreshing to hear about this awesome adventure to keep [that] from happening.” Susannah Benjamin ’15 said
BLAIR SEIDEMAN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Scott Wallace, a journalist and jungle explorer, recounted stories from an expedition he took to unexplored regions of the Amazon at a talk Tuesday. she has always wanted to explore uncharted areas of the world for a career, and that Wallace’s story encouraged her to continue to pursue this path. She said it was inspiring to hear about a former Yalie having adventures after graduation rather than choosing a profession like banking, but
she added that she was disappointed no women were on the trip. “I saw that these adventures are way harder than they seem in the articles, that they cost people their lives, but it was so inspiring to hear about,” Benjamin said.
The full account of Wallace’s Amazon journey appears in his recent book, “The Unconquered: In Search of the Amazon’s Last Uncontacted Tribes.” Contact JANE DARBY MENTON at jane.menton@yale.edu .
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FROM THE FRONT
“A library’s function is to give the public in the quickest and cheapest way information, inspiration and recreation. If a better way than the book can be found, we should use it.” MELVIL DEWEY LIBRARIAN
Suit over 2007 ICE raids ends in settlement ICE RAID FROM PAGE 1 versial decision in the spring of 2007 to offer city identification cards to all city residents, regardless of immigration status. The settlement, which attorneys for the plaintiffs said clears their clients of deportation proceedings against them, appears to be the largest ever paid by the United States government in a lawsuit over residential immigration raids. It is also the first to include both fiscal compensation and a cessation of deportation proceedings, Mark Pedulla LAW ’12, who participated in a legal team representing the plaintiffs, told the Associated Press. Ross Feinstein, a spokesman for ICE, denied that the settlement represents an admission of liability or fault on the part of U.S. immigration officials. Still, DeStefano, who has been an outspoken supporter of immigrants’ rights in New Haven, hailed the decision as a human rights victory. “Today’s settlement is a victory of law, but the real case yet to be tried is a matter of the character and temperament of this nation as it relates to immigration, and how we as a nation, a state and a people view our legacy as a nation of immigrants,” DeStefano said in a press release following the announcement of the settlement.
‘TERRIFIED AND HUMILIATED’
The Elm City has long maintained policies geared toward accommodating its large immigrant population, earning a national reputation as a sanctuary city for undocumented residents. In December 2006, under an executive order from DeStefano, the police department alerted residents that it would not check the immigration status of anyone who called 911 or came to the police as a witness — the first order of its kind in Connecticut. In 2007, the Board of Aldermen approved a plan under which the city began issuing identification cards for residents that allow holders to borrow library books, pay parking meters and open bank accounts. The cards — popular within the Elm City but criticized nationally as overly friendly to illegal immigrants — stemmed from a desire to protect New Haven’s estimated 10,000
to 15,000 undocumented residents, who had been easy targets for robberies due to their inability to deposit money. Less than two days after the Board passed the Elm City Resident Card plan, ICE agents raided Fair Haven, home to the majority of the city’s undocumented residents, and detained 29 individuals that the agency claimed were in the country illegally. Kica Matos, who at the time was New Haven’s administrator of community services, said immediately following the raids she thought they were conducted in direct response to the board’s passage of the plan. “I can’t help but think there’s a connection — why else would they be in New Haven at this time?” Matos said in a press conference the morning of the raids on June 6, 2007, according to the New Haven Independent. But ICE officials denied that the resident card plan’s passage and the raids were connected, calling the agency’s actions “routine.” In October 2009, 10 of the residents who were detained in the raid filed a lawsuit against immigration officials and the agents who conducted the raid, claiming that the raids were unconstitutional because federal agents lacked search warrants and arrested people solely on the basis of race and ethnicity. The lawsuit described the fright many residents said they felt during the raid as agents arrested residents in front of “terrified” children. According to the complaint, agents woke the plaintiffs and, in one case, would not allow Eduardo Diaz-Bernal to put on pants, shouting at him “not to move.” “ICE agents broke into my home without permission while I was still sleeping, pulled the covers from my bed, and arrested me for no reason,” said Jose SolanoYangua, one of the plaintiffs in the case, in a press release after the filing of the suit. “I was terrified and humiliated.”
A HAVEN FOR IMMIGRANTS
While DeStefano characterized Tuesday’s settlement as a step toward the “values and aspirations on which our country was founded,” others found the outcome “surprising.” Former Ward 29 Alderman Carl Goldfield, who was president
YDN
This house on Atwater Street in Fair Haven, home to about 20 people, was one of eight residences raided by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers on June 6, 2007. of the Board of Aldermen during the 2007 raids, said he found the outcome of the settlement odd given that, to his understanding, the plaintiffs were in fact illegal immigrants. “The tactics ICE used to grab these people were out of bounds,” Goldfield said, “but it strikes me as odd that people who were in the country illegally are getting paid by the federal government and proceedings to deport them are dropped.” Goldfield added that he had expected some form of penalty would be imposed on ICE for immigration agents’ conduct during the raids, but that deportation proceedings would continue largely unhindered. Others, including Alderman Ernie Santiago, who represents Fair Haven’s Ward 15, said the settlement is appropriate as an affirmation of immigrants’ rights. “Everybody has rights in this country,” Santiago said. “It doesn’t matter if you are legal or illegal — you have rights.” Tuesday’s settlement comes on the heels of renewed tensions
between New Haven and federal immigration authorities. In December 2011, DeStefano and several aldermen held a press conference calling on the state to reject Secure Communities, a federal immigration program that would require local police to check the immigration status of any person they interact with, even if he or she is stopped for a traffic violation. City officials said the program would destroy the police department’s relationship with New Haven’s immigrant community and deliver a blow to the city’s effort under new Police Chief Dean Esserman to shift to a community policing strategy. “Secure Communities would destroy an essential element of trust that New Haven and the police department have worked hard over the past five years to build,” DeStefano said at the press conference. He added that “virtually none” of the city’s crime is committed by its immigrant population, removing the need for the program altogether. Ward 1 Alderwoman Sarah
Eidelson ’12 said one of the priorities of the board’s human services committee, of which she is a member, will be to pass a resolution against the implementation of Secure Communities in New Haven, which is scheduled to take place in 2013. Two days after announcing his intention to fight the program, DeStefano made national headlines by urging state legislators to pass a law allowing illegal immigrants to vote in municipal elections. “We are a nation of immigrants, New Haven is a city of immigrants, and that’s not something we are going to run from,” City Hall spokeswoman Elizabeth Benton ’04 said Tuesday. The 11 plaintiffs in the case against ICE will discuss the settlement at a press conference Wednesday morning at the Wilson Branch Library on Washington Avenue. Contact NICK DEFIESTA at nicholas.defiesta@yale.edu and BEN PRAWDZIK at benjamin.prawdzik@yale.edu .
TIMELINE FAIR HAVEN RAIDS JUNE 4, 2007 The Board of Aldermen approve the Elm City Resident Card Plan. JUNE 6, 2007 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials raid four households in Fair Haven. OCT. 8, 2009 Ten of the 29 immigrants detained during the raid file a lawsuit alleging that ICE officials violated the immigrants’ constitutional rights. JANUARY 2009 Four additional Fair Haven residents are arrested by ICE officials. FEB. 14, 2012 The plaintiffs in the case against ICE officials are awarded $350,000 by the U.S. government and pending deportation proceedings are dropped.
Digital collaboration hampered by licenses, finances LIBRARY FROM PAGE 1 eral collection funding directed toward acquiring digital resources has increased each year since the library purchased its first electronic resource. This year, over half of this budget went toward digital acquisitions. But the expansion of online resources does not imply increased access for all. Just as graduates and researchers unaffiliated with Yale must come to the library in order to browse its bookshelves, they also must travel to New Haven to view Yale’s digital property. Whether researchers will always need to physically travel to view digital resources remains to be seen. When eJournals took off in the 1990s, academic libraries joined forces to negotiate better prices with publishers of electronic journals. But individual libraries still purchased separate licenses for their respective communities. Yale later helped to launch Borrow Direct officially in 2002, creating a system through which Yalies can borrow books from the libraries at the University’s peer institutions. Now, library administrators are faced with whether a Borrow Direct-type system might be possible for electronic resources, history librarian Gregory Eow said. He added that conversations are in an “embryonic stage” within academic libraries, though challenges regarding licensing agreements with publishers and vendors may be difficult — if not impossible — to overcome.
THE VALUE OF THE YALE IP ADDRESS
As a major contributor to the Oxford English Dictionary and the editor of “The Yale Book of Quotations,” associate law librarian Fred
Shapiro said he often searches the library’s new digital acquisitions for evidence of earlier usage of words or phrases. Within 24 hours of gaining access to the library’s newly acquired online historical archive of the Illustrated London News, the world’s first fully illustrated newspaper, which was created in 1842, Shapiro discovered a use of the word “feminist” that predated the earliest citation listed in the OED, Eow said. Shapiro explained that he had only used the resource for about five minutes before making this discovery. Shapiro, who maintains a list of words that he runs through the University Library’s new databases as they are acquired, said that the majority of his discoveries come from the University Library’s digital resources such as ProQuest Historical Newspapers and JSTOR documents. “Just about any new full-text online database provided by the University Library leads to dozens or hundreds of discoveries by me pertaining to word origins and quotation origins,” Shapiro said. Those affiliated with Yale have access to a large array of digital resources in addition to physical books. In the last fiscal year at Yale, Dollar said, the library provided access to approximately 1,024,973 online books and 114,199 unique online serial titles such as journals, magazines and newspapers. But alumni who move away from New Haven lose access to most of the library’s databases. The primary purpose of acquiring these resources is to increase convenience for current library users. Eow said this loss of digital access after graduation can be a “difficult issue.” Every year, for example, when doctoral students graduate and start new jobs
at other institutions, a few inquire about access to digital resources they previously used at Yale, Eow said. He added that while the University Library granted alumni access to JSTOR this fall — accessible through the Association for Yale Alumni website — they cannot make all resources available because of licensing agreements. Even though graduates of Yale’s doctoral programs often work at comparable institutions, some universities do not offer the same breadth of information as Yale, Eow said, citing digital historical newspapers as one area in which Yale might have an advantage over other universities. But if users approach access to digital resources the same way they view physical resources, the sudden loss of access seems more logical, Eow said. “There is the expectation that you can get digital products from anywhere at any time … but when students graduate, privileges to print and circulation access [don’t] come naturally,” Eow said. “It’s the peculiarity with digital [media] that people think they should still have access.”
