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 · TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2012 · VOL. CXXXV, NO. 5 · yaledailynews.com
INSIDE THE NEWS MORNING EVENING
RAINY RAINY
73 76
GLOBAL WARMING FUNGI FILLS TREES WITH METHANE
FAREED ZAKARIA
YALE ENGINEERING
FIELD HOCKEY
‘Long lists’ of potential trustees will help pick successor on Yale Corp
INNOVATION AND DESIGN CENTER OPENS IN BECTON
After disappointing loss in opener, Elis rebound with home win vs. QPac
PAGES 8-9 SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
PAGE 3 NEWS
PAGE 3 NEWS
PAGE 14 SPORTS
Plans for successor search unveiled
ROAD RACE CELEBRATES 35 YEARS
CROSS CAMPUS No labor. On Monday, the University bucked a decadesold policy of laboring on Labor Day and took the day off. Students basked in the warm weather. A Bizarre Bazaar. The Dean’s Office cracked down again at this year’s extracurricular bazaar on Sunday, keeping unregistered student groups from the annual event. As an unregistered student organization, the News instead set up outside Payne Whitney Gymnasium. The People United. A group of around 50 students gathered at the Alumni War Memorial Monday evening for the first meeting of “Y Syndicate,” a student protest group. According to a flier advertising the meeting, “The Yale Corporation believes that corporate executives know more than Yale students about how to choose our university’s next president. The Y Syndicate believes otherwise.”
BY TAPLEY STEPHENSON STAFF REPORTER
campaign. The News was unable to find any current students taking time off to support GOP candidates. Those seven represent only a fraction of students who weighed the decision throughout all class years and on both sides of the political spectrum. Many others concluded that a traditional four-year experience better suited their needs academically, socially and politically — and even gave them a better opportunity to contribute to local and national campaigns. Cody Pomeranz ’15 joined Obama’s Pennsylvania headquarters at the
The day after University President Richard Levin announced his intent to step down at the end of this academic year, Yale Corporation Senior Fellow Edward Bass ’67 rolled out the Yale Corporation’s plans for picking a successor. In a campus-wide email on Friday, Bass announced the appointment of eight Corporation fellows to the presidential search committee and he told the News Monday night he will select four faculty members by the end of this week to round out the 12-person committee. The search will be the second in Yale’s history to include faculty members — the 1992 search that appointed Levin was the first. But several professors have expressed concern that the faculty will still not be adequately represented in choosing the University’s next president. “One of the problems the next president will need to deal with will be to restore the balance between the faculty and the administration in the cooperative running of the University,” said computer science professor Michael Fischer. “The faculty representatives should be elected, not appointed by the same administrators who have been assuming more and more power in the University.” The candidates for faculty positions will be nominated by deans and directors across the University. Bass said members of the Yale community can also suggest candidates to him before noon today. Bass will ultimately be responsible for choosing the committee’s faculty representatives, explaining in a Monday
SEE CAMPAIGNS PAGE 4
SEE SEARCH PAGE 5
HARRY SIMPERINGHAM/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
AROUND 100 ELIS PARTICIPATE IN LABOR DAY RACES This year’s change in the academic calendar meant that undergraduates had a day off for the first time in the race’s 35-year history. But most of the 15,000 to 20,000 participants and spectators drawn to the New Haven Green were not Yale students. See story, page 3.
More protesting. Meanwhile,
unsigned fliers went up across campus over the weekend protesting Yale’s involvement in Yale-NUS, criticizing the lack of free speech in Singapore and calling on increased action from the Yale community. “We who are the university must govern the university. Not the Yale Corporation,” the fliers read. “Stand up. Be heard. Take back Yale.”
Maybe even more protesting.
Former Sen. Rick Santorum, a former Pennsylvania Senator who challenged Mitt Romney for the Republican presidential nomination, will be on campus today to debate the Yale Political Union on “Resolved: Government is Destroying the Family.” The debate will be at 7 p.m. in Woolsey Hall. No debate over fitness. Online registration for exercise classes at Payne Whitney opens today at 9 a.m. The gym’s offerings include pilates, yoga, Zumba and ever-popular Spinning classes. A long year cometh. A fire alarm went off in Morse College Sunday, the second such alarm in 10 days. Coming soon: faster trains?