BEYOND NEW HAVEN’S BORDERS
Multiple people can simultaneously access the same digital materials provided by the library while on campus or logged in remotely, but for those outside of Yale, universal access is currently unrealistic. Similar to how researchers often trek from their residences to the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library to view special books, they come to Yale’s libraries to use its IP address to access its digital databases. As universities have turned their focus to digital databases,
a disparity has emerged in the resources available to researchers affiliated with various universities, since some institutions can afford acquisitions that others cannot. “It’s a real gated community of information,” Eow said. Representatives from Stanford, Columbia and the University of Pennsylvania libraries said that the problems with sharing digital resources lie in issues of licensing agreements with publishers. Most commercial eJournals, e-books and databases are currently bound by license agreements that limit access to students, faculty and staff, said Robert Wolven, director of library systems and bibliographical control at Columbia. “Obviously, if only one institution licensed something, and every other institution could conveniently freeload off that one, any business model for the publisher would vaporize, unless it were funded for public access in some manner,” said Andrew Herkovic, library director of communications and development at Stanford. Still, all library representatives interviewed expressed interest in expanding resources to better help its users. Wolven said Columbia’s library has “engaged in discussion” about extending digital access among members of the Borrow Direct group. While the process will likely be one of trial and error, he said, he is “hopeful” the groups “will ultimately be able to find ways to share access.” Joseph Zucca, director of planning and communication at the University of Pennsylvania libraries, said that he does not think publishers are currently prepared to provide a business model. The University Library has been purchasing licensed electronic resources since they were
first developed in the 1990s, Dollar said. The University Library is the second-largest academic library, second only to the Harvard University Library, but Yale is not making an effort to increase its physical resources to catch up to Harvard’s, Eow said. Instead, both are expanding their digital offerings. “In the past, the mark of a great library system was the breadth of print collections, but increasingly the mark of great library is also measured by the number and breadth of our digital materials,” Eow said. Alongside the effort to increase digital resources, academic libraries moved from a competitive “arms race” against each other to a collaborative system of sharing
materials. Gibbons, the University librarian, pointed out that the “arms race” model was criticized as early as April 1931 by thenLibrarian of Congress Herbert Putnam in a speech at the dedication of Sterling Memorial Library. Collaboration between university libraries, Dollar said, is an evolutionary process “with deep roots.” Under the collaborative model, universities divide areas of concentration, which can result in a richer collection for everyone, Eow said. But for now, because of licensing issues that remain to be solved, Gibbons said, Yale cannot share its licensed digital resources with other institutions. Contact SHARON YIN at sharon.yin@yale.edu .
T H E U N I V E R S I T Y L I B RA RY ’ S R E C E N T D I G I TA L A C Q U I S I T I O N S IN THE US AND BRITISH H I S T O R Y D E PA R T M E N T GALE/CENGAGE’S DIGITAL ARCHIVE OF THE ILLUSTRATED LONDON NEWS
The Illustrated London News was the first fully illustrated weekly newspaper when it began in 1842. ROTUNDA: AMERICA’S FOUNDING ERA PRODUCT FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA PRESS
Rotunda contains a searchable collection of the papers of several important Founding Fathers — including Washington, Jefferson, Adams and Madison (both James and Dolly) — in one database. SERIES ONE OF THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY HISTORICAL PERIODICALS COLLECTION
Produced through a partnership between EBSCO and the American Antiquarian Society, the resource contains nearly 500 fully searchable periodicals from 1691 through 1820.
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ARTS & CULTURE 12:15 P.M. WED. FEB. 15 TAYLORISM AND OUTSOURCING: THE HITCHCOCK CHAIR AS PROTOINDUSTRIAL OBJECT Edward S. Cooke, Jr., the Charles F. Montgomery Professor of American Decorative Arts and Material Culture, gives a gallery talk on the maximizing job fragmenting inherent in the classic Connecticut throne. As the Hitchcock Chair Co. asks in its official documentation, “Does furniture make the room, or do people and time?” It turns out that sometimes outsourced labor makes all of the furniture.
In part because the Yale Law School was one of the first in the nation to admit women, Lillian Goldman donated over $20 million to the school in 1992, which its dean called “probably the biggest gift in the history of American legal education.” The library contains neary 800,000 print volumes and 10,000 active serial titles.
Drama applications continue 3-year high
Exploring Shakespeare and the law
GRAPH DRAMA SCHOOL APPLICATIONS
936 981 1095 1227 1224 1143 1037 1165 1211 1281 1520 1446 1369
THIS WEEK IN THE ARTS
Lillian Goldman Law Library
4:30 P.M. WED. FEB. 15 REMEMBERING THE CORPUS: THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SHAKESPEARE English professor and originator of the Shakespeare at Yale intiative David Scott Kastan will deliver the keynote address at the opening of “Remembering Shakespeare,” an exhibit of Yale’s Shakespearean materials at the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, 121 Wall St.
4:30 P.M - 5:30 P.M. WED. FEB. 15 MASTER’S TEA WITH RACHEL SALTZ New York Times film critic Rachel Saltz, known for her reviews of Bollywood film, will give a Pierson College Master’s Tea in collaboration with the South Asian Film Society. Pierson College, 231 Park St.
7 - 8 P.M. WED. FEB. 15 YALE PIANISTS PERFORM AT STEINWAY HALL Three graduate students at the Yale School of Music — Wayne Weng, Ron Michael and Charles Richard-Hamelin) — will perform on the piano in a concert at Steinway Hall. Steinway Hall, 109-113 West 57th St., New York
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
Yale University Art Gallery, 1111 Chapel St.
BY AKBAR AHMED STAFF REPORTER With applications for fall 2012 admission to the Yale School of Drama received and counted, administrators said the school is continuing a three-year high in application levels. By the school’s final application deadline in early February, 1,369 applications had been received for places in the school’s nine Master of Fine Arts degree programs, according to figures provided by Maria Leveton, the school’s registrar and admissions administrator. Applications have exceeded 1,300 for the third year since 2010, when they peaked at 1,520. For the eight admissions cycles before that, the number of applications ranged between 1,037 and 1,281 — a level that School of Drama Associate Dean Joan Channick DRA ’89 said application counts are unlikely to return to. “I don’t think we’re going to go back to 11-1200,” Channick said. “The new ‘normal’ is going to be more at this higher level.” Channick added that 2010 was an outlier year: applications rose 30 percent from 2007 to 2010 and have fallen 10 percent over the last two years. James Bundy DRA ’95, the school’s dean, said that reasons for application growth may include students’ uncertainty about their prospects in the current job market, the program’s pre-eminence in the field and the increased affordability of a School of Drama education. Channick agreed that these three fac-
tors have been the main drivers of the recent jump in applications, adding that administrators have noted particularly significant increases for departments in which the school has recently appointed notable figures as chairs. “The new department chairs hired over the last decade, like Ron Van Lieu for acting, Paula Vogel for playwriting and Ed Martenson for theater management, have been experienced, prominent and superb, which has definitely attracted students,” Channick said. Students apply to one of the School of Drama’s nine areas of study, which include Acting, Playwriting, Directing and Stage Management. The admissions process for each program is conducted independently; the concentrations require unique application materials and have separate deadlines. With their most recent hires, Matthew Gutschick DRA ’12 said, the school has raised the profile of concentrations other than the historically competitive acting and playwriting programs. As a theater management concentrator, Gutschick said that he applied to no other graduate programs but was specifically drawn to Yale because of its reputation and faculty. He said he was particularly driven to apply after reading an American Theatre Magazine interview with Martenson, the chair of the program he ultimately applied to, which Gutschick said he found “thoughtprovoking.” Channick said that significant improvements in financial aid for students, an initiative that has been a priority for Bundy
since his appointment in 2002, have made the school increasingly affordable and attractive to applicants. She added that when she graduated from the school in 1989, she owed her alma mater $20,000 in debt, a financial burden she said she is glad students today do not have to experience. Today, students will never be asked to take out more than $6,000 in loans to help pay for their education, a change enacted during Bundy’s tenure, though they may borrow more if they so choose. “We now provide more robust aid, based on capital gifts and the president and
Now 93 percent of our students are on financial aid … the balance has really shifted. JOAN CHANNICK DRA ’89 Associate dean, Yale School of Drama provost’s decision, with the support of the Yale Corporation, to … allocate more [University] endowment income to financial aid [at the school],” Bundy said. The school increased grants and reduced loans in financial aid packages between 2002 and 2008, Bundy said. Including personal loans and debts to the school, the average indebtedness of School of Drama students has gone from $52,600 in 2005 to $16,600 today, Channick said. She added that the school’s tuition, which has been frozen at $26,250 since 2008, and finan-
EARL LEE/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
The Yale School of Drama has seen an increase in applications to its MFA program in recent years. cial aid packages makes it more attractive than comparable schools with less generous financial assistance packages. Channick said the School of Drama’s financial aid budget has grown from $1.4 million before Bundy’s appointment to $6.1 million today, adding that the average student now contributes, via loans and his or her personal funds, only 16 percent of the cost of his or her education, compared to 57 percent in 2002. “Now, 93 percent of our students are on financial aid, they graduate with only $6,000 in loans and aid covers 84 percent of their expenses,” Channick said. “The balance has really shifted.” Nikki Delhomme DRA ’13, a costume design concentrator who was admitted in 2010, said she would not have been able to return to school had it not been for the School of Drama’s extensive financial aid program. While considering her options for graduate school, Delhomme said she found that Yale provided significantly more support than peer institutions such as New York University and the California Institute of the Arts. The school may become even more financially appealing to applicants soon. Bundy said that eliminating tuition and establishing stipends for students are key goals of his in the years ahead. After receiving a $100 million donation in 2005, the School of Music ended tuition for its students. Channick said that the uncertainty of job security in the recession may have accounted for the original peak in applications. But with the economic recov-
ery in the years since 2010, Channick said that the economy may not be inspiring increased applications as much as increased awareness about the School of Drama’s aid policies. The school has experienced a falling admissions rate due to the fact that programs have not increased the number of students they admit. The Acting Department, for instance, continues to be capped at 16 students, while directing takes only 3 new students each year. Bundy said the school experienced a “modest but meaningful expansion” in student enrollment with the creation of a new projection design concentration in 2010, which accepts two students per year and will have increased the student body by 3.5 percent by this fall. Bundy added that he does not anticipate any new programs to be introduced in the near future. “I don’t think we’re in an expansion mode,” Channick said. “I don’t think we’ll ever be ‘big.’” She added that the school’s ongoing curriculum review program may recommend that the school put up fewer productions each year because the current calendar seems “frenzied,” a choice that could lower the number of students admitted. Channick said that a precedent was set for such a move some years ago, when the number of playwrights and directors admitted was reduced. Applicants will be notified about admissions decisions in early April. Contact AKBAR AHMED at akbar.ahmed@yale.edu .
THURS. FEB. 16 SUN. FEB. 19 THE DEADLY SEVEN: SHAKESPEARE’S PURGATORIO A showcase of Shakesperean scenes and monologues that focus on the Seven Deadly Sins, with speeches by characters including Falstaff, Cleopatra, Richard III and Shylock.
BY ALEKSANDRA GJORGIEVSKA STAFF REPORTER Opening today, a new exhibit featuring the Yale Law Library’s collection of books and student publications will bridge Shakespeare’s works and the law. Part of the Shakespeare at Yale initiative, “Shakespeare and the Law” explores the role of British law in the context of Shakespearean plays. Margaret Chisholm, a librarian at the Lillian Goldman Law Library, where the show is on view, said that many people are not aware of the academic field focusing on manifestations of law in Shakespeare’s works. This exhibit aims to raise interest in this area of study by placing Shakespeare in a modern legal context, she said. At the heart of the exhibit is a book written by Kenji Yoshino LAW ’96 titled “A Thousand Times More Fair: What Shakespeare’s Plays Teach Us About Justice,” published in 2011. The book explores justice in contemporary society through the lens of Shakespeare’s greatest plays. Chrisholm, who worked closely with Michael Widener, the Law School’s rare book librarian, to curate the exhibit, said that drawing on the Law Library’s own resources, rather than borrowing from other institutions, was a crucial aspect of the exhibit’s organization. She added that the help of former and current students and faculty of the Law School was essential to the formation of the show. “We didn’t want to borrow books from other libraries,” Chisholm said. “We felt that we should show ourselves as we are, without any additional
THURS. FEB. 16 SAT. FEB. 18
BLUE VALENTINE Screening of “Blue Valentine,” the story of a marriage in which things fall apart, starring Michele Williams and Ryan Gosling. Question and answer with producer Jack Lechner to follow. Whitney Humanities Center, 53 Wall St.
MON. FEB. 13 - FRI. MAY. 18 YALE’S SHAKESPEAREANS Drawing on university records and materials, “Yale’s Shakespeareans” focuses on the role that the works of the Bard have played in the Yale classroom. Sterling Memorial Library, Memorabilia Room, 120 High St.
was the impetus for this QWhat course on Shakespeare and music?
some operatic versions from the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. [Students are] also getting a basic introduction to music history and to opera and developing listening skills, such as the way composers use orchestral instruments and different voice types for specific effects. But there’s also text study. Those Restoration adapters worked over Shakespeare’s syntax pretty heavily, and opera librettists shaped the stories significantly — not to mention putting Italian words into [“Henry IV” and “V” character] Falstaff’s mouth.
A
are some unique aspects of QWhat the course?
BY JORDAN KONELL STAFF REPORTER
DRACULA With songs, laughs and puppets, the Yale Cabaret takes on Mac Wellman’s “absurdist, psychosexual” adaptation of Stoker’s tale of the iconic bloodsucker.
7 - 9:30 P.M. THURS. FEB. 16
resources, because our own collections have helped us define who we are and consequently what this exhibit is about.” The Law Library has been acquiring works about Shakespeare and the law since the early 20th century, Chrisholm said, adding that this emerging academic subfield has a lot to offer. Along with Yoshino’s book, Chrisholm said the exhibit will feature articles from the Yale Journal of Law and the Humanities, a graduate student publication that explores the intersec-
tion between law and the liberal arts. The show also displays literary and legal scholarship, Shakespearean texts relating to the law and recordings from Shakespeare’s plays including “Measure for Measure” and “As You Like It,” accessible to visitors in the library’s reading room. English professor David Kastan, who originated this semester’s celebration of the Bard, said in an email that Law School Dean Robert Post LAW ’77 asked how the Law School could be involved
with Shakespeare at Yale last year. Chrisholm said she worked with her fellow members of the library’s communications committee to organize the exhibit as part of a plan to give the Law Library’s collections greater visibility and a stronger presence in campus life. The exhibit will be on view through Aug. 15. Contact ALEKSANDRA GJORGIEVSKA at aleksandra.gjorgievska@yale.edu .
Prof talks Bard, jigs, lute songs
Davenport College, PiersonDavenport Theater, 248 York St.
Yale Cabaret, 217 Park St.
JENNIFER CHEUNG/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
The exhibit “Shakespeare and the Law,” on view at the Lillian Goldman Law Library through Aug. 15, features items from the library’s collection.
LEFT: YDN, RIGHT: NICK THIGPEN
On the weekends, Drama School students write, direct and perform in Cabaret shows including “Hong Kong Dinosaur” and “TRANNEQUIN!”
Newly digitized, comics teach Trojan War BY URVI NOPANY STAFF REPORTER With the help of one Yale alum, a ’90s historical comic book series is gaining a new, educational edge. Thomas Beasley GRD ’09 said in a Tuesday talk at Sterling Memorial Library that he hopes to put a modern twist on the study of ancient Greek history with the publication of a reader’s guide to a comic book series about the Trojan War, “Age of Bronze.” The digital media publisher Throwaway Horse is currently adapting creator Eric Shanower’s 31-issue comic series into a digital format. In reconfiguring the comic, Throwaway Horse brought in Beasley, a classics scholar, to write an embedded page-by-page reader’s guide
for each issue, which acts as a didactic extension of the comics describing the Greek mythological figures referenced in the material and providing historical context for each story. Since the project’s inception in October 2011, three issues of the newly digitized comic have been made available for the iPad. Beasley said that the comic series could be useful in academic settings, as the series seeks to represent the full length of the 10-year-long Trojan War and not just the last few years covered in the epics of Homer. “While the books are not well-known in the academic community yet,” said Beasley. “They would be ideal for a class on the Trojan war because they are less anachronistic than [the works of] Homer.”
The guide is intended as an academic jumping-off point for those whose curiosity about Greek history and mythology is piqued by the comics, Beasley said the guide is intended as an academic jumping-off point for a reader whose curiosity about Greek history and mythology may be aroused by the comics. The guide is also equipped with a discussion forum, Beasley said, to enable readers to engage in conversations about the material. The guide includes biographies of key characters, as well as maps of the region and descriptions of Bronze Age paintings and pottery that inspired the comic’s style. But the series and the guide are not meant to substitute for Homer’s works, Beasley noted. “It doesn’t seek to replace any of the
texts from which it draws,” Beasley said. “I certainly wouldn’t recommend reading it instead of reading the works of Homer.”
You could just use [the series] for fun or you could use it for some really serious investigations. LINDSAY KING Librarian, Robert B. Haas Family Arts Library Audience members interviewed said they appreciated Beasley’s attempt to make the classics more easily accessible to a broader audience. “It has a wide range,” said Lindsay
King, a librarian at the Robert B. Haas Family Arts Library. “You could use it just for fun or you could use it for some really serious investigations.” Caroline Caizzi, King’s colleague at the Haas Arts Library, said that while many would typically associate the Classics Department with a traditional teaching style, she appreciated the unconventionality and visual nature of comics as a medium for education. Beasley’s talk is a part of the Teaching with Technology lecture series held in the International Room of Sterling Memorial Library every Tuesday. Contact URVI NOPANY at urvi.nopany@yale.edu .
Judith Malafronte, professor at the Institute of Sacred Music and a mezzo-soprano soloist in opera, oratorio and recital, is teaching Shakespeare and Music this semester, a new course in the Freshman Seminar program. Malafronte talked to the News about how she shaped the course and her favorite Shakespearean works.
I designed the course myself and took the idea to the freshman seminar committee and the Department of Music. It includes material very dear to me, such as Elizabethan music, Restoration theatre and grand opera, all within the context of five of Shakespeare plays. It seemed a perfect fit with the semester-long Shakespeare at Yale celebration.
material is covered in the QWhat course?
A
We’re examining the earliest song settings along with stage directions that call for music. Then we’re seeing what the Restoration theatre producers did to these plays — basically they turned them into blockbuster musicals with expensive sets, singing and dancing witches, and flying fairies. And finally we’ll study
A
Later on we’ll be visiting the Historical Sound Archive here at Yale in order to listen to recordings of singers who actually worked with Verdi on his Shakespeare operas, and we’ll be taking a trip to New York City to see the Metropolitan Opera’s production of Verdi’s “Macbeth” with [baritone] Thomas Hampson.
experiences do you personQWhat ally have with Shakespeare and music?
A
I’ve been watching Shakespeare plays since I was little, hanging around the American Shakespeare Theater in Stratford, Conn., where I grew up. It probably started with June Havoc sprinkling Titania’s fairy
dust on me backstage, and watching my little brother as one of the apparitions in Macbeth! As a professional singer I’ve performed a lot of Elizabethan music, lute songs, madrigals, ballads, jigs, sacred music — you name it, in costume or out. I’ve worked at the Ashland, Ore. Shakespeare Festival as a strolling musician. Here at Yale I’ve organized many student concerts of Elizabethan and Jacobean music, Shakespeare song settings and even a fully staged reconstruction of the 1638 Stuart court masque “Britannia Triumphans.” The resources at Yale are amazing, and I love collaborating with colleagues in other departments. is your favorite ShakespearQWhat ean play?