A design team out of the University of Pennsylvania is suggesting that Amtrak build an 18-mile tunnel under Long Island Sound to accommodate bullet trains in the Northeast Corridor, the Hartford Courant reports. The tunnel would pop out at Milford, connecting New Haven to major Atlantic cities via trains travelling up to 220 miles per hour. It could cost up to $100 billion. THIS DAY IN YALE HISTORY
1979 Associate Professor Thomas Pangle charges that the Political Science Department unfairly denied him tenure on account of his political views. Submit tips to Cross Campus
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U N T R A D I T I O N A L PA T H S
Elis forgo class for campaigning
W
hile their classmates ponder course schedules and class listings, seven Yalies have taken the fall semester off to pursue internships in a presidential campaign — learning political science firsthand. MASON KROLL reports.
ter off for politics was not easy, he said, but in July he decided to follow suit with generations of Yalies. “Ultimately, I decided that this was an opportunity I could not pass up,” Rubin said, “and I felt that this election is too important to sit on the sidelines.”
This fall semester, Josh Rubin ’14 will study political science at its finest. He will not, however, be enrolled in Approaches to International Security, a core class for all Global Affairs majors like himself. In fact, he will not be enrolled at Yale at all. He will be an intern at the Chicago headquarters of Obama for America.
BRIGHT COLLEGE YEARS
After serving as elections coordinator for the Yale College Democrats — and organizing the national “Change Is” photo campaign for President Barack Obama — Rubin signed up as a national security policy intern for President Barack Obama’s reelection campaign this summer. The decision to take a semes-
Rubin is one of seven currently enrolled Yale students choosing to work on the Democratic presidential campaign in the fall: Evan Walker-Wells ’13, JD Sagastume ’14, Millie Cripe ’15, Zac Krislov ’15, Noah Remnick ’15 and Vinay Nayak ’14 are also dedicating their semesters to the Obama
New meetings seek to increase faculty role BY GAVAN GIDEON STAFF REPORTER The Faculty of Arts and Sciences will begin meeting twice a semester this fall, intended in part to address concerns some professors raised last semester regarding University governance. The new meetings — announced by Provost Peter Salovey in a memo sent last week to tenured and tenure-track professors in the FAS — will supplement the University’s existing monthly meetings of the Yale College Faculty. They were created in response to some professors’ desire to discuss issues that do not directly relate to Yale College, and will convene for the first time on Oct. 1. History professor Frank Snowden, who was appointed by Salovey to a three-person committee responsible for determining the rules for the FAS meetings, said the new forum could allow for “looser” and “freer” faculty discussion than Yale College meetings, which follow predetermined agendas. “This new body has the potential to
become quite an important forum for the expression and formation of faculty opinion, and to inform faculty members about various matters that deeply affect Yale College,” Snowden said. Snowden said the rules committee, which met for the first time on Friday, will consider a range of issues in recommending meeting procedures, such as who will be able to attend the meetings, how meeting agendas will be compiled, and whether the meetings will follow parliamentary rules of discussion. Salovey said in his memo to faculty that any professors can submit agenda items, choosing to do so anonymously if they wish. Agendas will be distributed in advance of the meetings. The FAS meetings are largely intended to address the issue of what role professors should have in University governance. Last spring, a small group of FAS professors argued that the administration has pursued an increasingly top-down approach to decision-making in recent years, SEE FACULTY PAGE 5
SOM Dean Snyder draws media glare BY DANIEL SISGOREO STAFF REPORTER In a departure from the practices of previous School of Management deans, Edward Snyder has drawn attention by giving numerous interviews to journalists — but not all have led to favorable press for the school. In a controversial August interview with the New York Times Magazine, Snyder revealed that the school has operated budget deficits valued at multiple millions of dollars in recent years, prompting a slew of articles and blog posts criticizing SOM’s ability to balance its own budget. Despite the negative tone taken by the coverage, Snyder said the media reports on SOM’s finances drew a great deal of attention to the school, representing an overall benefit. “Whether you have a good piece, a neutral piece or a piece you would prefer to rewrite, the benefit is that it gives you great opportunities to connect with people,” Snyder said. Despite Snyder’s ambivalence toward negative press, SOM took
YDN