A
I generally answer “The Tempest,” but I love “Twelfth Night,” “Othello,” “Macbeth” and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” all of which we’re studying. I also have a soft spot for “Henry VI, Part I” with Joan of Arc, “Richard II” and “Richard III,” but with virtually no musical issues, it would have been a stretch to include them in the syllabus!
QWhat is an average class like?
A
The actual class time involves several different learning modalities. I like to throw a lot of material into the mix, because you never know
what will light the spark in students who come from such varied backgrounds. We’ve learned a few songs by rote, we read aloud from facsimiles of 17th century prints — the students are no longer stumbling over those Ss that look like Fs — and we visited the Beinecke Library to see some early printed musical material. We also had a fantastic mini-tour of the “Remembering Shakespeare” exhibit [led] by its co-curator Kathryn James. teach this class as a freshman QWhy seminar?
A
Grading is the only part of teaching that I really hate. It’s so obvious when students are engaged, and so thrilling when you see their curiosity leading them into exploration. I love it when students write to me three or four years later about something we did in class that emerged in a new context. We do have some short assignments, plus a mid-term paper looking at the instrumental and vocal requirements for one specific play, and assessing the music choices in a production viewed live or on video. The final project is going to be student-driven, and with the high level of creativity and energy, I’m counting on these projects to expose me to new material as well. Part of why I designed the course is to learn more! Contact JORDAN KONELL at jordan.konell@yale.edu .
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ARTS & CULTURE 12:15 P.M. WED. FEB. 15 TAYLORISM AND OUTSOURCING: THE HITCHCOCK CHAIR AS PROTOINDUSTRIAL OBJECT Edward S. Cooke, Jr., the Charles F. Montgomery Professor of American Decorative Arts and Material Culture, gives a gallery talk on the maximizing job fragmenting inherent in the classic Connecticut throne. As the Hitchcock Chair Co. asks in its official documentation, “Does furniture make the room, or do people and time?” It turns out that sometimes outsourced labor makes all of the furniture.
In part because the Yale Law School was one of the first in the nation to admit women, Lillian Goldman donated over $20 million to the school in 1992, which its dean called “probably the biggest gift in the history of American legal education.” The library contains neary 800,000 print volumes and 10,000 active serial titles.
Drama applications continue 3-year high
Exploring Shakespeare and the law
GRAPH DRAMA SCHOOL APPLICATIONS
936 981 1095 1227 1224 1143 1037 1165 1211 1281 1520 1446 1369
THIS WEEK IN THE ARTS
Lillian Goldman Law Library
4:30 P.M. WED. FEB. 15 REMEMBERING THE CORPUS: THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SHAKESPEARE English professor and originator of the Shakespeare at Yale intiative David Scott Kastan will deliver the keynote address at the opening of “Remembering Shakespeare,” an exhibit of Yale’s Shakespearean materials at the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, 121 Wall St.
4:30 P.M - 5:30 P.M. WED. FEB. 15 MASTER’S TEA WITH RACHEL SALTZ New York Times film critic Rachel Saltz, known for her reviews of Bollywood film, will give a Pierson College Master’s Tea in collaboration with the South Asian Film Society. Pierson College, 231 Park St.
7 - 8 P.M. WED. FEB. 15 YALE PIANISTS PERFORM AT STEINWAY HALL Three graduate students at the Yale School of Music — Wayne Weng, Ron Michael and Charles Richard-Hamelin) — will perform on the piano in a concert at Steinway Hall. Steinway Hall, 109-113 West 57th St., New York
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
Yale University Art Gallery, 1111 Chapel St.
BY AKBAR AHMED STAFF REPORTER With applications for fall 2012 admission to the Yale School of Drama received and counted, administrators said the school is continuing a three-year high in application levels. By the school’s final application deadline in early February, 1,369 applications had been received for places in the school’s nine Master of Fine Arts degree programs, according to figures provided by Maria Leveton, the school’s registrar and admissions administrator. Applications have exceeded 1,300 for the third year since 2010, when they peaked at 1,520. For the eight admissions cycles before that, the number of applications ranged between 1,037 and 1,281 — a level that School of Drama Associate Dean Joan Channick DRA ’89 said application counts are unlikely to return to. “I don’t think we’re going to go back to 11-1200,” Channick said. “The new ‘normal’ is going to be more at this higher level.” Channick added that 2010 was an outlier year: applications rose 30 percent from 2007 to 2010 and have fallen 10 percent over the last two years. James Bundy DRA ’95, the school’s dean, said that reasons for application growth may include students’ uncertainty about their prospects in the current job market, the program’s pre-eminence in the field and the increased affordability of a School of Drama education. Channick agreed that these three fac-
tors have been the main drivers of the recent jump in applications, adding that administrators have noted particularly significant increases for departments in which the school has recently appointed notable figures as chairs. “The new department chairs hired over the last decade, like Ron Van Lieu for acting, Paula Vogel for playwriting and Ed Martenson for theater management, have been experienced, prominent and superb, which has definitely attracted students,” Channick said. Students apply to one of the School of Drama’s nine areas of study, which include Acting, Playwriting, Directing and Stage Management. The admissions process for each program is conducted independently; the concentrations require unique application materials and have separate deadlines. With their most recent hires, Matthew Gutschick DRA ’12 said, the school has raised the profile of concentrations other than the historically competitive acting and playwriting programs. As a theater management concentrator, Gutschick said that he applied to no other graduate programs but was specifically drawn to Yale because of its reputation and faculty. He said he was particularly driven to apply after reading an American Theatre Magazine interview with Martenson, the chair of the program he ultimately applied to, which Gutschick said he found “thoughtprovoking.” Channick said that significant improvements in financial aid for students, an initiative that has been a priority for Bundy
since his appointment in 2002, have made the school increasingly affordable and attractive to applicants. She added that when she graduated from the school in 1989, she owed her alma mater $20,000 in debt, a financial burden she said she is glad students today do not have to experience. Today, students will never be asked to take out more than $6,000 in loans to help pay for their education, a change enacted during Bundy’s tenure, though they may borrow more if they so choose. “We now provide more robust aid, based on capital gifts and the president and
Now 93 percent of our students are on financial aid … the balance has really shifted. JOAN CHANNICK DRA ’89 Associate dean, Yale School of Drama provost’s decision, with the support of the Yale Corporation, to … allocate more [University] endowment income to financial aid [at the school],” Bundy said. The school increased grants and reduced loans in financial aid packages between 2002 and 2008, Bundy said. Including personal loans and debts to the school, the average indebtedness of School of Drama students has gone from $52,600 in 2005 to $16,600 today, Channick said. She added that the school’s tuition, which has been frozen at $26,250 since 2008, and finan-
EARL LEE/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
The Yale School of Drama has seen an increase in applications to its MFA program in recent years. cial aid packages makes it more attractive than comparable schools with less generous financial assistance packages. Channick said the School of Drama’s financial aid budget has grown from $1.4 million before Bundy’s appointment to $6.1 million today, adding that the average student now contributes, via loans and his or her personal funds, only 16 percent of the cost of his or her education, compared to 57 percent in 2002. “Now, 93 percent of our students are on financial aid, they graduate with only $6,000 in loans and aid covers 84 percent of their expenses,” Channick said. “The balance has really shifted.” Nikki Delhomme DRA ’13, a costume design concentrator who was admitted in 2010, said she would not have been able to return to school had it not been for the School of Drama’s extensive financial aid program. While considering her options for graduate school, Delhomme said she found that Yale provided significantly more support than peer institutions such as New York University and the California Institute of the Arts. The school may become even more financially appealing to applicants soon. Bundy said that eliminating tuition and establishing stipends for students are key goals of his in the years ahead. After receiving a $100 million donation in 2005, the School of Music ended tuition for its students. Channick said that the uncertainty of job security in the recession may have accounted for the original peak in applications. But with the economic recov-
ery in the years since 2010, Channick said that the economy may not be inspiring increased applications as much as increased awareness about the School of Drama’s aid policies. The school has experienced a falling admissions rate due to the fact that programs have not increased the number of students they admit. The Acting Department, for instance, continues to be capped at 16 students, while directing takes only 3 new students each year. Bundy said the school experienced a “modest but meaningful expansion” in student enrollment with the creation of a new projection design concentration in 2010, which accepts two students per year and will have increased the student body by 3.5 percent by this fall. Bundy added that he does not anticipate any new programs to be introduced in the near future. “I don’t think we’re in an expansion mode,” Channick said. “I don’t think we’ll ever be ‘big.’” She added that the school’s ongoing curriculum review program may recommend that the school put up fewer productions each year because the current calendar seems “frenzied,” a choice that could lower the number of students admitted. Channick said that a precedent was set for such a move some years ago, when the number of playwrights and directors admitted was reduced. Applicants will be notified about admissions decisions in early April. Contact AKBAR AHMED at akbar.ahmed@yale.edu .
THURS. FEB. 16 SUN. FEB. 19 THE DEADLY SEVEN: SHAKESPEARE’S PURGATORIO A showcase of Shakesperean scenes and monologues that focus on the Seven Deadly Sins, with speeches by characters including Falstaff, Cleopatra, Richard III and Shylock.
BY ALEKSANDRA GJORGIEVSKA STAFF REPORTER Opening today, a new exhibit featuring the Yale Law Library’s collection of books and student publications will bridge Shakespeare’s works and the law. Part of the Shakespeare at Yale initiative, “Shakespeare and the Law” explores the role of British law in the context of Shakespearean plays. Margaret Chisholm, a librarian at the Lillian Goldman Law Library, where the show is on view, said that many people are not aware of the academic field focusing on manifestations of law in Shakespeare’s works. This exhibit aims to raise interest in this area of study by placing Shakespeare in a modern legal context, she said. At the heart of the exhibit is a book written by Kenji Yoshino LAW ’96 titled “A Thousand Times More Fair: What Shakespeare’s Plays Teach Us About Justice,” published in 2011. The book explores justice in contemporary society through the lens of Shakespeare’s greatest plays. Chrisholm, who worked closely with Michael Widener, the Law School’s rare book librarian, to curate the exhibit, said that drawing on the Law Library’s own resources, rather than borrowing from other institutions, was a crucial aspect of the exhibit’s organization. She added that the help of former and current students and faculty of the Law School was essential to the formation of the show. “We didn’t want to borrow books from other libraries,” Chisholm said. “We felt that we should show ourselves as we are, without any additional
THURS. FEB. 16 SAT. FEB. 18
BLUE VALENTINE Screening of “Blue Valentine,” the story of a marriage in which things fall apart, starring Michele Williams and Ryan Gosling. Question and answer with producer Jack Lechner to follow. Whitney Humanities Center, 53 Wall St.