SOM Dean Edward Snyder’s tenure has coincided with a spike in media attention devoted to the school. steps to minimize the spread of articles concerning the school’s finances this summer. In response the series of articles that followed the Aug. 7 New York Times Magazine story, which SEE SOM PAGE 5
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YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
OPINION
.COMMENT “Everyone I know spent shopping period wishing for time-turnyaledailynews.com/opinion
GUEST COLUMNIST MICHAEL MAGDZIK
Assume the best of strangers W
hen you first came to tour Yale, your guide probably emphasized just how safe you would be in this place. With a private police force, blue-light outposts never more than a drunken stumble away and our friendly neighborhood Predator drone, affectionately dubbed M.A.M.A (Miller Always Monitors Adolescents), how could you not feel protected? That last example is in jest, but the point should be clear — we go to great extents to build up the image of Yale University as an impenetrable castle. This is not only for the sake of architectural comparisons to Hogwarts, but also to instill a strong sense of personal security in students. Maybe that emphasis is necessary to persuade some to matriculate, those who would otherwise be swayed by sensational lists ranking the most dangerous cities in America. But it is worth reflecting on the trade-offs we make when we consistently approach the world beyond our walls as one filled with danger, not opportunity. University President Richard Levin’s belief in opportunity led to a decision that will endure as the defining aspect of his legacy. At the time he became president in the early 1990s, New Haven was awash in violent crime. A Yale student had just been murdered on Hillhouse Avenue. Levin understood that Yale could — no, had to — meaningfully engage with a mistrustful and beleaguered city instead of building Yale’s walls ever higher. Security was stepped up, yes, but Levin also set in motion the work of the Office of New Haven and State Affairs, a department that has spearheaded a number of initiatives designed to revitalize the city. These have included partnerships with local schools to provide enrichment programs, subsidies to University employees purchasing New Haven homes and real estate investment strategies designed to create an attractive and active downtown environment. These days, no one questions that the fates of the University and city are inextricably tied. Countless students have joined the administration’s efforts by working tirelessly through the programs of Dwight Hall and other student organizations to improve neighborhoods and assist residents. Ultimately, it is in large part thanks to Yalies that the city has seen such a drastic renaissance from its 1990s nadir and continues to blossom today. This is the view of New Haven as a place of opportunity — a space where
we can create our vision of what the world should be, if we set our minds to it. But the allure of that other narrative, the one that sees danger instead, is still strong. It grows more powerful every time an upperclassman abuses his standing and warns a naïve freshman that “Dixwell is dangerous” and that they should stay near campus to be safe. Many of us peddle fear with little thought of the mentality the narrative of danger inculcates in our student body. Sadly, fear-mongering is not unique to Yale and New Haven. An increasing number of neighborhoods across America are turning to video surveillance, security guards and electronic gates in a bid to promote social isolation from anyone they perceive as dangerous. Often, this means immigrants, minorities, the poor, the young. Residents claim this is the price of safety but fail to realize that gated communities carry a high hidden cost. Gates promote a full-fledged retreat from civic responsibility. Residents are less likely to pay for more municipal police or parks if their own needs are being met; it is harder to care about social ills when you only see perfectly manicured lawns. When we avoid New Haven and keep to our castle, we run that same risk. True, contemporary American cities are frequently plagued by drugs and crime. But these cities are ours to inherit, and they are populated by our countrymen: people of character and strength, sometimes in need of assistance, sometimes simply in need of understanding. When we concoct Conradian tales about cities and crime, we demonstrate our failure to learn one of the most important lessons the liberal arts try to teach. As another Yale president, Kingman Brewster, Jr., cautioned, “The presumption of innocence is not just a legal concept. In commonplace terms, it rests on that generosity of spirit which assumes the best, not the worst, of the stranger.” So behave responsibly, but stop fueling the hyperbolic narrative of danger. Carry less money and shed the J. Crew threads for a day. Explore the culture and vibrancy this city has to offer. Assume the best of your New Haven neighbors. When we never walk outside them, our gates become our cages. MICHAEL MAGDZIK is a senior in Berkeley College. Contact him at michael.magdzik@yale.edu .