MON. FEB. 13 - FRI. MAY. 18 YALE’S SHAKESPEAREANS Drawing on university records and materials, “Yale’s Shakespeareans” focuses on the role that the works of the Bard have played in the Yale classroom. Sterling Memorial Library, Memorabilia Room, 120 High St.
was the impetus for this QWhat course on Shakespeare and music?
some operatic versions from the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. [Students are] also getting a basic introduction to music history and to opera and developing listening skills, such as the way composers use orchestral instruments and different voice types for specific effects. But there’s also text study. Those Restoration adapters worked over Shakespeare’s syntax pretty heavily, and opera librettists shaped the stories significantly — not to mention putting Italian words into [“Henry IV” and “V” character] Falstaff’s mouth.
A
are some unique aspects of QWhat the course?
BY JORDAN KONELL STAFF REPORTER
DRACULA With songs, laughs and puppets, the Yale Cabaret takes on Mac Wellman’s “absurdist, psychosexual” adaptation of Stoker’s tale of the iconic bloodsucker.
7 - 9:30 P.M. THURS. FEB. 16
resources, because our own collections have helped us define who we are and consequently what this exhibit is about.” The Law Library has been acquiring works about Shakespeare and the law since the early 20th century, Chrisholm said, adding that this emerging academic subfield has a lot to offer. Along with Yoshino’s book, Chrisholm said the exhibit will feature articles from the Yale Journal of Law and the Humanities, a graduate student publication that explores the intersec-
tion between law and the liberal arts. The show also displays literary and legal scholarship, Shakespearean texts relating to the law and recordings from Shakespeare’s plays including “Measure for Measure” and “As You Like It,” accessible to visitors in the library’s reading room. English professor David Kastan, who originated this semester’s celebration of the Bard, said in an email that Law School Dean Robert Post LAW ’77 asked how the Law School could be involved
with Shakespeare at Yale last year. Chrisholm said she worked with her fellow members of the library’s communications committee to organize the exhibit as part of a plan to give the Law Library’s collections greater visibility and a stronger presence in campus life. The exhibit will be on view through Aug. 15. Contact ALEKSANDRA GJORGIEVSKA at aleksandra.gjorgievska@yale.edu .
Prof talks Bard, jigs, lute songs
Davenport College, PiersonDavenport Theater, 248 York St.
Yale Cabaret, 217 Park St.
JENNIFER CHEUNG/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
The exhibit “Shakespeare and the Law,” on view at the Lillian Goldman Law Library through Aug. 15, features items from the library’s collection.
LEFT: YDN, RIGHT: NICK THIGPEN
On the weekends, Drama School students write, direct and perform in Cabaret shows including “Hong Kong Dinosaur” and “TRANNEQUIN!”
Newly digitized, comics teach Trojan War BY URVI NOPANY STAFF REPORTER With the help of one Yale alum, a ’90s historical comic book series is gaining a new, educational edge. Thomas Beasley GRD ’09 said in a Tuesday talk at Sterling Memorial Library that he hopes to put a modern twist on the study of ancient Greek history with the publication of a reader’s guide to a comic book series about the Trojan War, “Age of Bronze.” The digital media publisher Throwaway Horse is currently adapting creator Eric Shanower’s 31-issue comic series into a digital format. In reconfiguring the comic, Throwaway Horse brought in Beasley, a classics scholar, to write an embedded page-by-page reader’s guide
for each issue, which acts as a didactic extension of the comics describing the Greek mythological figures referenced in the material and providing historical context for each story. Since the project’s inception in October 2011, three issues of the newly digitized comic have been made available for the iPad. Beasley said that the comic series could be useful in academic settings, as the series seeks to represent the full length of the 10-year-long Trojan War and not just the last few years covered in the epics of Homer. “While the books are not well-known in the academic community yet,” said Beasley. “They would be ideal for a class on the Trojan war because they are less anachronistic than [the works of] Homer.”
The guide is intended as an academic jumping-off point for those whose curiosity about Greek history and mythology is piqued by the comics, Beasley said the guide is intended as an academic jumping-off point for a reader whose curiosity about Greek history and mythology may be aroused by the comics. The guide is also equipped with a discussion forum, Beasley said, to enable readers to engage in conversations about the material. The guide includes biographies of key characters, as well as maps of the region and descriptions of Bronze Age paintings and pottery that inspired the comic’s style. But the series and the guide are not meant to substitute for Homer’s works, Beasley noted. “It doesn’t seek to replace any of the
texts from which it draws,” Beasley said. “I certainly wouldn’t recommend reading it instead of reading the works of Homer.”
You could just use [the series] for fun or you could use it for some really serious investigations. LINDSAY KING Librarian, Robert B. Haas Family Arts Library Audience members interviewed said they appreciated Beasley’s attempt to make the classics more easily accessible to a broader audience. “It has a wide range,” said Lindsay
King, a librarian at the Robert B. Haas Family Arts Library. “You could use it just for fun or you could use it for some really serious investigations.” Caroline Caizzi, King’s colleague at the Haas Arts Library, said that while many would typically associate the Classics Department with a traditional teaching style, she appreciated the unconventionality and visual nature of comics as a medium for education. Beasley’s talk is a part of the Teaching with Technology lecture series held in the International Room of Sterling Memorial Library every Tuesday. Contact URVI NOPANY at urvi.nopany@yale.edu .
Judith Malafronte, professor at the Institute of Sacred Music and a mezzo-soprano soloist in opera, oratorio and recital, is teaching Shakespeare and Music this semester, a new course in the Freshman Seminar program. Malafronte talked to the News about how she shaped the course and her favorite Shakespearean works.
I designed the course myself and took the idea to the freshman seminar committee and the Department of Music. It includes material very dear to me, such as Elizabethan music, Restoration theatre and grand opera, all within the context of five of Shakespeare plays. It seemed a perfect fit with the semester-long Shakespeare at Yale celebration.
material is covered in the QWhat course?
A
We’re examining the earliest song settings along with stage directions that call for music. Then we’re seeing what the Restoration theatre producers did to these plays — basically they turned them into blockbuster musicals with expensive sets, singing and dancing witches, and flying fairies. And finally we’ll study
A
Later on we’ll be visiting the Historical Sound Archive here at Yale in order to listen to recordings of singers who actually worked with Verdi on his Shakespeare operas, and we’ll be taking a trip to New York City to see the Metropolitan Opera’s production of Verdi’s “Macbeth” with [baritone] Thomas Hampson.
experiences do you personQWhat ally have with Shakespeare and music?
A
I’ve been watching Shakespeare plays since I was little, hanging around the American Shakespeare Theater in Stratford, Conn., where I grew up. It probably started with June Havoc sprinkling Titania’s fairy
dust on me backstage, and watching my little brother as one of the apparitions in Macbeth! As a professional singer I’ve performed a lot of Elizabethan music, lute songs, madrigals, ballads, jigs, sacred music — you name it, in costume or out. I’ve worked at the Ashland, Ore. Shakespeare Festival as a strolling musician. Here at Yale I’ve organized many student concerts of Elizabethan and Jacobean music, Shakespeare song settings and even a fully staged reconstruction of the 1638 Stuart court masque “Britannia Triumphans.” The resources at Yale are amazing, and I love collaborating with colleagues in other departments. is your favorite ShakespearQWhat ean play?
A
I generally answer “The Tempest,” but I love “Twelfth Night,” “Othello,” “Macbeth” and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” all of which we’re studying. I also have a soft spot for “Henry VI, Part I” with Joan of Arc, “Richard II” and “Richard III,” but with virtually no musical issues, it would have been a stretch to include them in the syllabus!
QWhat is an average class like?
A
The actual class time involves several different learning modalities. I like to throw a lot of material into the mix, because you never know
what will light the spark in students who come from such varied backgrounds. We’ve learned a few songs by rote, we read aloud from facsimiles of 17th century prints — the students are no longer stumbling over those Ss that look like Fs — and we visited the Beinecke Library to see some early printed musical material. We also had a fantastic mini-tour of the “Remembering Shakespeare” exhibit [led] by its co-curator Kathryn James. teach this class as a freshman QWhy seminar?
A
Grading is the only part of teaching that I really hate. It’s so obvious when students are engaged, and so thrilling when you see their curiosity leading them into exploration. I love it when students write to me three or four years later about something we did in class that emerged in a new context. We do have some short assignments, plus a mid-term paper looking at the instrumental and vocal requirements for one specific play, and assessing the music choices in a production viewed live or on video. The final project is going to be student-driven, and with the high level of creativity and energy, I’m counting on these projects to expose me to new material as well. Part of why I designed the course is to learn more! Contact JORDAN KONELL at jordan.konell@yale.edu .
PAGE 10
YALE DAILY NEWS · WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
NATION
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S Oil $101.32, +0.57%
Congress eyes payroll tax pact
Harsh penalty on Iran considered BY JULIE PACE AND ANNE GEARAN ASSOCIATED PRESS
J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada talks to reporters about the impasse among the payroll tax conferees on Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2012, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. BY ANDREW TAYLOR ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON — House-Senate talks on renewing a payroll tax cut that delivers about $20 a week to the average worker yielded a tentative agreement Tuesday, with lawmakers hopeful of unveiling the pact Wednesday and sending the measure to President Barack Obama as early as this week. Under the outlines of the emerging agreement, a 2 percentage-point cut in the Social Security payroll tax would be extended through the end of the year, with the nearly $100 billion cost added to the deficit. Jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed would be renewed as well, with the $30 billion or so cost paid for in part through auctioning broadcast spectrum to wireless companies and requiring federal workers to contribute more toward their pensions.
Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, said it was described to lawmakers as a tentative agreement. The payroll tax cut and renewing jobless benefits were key planks in Obama’s jobs program, which was announced in September. The payroll tax cut benefits 160 million Americans and delivers a tax cut of about $20 a week for a typical worker making $50,000 a year. People making a $100,000 salary would get a $2,000 tax cut. The deal would not only be a win for Obama but would take the payroll tax fight — which put Republicans on the defensive — off the table for the fall election campaign. “The mood is to get it off the table,” freshman Rep. Dennis Ross, R-Fla., said. “We’ve got to move on to another issue.” The agreement also would avert a huge cut in Medicare payments to doctors, financed by cuts elsewhere in the federal health care budget, GOP and
Democratic aides said. The pact received a mixed but generally positive reception from rank and file House Republicans, who discussed the matter at a meeting Tuesday evening. Aides in both parties said Senate Democrats were largely rebuffed in an effort to renew a package of expired tax breaks for individuals and businesses, including clean energy tax credits cherished by Democrats. A tax break sought by businesses that purchase new equipment was dropped as well. A GOP aide, who required anonymity to discuss the talks, said negotiators were finalizing an agreement on reducing the number of weeks jobless workers would be eligible to receive unemployment benefits to a maximum of 63 weeks in most states. People in states with very high unemployment rates would be eligible additional weeks. Maximum benefits are now 99 weeks in states with the highest jobless rates.
Santorum enjoys momentum BY STEVE PEOPLES ASSOCIATED PRESS BOISE, Idaho. — The latest Republican to surge in polls, Rick Santorum is trying to turn his newfound strength into something lasting. Curious Republicans now pack his rallies. Supporters have funneled nearly $4 million to his formerly empty campaign account over the past seven days. And his staff is plotting an aggressive strategy to challenge Mitt Romney in Romney’s native Michigan and beyond. But things don’t look so strong just beneath the surface. Santorum is underfunded and outmanned. He’s still lacking in organization, a month and a half into the primary season. And, after he won three contests in a single day last week, his opponents — on the right and the left — have begun their own efforts to tear him down. An upbeat Santorum declared “We’re building” in a brief interview in Tacoma, Wash., on Tuesday before heading to Idaho for
campaign events. “We’ve got a great volunteer base. In some states we’re going to have staff. Other states we aren’t. We’re going to use volunteers.”
I don’t know a lot about him, except I know he’s more conservative than some of the other candidates like Mitt Romney. TANYA FRANKLIN His challenges were on display this week in Tacoma, where hundreds of supporters waited on cold, wet cement stairs in the dark to see the Republican presidential candidate with whom they’re barely familiar. “I don’t know a lot about him, except I know he’s more conservative than some of the other
candidates like Mitt Romney,” said Tanya Franklin, a 54-yearold airline reservationist, who says she’ll probably vote for Santorum in her state’s March 3 caucuses. The former Pennsylvania senator has surged to a virtual tie with Romney in nationwide polling following his surprising sweep in Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri last week. But, as Franklin suggests, his popularity may have less to do with who he is than who he isn’t. Santorum is not Romney. And with Newt Gingrich’s recent decline, that’s enough for some conservatives at least for now. Santorum had 30 percent support to 28 percent for Romney in a national poll released this week by the Pew Research Center. But the same poll said 31 percent of all adults had never heard of or couldn’t rate him. That’s a significantly higher number than for Romney, Gingrich, or Ron Paul. Even among Republicans, one in five told Pew they didn’t know enough about Santorum to rate him.
WASHINGTON — The United States and Europe are considering unprecedented punishment against Iran that could immediately cripple the country’s financial lifeline. But it’s an extreme option in the banking world that would come with its own costs. The Obama administration wants Iran evicted from SWIFT, an independent financial clearinghouse that is crucial to the country’s overseas oil sales. That would leapfrog the current slowpressure campaign of sanctions aimed at persuading Iran to drop what the U.S. and its allies contend is a drive toward developing and building nuclear weapons. It also perhaps would buy time for the U.S. to persuade Israel not to launch a pre-emptive military strike on Iran this spring. The last-resort financial effort suggests the U.S. and Europe are grasping for ways to show immediate results because economic sanctions have so far failed to force Iran back to nuclear talks But such a penalty could send oil prices soaring when many of the world’s economies are still frail. It also could hurt ordinary Iranians and undercut the reputation of SWIFT, a banking hub used by virtually every nation and corporation around the world. The organization’s full name is the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications. Meanwhile, violence is increasing. Explosions in Bangkok on Tuesday — Israel’s defense minister labeled them an “attempted terrorist attack” — came the day after Israel accused
Iran of trying to kill its diplomats in India and Georgia. Those attacks followed the recent killings of Iranian scientists. In the financial world, the United States can’t order SWIFT to kick Iran out. But it has leverage in that it can punish the Brussels-based organization’s board of directors. Talks are focused now on having Europe make the first move. Short of total expulsion, Washington and representatives of several European nations are in talks over ways to restrict Iran’s use of the banking consortium to collect oil profits. The Obama administration is divided over whether the possible gain is worth the risk in trying to threaten SWIFT into kicking out a member country, in part because of concern that it would set back the global financial recovery. Iran remains a global financial player despite years of banking sanctions, and blocking it from using the respected transfer system would be a black mark like no other. More than 40 Iranian banks and institutions use SWIFT to process financial transactions, and losing access to that flow of international funds could badly damage the Islamic republic’s economy. It would also probably hurt average Iranians more than the welter of existing banking sanctions already in place since prices for household goods would rise while the value of Iranian currency would drop. Lawyers for SWIFT are holding meetings in Washington. People familiar with the talks say a compromise is possible in which SWIFT would voluntarily bar or restrict Iranian transfers.
YALE DAILY NEWS · WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
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BULLETIN BOARD
TODAY’S FORECAST
TOMORROW
FRIDAY
High of 44, low of 36.
Slight chance of rain and snow. Cloudy, with a high near 50.
High of 50, low of 29.
SCIENCE HILL BY SPENCER KATZ
ON CAMPUS THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 16 4:00 PM Baraka’s Newark: Performing Black Arts. Lytle Shaw, assoicate professor of English at New York University, will talk about his work in progress. The discussion will focus on a chapter entitled “Baraka’s Neward: Performing Black Arts.” LinslyChittenden Hall (63 High St.), Room 319. 6:30 PM Cross Culture Identities-Feminism and Sexuality in South Asia. Dr. Geetanjali Chanda, senior lecturer in the Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies Department, and Dr. Madhavi Murty, a visiting international professor and expert in WGSS, will address vital questions related to the role of women and perspectives on sexuality in South Asia. William L. Harkness Hall (100 Wall St.), Room 116.
THAT MONKEY TUNE BY MICHAEL KANDALAFT
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17 7:30 PM Yale Anime Society Presents: Zipang. Japan’s newest destroyer sets sail for a training exercise with the United States Navy. Enroute, they encounter a strage meteorological anomaly, which causes them to be transported back in time 60 years to the Battle of Midway. Saybrook College (242 Elm St.), TV room. 8:00 PM I <3 Dpops. Dpops will perform a concert of romantic ballads and classics. Pieces on the program include: “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “I Will Survive” and music by Frank Sinatra. Battell Chapel (400 College St.).
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 18 9:00 AM First Annual Progressive Principles at Yale Conference. Activists, journalists, intellectuals, academics and artists will come to campus for informal, egalitarian discussions about the ideas and identities that make up the vision for the future of the new progressivism. Willaim L. Harkness Hall (100 Wall St.).
DOONESBURY BY GARRY TRUDEAU
8:00 PM Yale Symphony Orchestra Presents Robinson, Hindemith, and Liszt. The YSO will feature internationally acclaimed pianist Idil Birert along with guest conductor Michael Li ‘12. Woolsey Hall (500 College St.).
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CROSSWORD ACROSS 1 Superfluous thing 6 Copy room unit 10 Good-sized building site 14 __, meenie ... 15 Best way to make a mistake 16 Like a fly ball that hits the foul pole, ironically 17 *Classic little red wagon 19 Thomas __ Edison 20 Old AT&T rival 21 Dockworker’s gp. 22 Sign of the Ram 23 Tchotchke stand 26 O’er and o’er 28 VW forerunners? 29 Fifth canonical hour 30 *Memorable, as a day 33 Part of DOT: Abbr. 34 Marvin or Majors 35 Bern’s river 36 They’re not in the in-crowd ... and read differently, what each starred answer has two of 40 Humorist Bombeck 43 Snitch 44 Video game pioneer 48 *One seeding clouds 51 Animal toxin 52 Berlin conjunction 53 Tarzan raiser 54 Comes out of hiding 56 Wooden peg 58 Yoko from Tokyo 59 Tokyo, before 1868 60 Currier’s partner 61 *Knee-slapper 65 Experiment 66 Soothing additive 67 Doting aunt, perhaps 68 Art Deco master 69 Heckle 70 More than reasonable interest
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DOWN 1 Turn to wine, as grape juice 2 *Nuclear plant sight 3 Home to Purdue 4 Full deck at Caesar’s palace? 5 “Seinfeld” uncle 6 *Suitcase lugger’s aid 7 “Shepherd Moons” Grammy winner 8 Unreturnable serve 9 Sea, in Paris 10 Out yonder 11 Actress Flockhart 12 *Rosie’s role 13 Puzzle solver’s smudge 18 Commonly decorated tree 22 Consumed 24 Columbus, by birth 25 “Mi casa __ casa” 26 Scarfed down too much, with “on” 27 Run for the hills 31 In-crowd 32 Busy employee of a paranoid king 37 Snare 38 “Oh, for pity’s __!”
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39 “Must-see” review 40 Scholarly 41 *Broke up late, as a meeting 42 3-Down’s region 45 “And Still I Rise” poet 46 *Short-antlered animal 47 “Forgive me” 49 Practice opening?