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‘PENNY_LANE’ ON ‘LEARNING DOESN’T STOP AT 36 CREDITS’
Honor without a code
here’s a problem with cheating in the Ivy League, and Dartmouth students want to fix it. They’ve proposed an honor code that will obligate students not only to confess to their own academic transgressions but to reveal the dishonestly of others, too. Their proposal has created a wave of discussion. Princeton students want to implement a similar policy. Brown students are adamantly opposed. And Yalies? They “support the code,” according to the Harvard Crimson — in, mind you, 1950 — citing its appeal to “a Yale man’s morality.” Sixty-two years later, cheating is still a problem. As you read this, Harvard is investigating some 125 undergraduates implicated in a mass plagiarism ring. Jonah Lehrer, a 2003 Columbia grad, stepped down from his job at the New Yorker over the summer when it was revealed that he had fabricated quotes in a recent book. And here at Yale, CNN’s Fareed Zakaria resigned from his position on the Yale Corporation in the wake of a plagiarism scandal. America craves stories of smart kids doing dumb things. To them, the Ivy League is a foreign entity: distant, majestic and unknowable. When their kids fail, it is a disappointment, but when those kids fail — those lucky, lucky Ivy League kids — it is Greek tragedy, and the major news media is all too eager to play the chorus.
Academic dishonesty is bad no matter where you choose to pursue your degree. But it could cerMARISSA tainly be MEDANSKY argued that, given our relSidewinder ative privilege, Yalies have a particular imperative not to do so. We’re lucky to be here; Yale gives us so much. It’s a little presumptuous to bite the hand that feeds. The recent scandal at Harvard has prompted the Associated Press to ask whether an honor code would help rein in potential plagiarists. Author David Callahan told the AP that when a school like Harvard doesn’t have an honor code, then “someone’s not paying attention.” “This is a major failure of leadership in higher education,” he mourned. This mindset is not new; the 1950 Crimson article proves as much. Just last year, Harvard endured a firestorm when it asked freshman to sign a so-called “kindness pledge” encouraging them to “sustain a community characterized by inclusiveness and civility.” In 2008, News columnist Julia Knight proposed instituting an honor code at Yale to “introduce valuable information and inspire
important discussion.” The idea of an honor code is inherently appealing. After all, everyone likes honor, and code evokes sexy Round Table-era mystique. It is an easy fix — one that sates those critical outsiders reading the New York Times and IvyGate. It makes us look like we’re fixing things. Reputation restored, right?
AN HONOR CODE WON’T PUT AN END TO CHEATING OVERNIGHT. WE NEED BIGGER CHANGES. Not so fast. When it comes to instating an honor code, Harvard and her peer institutions should reject such an impulse. Universities must take care to avoid top-down approaches to eradicating dishonesty. This, to many university administrations, is counterintuitive. Yet Harvard’s freshman pledge endured mockery due to its authoritarian tinge (be nice or else). When it comes to punishing cheaters, bureaucracy has its place. But deterring them? That’s a shift in culture, not policy. Schools where honor codes
succeed — like Washington and Lee or William and Mary — have policies seeped in tradition. When their students uphold the honor code, they are connecting with the past in a meaningful, visceral way, the same way Yalies feel a tingle of pride when they drink a Mory’s cup or study in Sterling. These honor codes don’t succeed simply by existing; they work thanks to the weight of the past. And when universities heavily market their honor codes to potential applicants, they create some degree of self-selection in the incoming class. Institutional shifts don’t occur overnight; they’re the result of generations of social engineering. If we really want to address academic dishonesty once and for all, we need to look at its causes, not the Band-Aids that hide them. Address the pressure-cooker culture at Harvard and Yale; address the perception that grades are somehow correlated with moral worth; address the prevalent I’ll-justdo-it-at-the-last-minute attitude. Only after looking at these underlying causes can we seriously consider the implications of an honor code. Maybe there’s a place for an honor code at Yale, but it should come from deliberation and discussion, not reputational anxiety. MARISSA MEDANSKY is a sophomore in Morse College. Her column runs on Tuesdays. Contact her at marissa.medansky@yale.edu .
G U E ST C O LU M N I ST M AT T H EW L L OY D -T H O M A S
Yale without expectations W
e all have expectations of Yale. High grades, good friends, brilliant professors. Perhaps we even expect, during our time here, to become a certain person, an ideal version of ourselves. Last week I, along with 1,355 other freshmen, arrived on campus with unbounded expectations. In the months since our acceptances, we’ve collectively spent thousands of hours daydreaming, pondering, imagining what Yale might be, setting expectations both for this place and for ourselves. I suggest that we drop these expectations. Two short weeks in, we may still be reveling in Yale’s brilliance, in the excitement of shopping classes, meeting new people and living our lives as near-adults. In these first weeks, we allow the expectations of life-changing classes, beautiful friendships and idyllic college life to drift to the backs of our minds, our internal deadlines still far off in our Yale careers. But as the long, warm summer
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days spent playing Frisbee on Old Campus give way to the dark of winter and long nights spent in Bass, the deadlines for these expectations will come into sharper focus, drawing nearer and nearer.
WITHOUT EXPECTATIONS, WE CAN REMAIN IN AWE OF YALE BEYOND THE FIRST WEEKS OF FRESHMAN YEAR. Some of us may have already noticed this. At this point, most of us have probably shopped at least one bad class. A suitemate may have come back late Saturday night and vomited, adding
In defense of DS
Sam Cohen (“Redirecting Directed Studies,” Aug. 31) reprises some of the standard objections to DS that I have heard now for over a quarter of a century. I would like to respond to two of them. Cohen complains that the “History and Politics” section “is really about political philosophy.” Really? What, then, are Herodotus, Thucydides, Livy and Tacitus doing on the syllabus? The purpose of the section is not simply to provide “context” or background to the study of the works, but to show how these books shape and inform our understanding of politics and history. The point is not simply to learn about these works but to find out what we can learn from them. Second, Cohen complains that DS is a “wholly Western program” and would benefit from writers from “other traditions.” This year History and Politics has introduced readings from Alfarabi and Maimonides to show how the works of classical philosophy were transmitted through the Arabic and Jewish world. More to the point, however, no class can be about all things. To complain that DS doesn’t deal with non-Western works sounds to me like complaining that a class in biology doesn’t deal with the stars and the planets. As Isaiah Berlin — that great DSer — reminded us: Everything is what it is and not another thing. There is a profound truth located in that simple statement. STEVEN SMITH Aug. 31 The writer is the Alfred Cowles professor of political science.
cracks to our increasingly fragile perception of Yale as perfect. Later, our expectations will shatter and come crashing down around us. Perhaps it will be after the first failed test, the first moment of pure exhaustion or the first broken friendship. Regardless of what or when it is, there will come a moment in which our expectations, which we built so thoroughly through spring and summer, will cease to be expectations and instead become failures. It is here that the real danger lies, because it is precisely at this moment that Yale will cease to be what it is meant to be, a place of excitement, learning and growth. It is at this moment that Yale will no longer be something perpetually fresh and filled with a sense of mystery and wonder and will instead become something mundane and old — in essence, just another place. We, the class of 2016, are lucky to be here. There are perhaps thousands of others equally deserving of our places. But, by some luck of the sorting hat, we
wound up here. And because we are lucky, we have a responsibility to give to and take from this place all that can be given and all that can be taken. But we cannot do it if we let unfulfilled expectations transform Yale from the wonder with which we behold it in the first weeks to just another school or just another collection of buildings. Rather, if we dive into Yale without fear, trepidation or expectations, we might just find that we will continue to make Yale a place of perpetual thrills for the next four years because we have nothing to be disappointed by and nothing to lose. We might never lose the sense of wonder and unexplored mystery that drew us here. Only then might we give all we have to give and take all Yale has to offer, making our time here truly worthwhile.
Liberal arts and political hostility
ance, I would encourage those who oppose organized religion to take a religious studies course or attend a religious service. Those who favor traditional gender roles should take a course in the WGSS department. Yale’s academics, in theory, and I hope in practice, facilitate provocative discussions in a diverse community of leaders-in-training; we should not miss out on the opportunity to grow from interactions with our peers. Both Sex Week and Rick Santorum can be healthy parts of our intellectual community. A demagogic volley of opinions in the News simply adds to the cacophony of competing echo chambers and in my experience, hateful intolerance is not a problem specific to Yale. Rather, it is one that a place like Yale can solve.