2/15/12
50 *One paying a flat fee? 55 Pierre, to Pierre 57 Tequila sunrise direction 58 Bassoon kin 61 Indian rule from 1858 to 1947 62 __ de la Cité 63 Hosp. heart ward 64 Ring victories, briefly
9 7 6 2 8 1 7 3 3 2 5 5 9 7 2 7 4 6 9
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YALE DAILY NEWS · WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
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SPORTS Lin highlights Ivy League success stories LIN FROM PAGE 14 begging head coach Mike D’Antoni to give Lin more time. Jersey sales were through the roof, and even Kobe Bryant was expressing his surprise that such talent had been overlooked for so long. Since that date, Lin has started five of six games and led his team to six straight wins despite the absence of, at times, both Knick superstars Anthony and Amare Stoudemire. And for those who wondered how he would react when he struggled, Lin answered many questions last night when he struggled early (a career-high 11 turnovers), but came on strong late to finish with 11 assists, 27 points (12 in a fourth-quarter comeback), and the game-winning three in the waning seconds. Doubted and even written off out of high school and college, Lin is re-proving himself night in and night out as he grows into — at least for this short, short stretch — an NBA star. Such is the struggle against preconceived notions faced by all Ivy League pro hopefuls. Lin’s story is one familiar to Ivy League fans, even if its (so far) happy ending is uncommon. But Lin hasn’t drawn support solely from the Ivy League crowd. Rather, his appeal is widespread. Most Asian-Americans support the first American-born Chinese or Taiwanese representative in the NBA to date. Knicks fans are hoping he’s the missing cog in a run to the top of the Eastern Conference, and pretty much everyone else who watches pro basketball is loving his improbable swag. Everyone is falling in love with the atypical NBA’er: an Asian-American, Harvard alum exchanging chest bumps with ’Melo and inspiring hip hop tracks. Jeremy Lin is an embodiment of many standout Ivy Leaguers like him, and everyone loves him and his story. He’s making the struggle of the big talent from the overlooked Ivy League relatable, lovable, and a slightly revised version of the classic American sports success story of determination and self-belief. Through Lin, the Ivy League athlete’s story is becoming a tale to which American sports fans can relate in a way they haven’t been able to before. Lin is the first Ivy Leaguer to hit the NBA hardwood since Yale’s own Chris Dudley in 2003. And with all due respect to Dudley, who is certainly due a great deal of it after playing 16 years with five different NBA teams, Lin may be the most visible face of Ivy Leaguers in the pros in the modern era. Dudley simply never generated the support and interest in his career that Lin’s meteoric rise to NBA prominence has ignited in just two short weeks. Nor did other standouts, some of whom put up some pretty big numbers (see former Princeton center Geoff Petrie, who took home the 1971 Rookie of the Year award and tallied 21.8 points per game in six pro seasons). No, Lin is something special, and a great face for Ivy League athletics. He brings to the foreground the work ethic and solid, fundamental game of the Ivy athlete. Further, the fact that Lin excels most not one-on-one or with flashy moments of brilliance, but rather as a consistent team player exemplifies the best qualities of a college athlete. Lin has generated a following bridging demographics, which makes him the perfect representative for what is an improving and emerging Ivy League athletic scene, slowly but surely shaking its rep of sacrifice to athletic prowess for academic esteem, and showing everyone that both can be combined into success — and swag — at the college level and beyond. Contact CHELSEA JANES at chelsea.janes@yale.edu .
PEOPLE IN THE NEWS JEREMY LIN The Cantab’s hot streak continues. Lin drained a lay-up and a free throw to tie Tuesday night’s game between New York and Toronto with seconds left to play. Then he coolly sunk a three-pointer in the last second of regulation to lift New York to a 90–87 victory.
Lax vies for NCAA bid LACROSSE FROM PAGE 14 Bates said. Bates added that he might expect more teams to want to play Yale now that the Elis have gained a top 20 ranking. But not every team seems to share this opinion. As the coaches negotiate amongst themselves to fill in their nonconference schedule, things can get political. Sometimes teams do not want to play others because a team might not have a solid reputation that season. A team’s chances of getting a committee vote into the NCAA Tournament are diminished if it loses to an unranked team but enhanced if it can pull a victory over a ranked team. Yale, a team which has not historically gained an Inside Lacrosse ranking, is “on the rise” and “getting more hype,” according to team member Kirby Zdrill ’13. Two years ago, Yale was a co-Ivy champion, and it made the Ivy Tournament last year. But the Bulldogs still have difficulty getting some of the more established to agree to matches. “Our reputation is really growing, but it kind of puts us in
a tight spot,” Zdrill said. “Some of the bigger teams might be scared to play us because if they lose to us, it looks really bad for them. But even if they beat us, it doesn’t look that great. We’re a really good team, but we haven’t had a great reputation in the past. So that might be why they are hesitant to schedule games with us.” Shay added that while Yale traveled to Georgetown University last year, the Hoyas would not return the favour this year and visit Yale. Pratt said when Georgetown dropped Yale off of its schedule, the Bulldogs struggled to fill in the spot with another team, as schedules are usually finalized one or two years in advance. Georgetown is not ranked as a top 20 team but did receive a vote in the Inside Lacrosse poll. “Some teams just don’t want to play you,” Shay said. Last year we went down to Georgetown, and they didn’t feel the need to return the favour....They are perennially a pretty good team, but we ended up beating them pretty good, so it’s hard to control.” Georgetown head coach David Urick could not be reached for
comment. If top NCAA teams think they could lose to the Bulldogs, they might not want to face Yale at all, Pratt said. Both Shay and Zdrill added that normally the top two teams in the Ivy League go on to the NCAA tournament. Three times in the past ten years, only one team has advanced, and three times the top three teams have done so. Right now, Yale is Ivy with the second highest ranking, and the Elis hope to get an NCAA bid this year.
If we take care of business in the Ivy League, then we’ll be fine for the postseason. MICHAEL PRATT ’12 Captain, men’s lacrosse “We don’t have the strongest schedule, but everyone in Division I is really good,” Zdrill said. “It’s all about who shows up to play that day, because anybody and beat anybody. If you take down a bigger team, people will respect you a little more. I
think if we make more of a reputation for ourselves by bringing down some of the big teams, we’ll make a little more noise in the lacrosse world and hopefully get a bid.” He noted, however, that Yale “took a little flak” from an Inside Lacrosse panellist for not putting together the most challenging schedule. Pratt added that the coaching tried its best to get the team some top 20 matches, and the team make an effort not to lose against these unranked teams, which could tarnish the Elis’ reputation and prospects for an NCAA bid. “If we take care of business in the Ivy League then we’ll be fine for the postseason,” Pratt said. “It’s a bit of extra incentive to play as best as we can against the teams we do have.” On March 11, Yale will take on Lehigh University, a team nominated for the top 20 that ultimately did not make the cut. Yale’s other competiors include University at Albany, Sacred Heart University, Providence College, Stony Brook University and Bryant University. Contact LINDSEY UNIAT at lindsey.uniat@yale.edu .
YDN
Men’s lacrosse is ranked 13th in the country and is aiming for a bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Gobrecht celebrates career milestone GOBRECHT FROM PAGE 14 the most overrated statistic in sports and she reiterated that sentiment after Friday’s game. “It’s not really that big a deal, just because I’ve been coaching for so long,” Gobrecht, who is in her 32nd season as a Division I head coach, said of her milestone victory. “What means a lot is that there have been a lot of challenges along the way and that so many of these wins have been hardfought battles.” College basketball coaches decide whom they play against
for the entire first half of the season, so they are free to fill their schedules with mid-major pushovers that will pad their win totals, or they can choose to take on national powers that will push their players to the limits of their abilities. Gobrecht said she counts herself in the latter camp. She has always been proud of her tough scheduling and refusal to back down from a challenge, she added. Gobrecht’s journey began at California State University, Fullerton in 1979, long before any of her players were born. At age 24
the university hired her after she finished a distinguished playing career at the University of Southern California and two years of coaching at the high school and community college level. She turned the struggling program around and led the Titans to an 18–12 record in only her third year on the job. In the 1984-’85 season, Gobrecht’s last with Cal State Fullerton, the Titans went 19-11 and claimed their first ever bid to the Women’s National Invitational Tournament. The bid earned Gobrecht recognition as a finalist for national Coach of
MARIA ZEPEDA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
On Friday night, guard Megan Vasquez became the 17th player in team history to score 1000 career points.