Like Alec Torres (“The onesided campus,” Aug. 30), I would love to see more thoughtful discourse between conservatives and liberals. But Torres nullified legitimate points by the hypocrisy of his own hostility. While our campus does lean somewhat left, Yale students are generally not ignorant or hateful, and it’s important for everyone to challenge his or her own beliefs. More introspection and breaking down biases would no doubt make Yale — and the world — better. In an age of party line gridlock, our politicians are too distracted by attack ads and races to deal with the real tasks at hand, like dealing with a coming fiscal cliff that might have frightening economic consequences. Even in government, people turn to derision and hostility over issues like abortion and gay marriage. At Yale, too, we tend to see things in black and white. Deconstructing this mindset is difficult, but not impossible, and this is why we are lucky. Our liberal arts education teaches us to think critically and introduces us to different points of view — in short, it offers us a way out of the mud. As an exercise in toler-
MATTHEW LLOYD-THOMAS is a freshman in Jonathan Edwards College. Contact him at matthew. lloyd-thomas@yale.edu.
EMILY HONG Aug. 31 The writer is a junior in Pierson College.
YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
PAGE 3
NEWS
Biscuitville Bowl’s 7 Campus Scramble
This wacky and food-filled 5K race is held in Greensboro, N.C, every year. Because the race is sponsored by a biscuit company, obstacles along the route include a buttermilk slip and slide, a flour shower and a jelly belly army crawl.
TODAY’S EVENTS TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4 2:00 PM Choral Auditions for Yale Camerata, Yale Schola Cantorum & Rep/Rec Choruses. Location: Leigh Hall (LGH). 5:00 PM Workshop: “Shop Safety & Basic Power Hand Tools.” Location: University Theater (UT). 8:00 PM Mixed Company of Yale singing dessert. Location: Morse College Crescent Theater.
CORRECTION FRIDAY, AUG. 31
The article “Elis pursue strong start” misstated the date of the women’s soccer team’s game against Stony Brook. It was on Sunday, not Saturday.
Engineering center opens
Timeline unclear for Zakaria replacement BY TAPLEY STEPHENSON STAFF REPORTER The Yale Corporation will begin its search for a replacement to former successor trustee Fareed Zakaria ’86, after he resigned this August in the aftermath of a plagiarism scandal. Zakaria, the editor-at-large of Time Magazine and host of CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS, stepped down Aug. 20 after a paragraph in his Aug. 20 Time editorial closely resembled a passage by Jill Lepore ’GRD 95 in the New Yorker. Corporation Senior Fellow Edward Bass ’67 said the Corporation will discuss his replacement over the course of the semester. University President Richard Levin said the Corporation has not set a timetable to find Zakaria’s successor — since Zakaria is leaving at the start of his second six-year term, it remains unclear whether the replacement will finish Zakaria’s term or start a new six year cycle. “We’re always scanning the distinguished alumni, developing long lists of potential [Corporation] members with various backgrounds. There’s no set
quota for occupational type,” Levin said. “We try to find outstanding people who can make a contribution, but of course, we try to look at the make-up of the group when choosing new people.”
We’re always scanning distinguished alumni, developing long lists of potential [Corporation] members. RICHARD LEVIN Yale University President Levin said the deans and directors of Yale’s different schools and programs submit names of their alumni to a running list of alumni who could serve on the Corporation or one of Yale’s advisory committees. The list, maintained by the Office of the Secretary, will be used in the search for Zakaria’s replacement, starting at the Corporation’s upcoming Sep-
GRACE PATUWO/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Former Yale Corporation trustee Fareed Zakaria, left, shown at a public discussion forum with University President Richard Levin in 2010. tember meeting Levin said. Once the Corporation’s committee on trusteeship vets candidates, the entire Corporation discusses potential new fellows. Zakaria was a successor fellow on the Corporation, which means the remaining nine successor trustees will ultimately elect his successor. “It’s a constant replanning process,” Levin said. “With 10 of them usually serving 12-year terms, we’re finding a replace-
ment every five of six years.” Zakaria served as chair of the Corporation’s education policy committee, a position that has since been filled by Francisco Cigarroa ’79. The Corporation has 10 successor fellows and six alumni fellows, who are elected by Yale’s alumni body. Contact TAPLEY STEPHENSON at preston.stephenson@yale.edu .
In lieu of class, Yalies flock to Road Race BY MASON KROLL STAFF REPORTER
KAMARIA GREENFIELD/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
The Center for Engineering Innovation & Design, which opened Aug. 26 in the Becton Center, held a kickoff event last Monday. BY CLINTON WANG STAFF REPORTER The School of Engineering and Applied Science opened new facilities this fall to centralize its resources for students and expand research space for faculty. The Center for Engineering Innovation & Design opened Aug. 26, taking over the space previously occupied by the Engineering and Applied Science Library in Becton Center. Administrators said they hope the new center will foster a more vibrant “culture of engineering” on campus. “We want engineering to be more visible on campus,” SEAS Deputy Dean Vincent Wilczynski said. “I’m confident that [these new facilities] will have a great impact on the engineering community.” The CEID includes a studio with multiple workstations and a range of equipment, a machine shop, a wood shop, a wet lab, a lecture room and several meeting rooms. The Center hosts design-related engineering courses, including the mechanical engineering and electrical engineering capstone design courses this fall. It will also hold workshops on mechanism dissection, computer-aided design and other skills for CEID members starting this month. Any student can become a member of the Center by passing a quiz and attending an safety and instructional orientation. Several science and engineering student groups have also been invited to use the CEID spaces for their own projects. Stephen Hall ’14, president of the Yale Undergraduate Aerospace Association, said he is “extremely excited” about the new space, adding that the group needed to build their aircraft in several locations before the CEID opened. “In the design center, we can do everything at once, from cutting materials and hardware assembly, to fabrication of electrical circuits and debugging,”
Hall said. “We will also take advantage of the guidance the CEID staff and other members offer.” Elizabeth Asai ’13, who developed an award-winning melanoma screening device last year along with Nickolas Demas ’13 and Elliot Swart ’13, said the team will still benefit from the facilities even though their product is already past the design stages. She anticipates using the offices in the center to develop business strategy, take conference calls and rehearse product pitches. The Center will also feature a high-tech café, slated to begin operations in October. Spearheaded by a team of mostly Yale alumni, the café will feature a 356 square foot installation of programmable LED art that students will be able to manipulate directly. Wilczynski said the new facilities may also help expand Yale’s engineering student community by encouraging more prospective engineering students to apply and matriculate to Yale, as well as attract freshmen and sophomores to the engineering majors. Should Yale’s engineering community continue to grow — the class of 2016 has the highest ever percentage of students who expressed interested in STEM majors — Wilczynski said the University will need more engineering faculty. He said the newly renovated 17 Hillhouse Ave., the former site of Yale Health, will help accommodate additional faculty, including some hired through the $50 million donation from John Malone ’63 last year. The first Malone professor, biomedical engineering professor Stuart Campbell, has already been selected, and five more searches are currently underway. The development of CEID cost $6.5 million, and its grand opening was held on Aug. 26 as part of freshman orientation. Contact CLINTON WANG at clinton.wang@yale.edu.