the Year. From Cal State Fullerton Gobrecht moved on to the University of Washington, where she remained for 11 years. It was with the Huskies that she enjoyed her greatest success as a coach and where she caught the eye of Yale Athletic Director Tom Beckett, who was associate director of athletics for Stanford at the time. “I got to know Chris watching her teams play back when I was at Stanford,” Beckett said. “She had outstanding teams at Washington, and she took them all the way to the NCAA Tournament many times. We always had tremendous games whenever Stanford played Washington, and I’ve been impressed with her coaching for a long time.” Gobrecht’s finest season at Washington came in 1989-’90, when the Huskies won 28 games and finished with a No. 3 national ranking. They split the Pac-10 conference title with No. 2 Stanford and advanced to the Elite Eight in the NCAA Tournament before falling to Auburn University. Gobrecht’s was also the only team to beat Beckett’s NCAA champion Cardinal that season. Yale’s coach finished her tenure at Washington with 243 wins overall, eight NCAA Tournament bids, three conference championships and two Pac-10 Coach of the Year Awards. But after 11 years, she was ready to move on. In the 2009 interview Gobrecht told the News that although she could have stayed at Washington and built its program into a perennial national power, she wanted to explore other schools and continue to build up programs. “It would’ve been fun,”
Gobrecht said of the opportunity to stay at Washington, “but that’s just not me; I love the challenge of building a program.” Gobrecht was finally lured away from Washington by the opportunity for a fresh start with a new program at Florida State University. The wealth of talent available for recruiting in the south, she said, was also a draw. But after only one season with the Seminoles, she was back in the Pac-10 at the helm of her alma mater, USC. Winning was more difficult for Gobrecht with the Trojans, and she was hurt by her penchant for scheduling the toughest opponents she could find for her team. In the 2002-’03 season, for example, the Trojans lost to three of the previous four national champions: Connecticut, Tennessee and Notre Dame, all during non-conference play. The program was developing, and Gobrecht’s teams did make two WNITs during her time there, but there were no NCAA Tournament berths and the wins simply were not coming fast enough for the school’s administration and Gobrecht was fired after seven seasons at USC. In 2005, after a season away from coaching, Gobrecht made her fourth move, from Southern California all the way across the country to New Haven and Yale. Beckett offered her the position after Amy Backus retired. Baited by a curiousity for the Ivy League, Gobrecht took the offer. Beckett said he has noticed substantial differences in Yale’s style of play since Gobrecht arrived. “She brought with her an uptempo style of basketball,” he said. “It’s fun for the student-
athletes, and it’s exciting for the fans. It was a thrill to see her get her 500th win Friday night.” In 2008 Gobrecht led the team to its first ever victory against an ACC opponent in a 65–61 upset over North Carolina State and topped that achievement last year as Yale stunned No. 14 Florida State, 91–85 last year at the John J. Lee Amphitheater. Last year’s team was also the first in Yale’s history to reach the WNIT. Vasquez said Coach Gobrecht played a large role in the team’s and her personal success, and the coach’s trust in her decisions on the court have helped her develop. “Coach G has always been tough on me, but I know that it’s because she always wants me to perform at my best,” Vasquez said. “I thank her for that because it has made me a better player over the last three years. She has always counted on me to lead her team on the floor, and she calls me her floor general.” This year’s team is 14–8 and currently sits in second place in the Ivy League, but has its sights set on a conference title and the automatic qualifying bid to the NCAA Tournament. “It was very special that it happened here,” Gobrecht said of her historic victory. “Yale is in so many ways what I want right now, and this is where I feel that I’m meant to be.” Gobrecht and her Bulldogs return to the court this Friday against Dartmouth in search of win 502. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. Contact JOHN SULLIVAN at john.j.sullivan@yale.edu.
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WOMEN’S CROSS COUNTRY TEAM NAMED ALL-ACADEMIC Yale was selected as one of 205 Division I All-Academic Programs from across the country on Monday. Every Ivy League school except Princeton was selected. The Elis combined for the highest team GPA among Ancient Eight foes with a cumulative 3.51.
MORGAN TRAINA ’15 AND LINDSAY ANDSAGER ’13 GYMNASTS WIN WEEKLY AWARDS Traina, who came in third in the allaround at the Bulldog Invitational last weekend, was named ECAC Rookie of the Week on Tuesday for the second time this year. Andsager, right, who won the uneven bars in the same meet, was named specialist of the week.
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“Some of the bigger teams might be scared to play us because if they lose to us, it looks really bad for them.” KIRBY ZDRILL ’13 ATTACK, MEN’S LACROSSE
YALE DAILY NEWS · WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
CHELSEA JANES
MEN’S LACROSSE
Lin great for Ivy athletics “Lin-sanity.” “Lin-sational.” “Lin-ning.” A “Lin-derella Story.” Call it what you want, but right now, New York Knicks guard Jeremy Lin is straight up bal-lin. Sorry, couldn’t resist. But it’s true: the former Harvard basketball standout is tearing up the NBA to the tune of just under 27 points and just over eight assists in his last six games. That success has sparked a media frenzy in the mecca of professional basketball, Madison Square Garden, in one of the biggest sports markets in the world. But beyond that, Lin has given Ivy League athletes a fresh, highly visible, and, in my opinion, representative face in the pros. Lin is doing what even the most successful professional former Ivy Leaguers haven’t been able to (see Bills’ QB Ryan Fitzpatrick, etc.): given Ivy League sports a visible figure who is not only talented, but also downright endearing. It’s hard for Ivy League athletes to appeal to the masses. They come from schools with reputations for aloofness and elitism, schools associated in popular culture more with old money than with your everyday American dream. To come out of an Ivy League school is an honor, to be sure, but also labels athletes and nonathletes alike with certain stereotypes. Lin doesn’t totally buck the trend: it’s not like his story is some rags-to-riches gutwrencher. Lin grew up in Palo Alto, Calif., where he led his team to an upset win in the CIF Division II Championship as a senior and earned CIF Division II Player of the Year honors to bolster what could have been a tempting resume for Division I programs. The 6’3” Lin had even dodged genetics to gain the build of a Division I basketball player, but he earned no scholarship offers from his dream schools like Cal, Stanford or UCLA. With a 4.2 high school GPA bolstering his resume, he was guaranteed spots on Brown’s and Harvard’s squads — but no others. It’s not a knock on Ivy League athletics to say similar recruiting experiences are shared by a large number of Ancient Eight athletes: when doors to bigger schools were closed not by a lack of talent but by academic priorities, luck, or timing, strong academic qualifications opened the doors to Ivy League opportunities. Jeremy Lin’s basketball talent was overlooked and undervalued, so he used strong academic qualifications to find a Division I stage for his game. And Lin made the most of it. A two-time First-Team All-Ivy selection, Lin became the first player in the history of the Ivy League to accumulate 1,450 points, 450 rebounds, 400 assists and 200 steals. With composure, versatility and decent size for a guard, Lin figured to gain NBA interest heading into the 2010 NBA draft. He didn’t. As a top player in a league that rarely garners national attention, Lin’s successes were dismissed, and the Cantab went undrafted. A smart player who excels most completely in the team game, Lin lacked the flash that many of his major-conference competitors demonstrated in camps more suited to one-on-one skills and freakish athleticism. But by last season, Lin found himself on the Golden State Warriors’ roster after a big NBA Summer League performance … though at the end of the far end of the depth chart. He was waived on Dec. 9, picked up by Houston and waived again 12 days later. His career looked like another Ivy–to-pro dream to die in its infancy. Then on Dec. 27, the New York Knicks picked him up and sent him to the D-league to develop his game while he waited for an unlikely chance at the team’s main roster. Again overlooked, again dismissed, but always opportunistic, Lin tallied a triple-double in a D-league game on Jan. 20. Three days later, he was in a Knicks jersey. By Feb. 4, Carmelo Anthony himself was SEE LIN PAGE 13
SCHEDULING CHALLENGES ELIS YDN
Men’s lacrosse has a preseason No. 13 ranking, better than all but one Ivy League foe. But Yale has a weaker non-conferenec schedule than other Ivies have. BY LINDSEY UNIAT STAFF REPORTER While Ivy rivals Harvard, Cornell, University of Pennsylvania and Princeton are scheduled to take on some of Inside Lacrosse’s preseason Top 20 teams this season, Yale will not be facing any of those fearsome opponents. Non-conference strength of schedule is an essential part of an NCAA lacrosse team’s NCAA Tournament candidacy. Though the champion of the Ivy League postseason playoffs gets an automatic bid to the 16-team NCAA Tournament, other Ivy teams can gain atlarge berths. “[The NCAA selection committee looks] at your record, strength
of schedule, and the records of the teams you’ve beat and of the teams you’ve lost to, so that’s why teams want to have top schools on their schedules,” captain Mike Pratt ’12 said. “We tried a little harder to get some big games this year but it didn’t work out — either people didn’t want to play us or other teams didn’t have spots on their schedules for us.” Head coach Andrew Shay said Yale often plays teams in the area because budget restrictions make it difficult to travel south to play top 20 schools such as Duke University, University of Virginia, University of Notre Dame and Villanova University. The Athletics Department sets a limit on distance the team
can travel, he added, and the Bulldogs need department permission to venture beyond those limits. “We’d like to have a few top 10 teams in there, but this year it’s not looking that way,” Shay said. “But I think it is going to be a pretty strong schedule — some of those schools are going to surprise a lot of people. It’s not something you can predict really.” Still, other Ivy schools have found room for top opponents in their non-conference schedules. Rivals No. 14 Penn and No. 16 Princeton — who are both ranked below Yale by Inside Lacrosse — will each be taking on a handful of top 20 teams this season. No. 3 Cornell will play No. 5 University of Denver and No. 7 Syracuse Uni-
versity. Coaches try to craft schedules that are not too difficult for the team to be successful but that challenge the players, Princeton head coach Chris Bates said, adding that Princeton’s schedule has not changed much from year to year. Unlike Yale, Princeton lacrosse has historically been a team to watch in the league. The Tigers were one of the most dominant teams in the sport for most of the 1990s, a decade in which Princeton and Syracuse won every NCAA championship. “We all only have 12-14 games, so there is only so much room, and it’s got to be a good mutual fit,” SEE LACROSSE PAGE 13
Gobrecht coaches to 500th win BY JOHN SULLIVAN CONTRIBUTING REPORTER As the buzzer rang out last Friday night, the red lights on the wall of the John J. Lee Amphitheater — Yale 86, Cornell 73 — wrote the latest chapter in a 32-year story: Head coach Chris Gobrecht had won the 500th game of her career.
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
MARIA ZEPEDA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
The team women’s basketball team showered coach Chris Gobrecht, center, with ice after she earned her 500th career victory in the Elis’ defeat of Cornell on Friday.
STAT OF THE DAY .542
Yale players rushed off the bench and doused their coach with water, in earnest imitation of the ice baths that football players honor their coaches with after big wins. One of these players, guard Megan Vasquez ’13, shared in this historic night, as she became the 17th player in Yale women’s bas-
ketball history to score 1,000 points in her career, but Vasquez did not have the pleasure of partaking in the ice bath. “It was an unforgettable moment, and I’m glad I was there to share her career milestone with her,” Vasquez said of her coach. “My teammates kept predicting that we would reach both milestones on the same night and it’s crazy that it actually happened. I think it makes it that much more meaningful for both of us.” Gobrecht became the 22nd active women’s basketball coach to reach the milestone, but the coach seemed less impressed with her accomplishment than her players were. In 2009, she told the News she thought that coaches’ win-loss records were SEE GOBRECHT PAGE 13
THE CAREER WINNING PERCENTAGE OF WOMEN’S BASKETBALL HEAD COACH CHRIS GOBRECHT. Gobrecht, who began coaching at Cal State Fullerton 32 years ago, and won her 500th game last weekend, has amassed a 501–424 career record during stints at five schools.