Early Monday morning, a horde of 15,000 to 20,000 runners and supporters descended on the Elm City’s streets. As they prepared for the 8:40 a.m. start time of the five-kilometer and 20-kilometer races, runners from Yale and around the country stretched on the New Haven Green and filled the starting lines on Elm and Church Streets as friends cheered them on. The 35th annual New Haven Road Race brought together about 6,800 runners over three races, a 600-person increase over last year’s race and a record high, according to John Courtmanche, president of the race’s board of directors. Though the Road Race’s registration did not keep track of runners’ university affiliations, Courtmanche said more Yale students and community members participated this year, most likely because Yale cancelled classes to honor Labor Day for the first time in its history. “It was definitely easier to not need to come back and shower in 15 minutes before class,” said Ben Scruton ’14 who competed in the 5K. Scruton said he has run in the race every year since he came to Yale, but would not have been able to participate this year if his 9 a.m. Monday class had been scheduled to meet. All but one student interviewed said that the new schedule influenced them, at least partly, to compete. Several student organizations and residential colleges coordinated groups for the race. Ezra Stiles Master Stephen Pitti ’91, who has run the race in the past, said at least 34 Ezra Stiles students participated, most in the 5K race. On Monday, the Stiles students gathered in front of Lawrance Hall on Old Campus, which houses Ezra Stiles freshmen, just after 8 a.m. Rosie Buchanan ’14 said the Stilesians were decked out in black and yellow, their college’s colors, and many wore face paint. “It’s a great race,” Pitti said. “It’s a great way to see New Haven and get out and about with other residents of the city and state. It’s a lot of fun to be a part of.” Pitti said that due to the success of today’s effort, he has been thinking about doing something similar for a 5K in Stratford, Conn. later this month. The Trumbull freshman counselor staff also competed in the 5K race. While looking through a calendar of the opening days of school, a freshman counselor joked that the group should run the race together, and Dean Jasmina Besirevic-Regan latched onto the idea, head freshman counselor Mary Weng ’13 said. Ultimately, 10 Trumbull leaders joined the race, including six freshman counselors, BesirevicRegan and Master Janet Henrich. During the race, most of the team stuck together and waited at the finish for Henrich and her husband, the last of the group to complete the race. “There was a huge celebration when they passed the finish line,”
HARRY SIMPERINGHAM/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
About 6,800 runners competed in the 35th annual New Haven Road Race, an increase of about 600 over last year. Weng said. “We were all waiting for them.” The men’s and women’s cross country teams did not participate in Monday’s race, because they are gearing for their first race of the season, which will take place in New York on Saturday, according to women’s team captain Nihal Kayali ’13. Although the race did not fit into their training schedules, Kayali said a group watched the 20K race for its big names and competitive running atmosphere.
It’s a great race. It’s a great way to see New Haven and get out and about with other residents of the city and state. STEPHEN PITTI ’91 Master, Ezra Stiles College One Yale cross country and track and field athlete, Tim Hillas ’13, competed, but said he was motivated by Ezra Stiles pride rather than by cross country training. Hillas was the first Yale student to complete the 5K race, crossing the finish line in 16:36 and placing 10th overall. Other Yale sports teams used the race as a chance to bond and train before their seasons began.
Eliza Hastings ’13, team captain for the women’s crew team, said 14 members of the team competed in the 20K and two in the 5K. After a team member mentioned the race in the summer, the team decided to “make something out of it,” wearing their gear and displaying lots of team spirit, Hastings added. “I’m a rower, not a runner,” Hastings said. “What a better way to run for the first time than with your teammates.” Hastings added that team members who competed in the past struggled with early morning crew practice, a long race and a full day of classes, so the team appreciated having the afternoon off. Rachel Sobolev ’14 said she competed this year for the first time in her Yale career. She said the 20K race was a good training opportunity for the Staten Island half marathon in which she plans to compete this October. She said she was “pleasantly surprised” by the frequent water stops, time markers and bands along the course. Courtmanche said that Yale sponsored the event, and many affiliated with Yale chose to compete. Two members of the New Haven Road Race board of directors also hold positions at Yale: Ray Fair is a professor of economics and Nina Glickson, assistant to the president and advisor on student affairs. Fair and Glickson competed in the 20K and 5K,
respectively. For the past 12 years, the New Haven Road Race has been the host of the men’s and women’s 20K national championship. This year, the top 10 men and women finishers walked away with a combined $44,550 in prize and bonus money. The newer 5K race, which started about 15 to 20 years ago, was more popular among participants — about 3,700 runners chose the shorter distance compared to 2,600 for the national championship. “We want to support American distance runners,” Courtmanche said. “But 90 percent of the people that come out are just regular runners who love the race. For some, it is their only race of the year.” To celebrate the 35th anniversary, Courtmanche said the Road Race awarded medals to each finisher for the first time since its 25th anniversary. The third race, a half-mile kids’ run, began at 8:15 a.m. The Road Race board also hired four clowns to amuse the children, many of whom participated in the half-mile kids run before the longer races began. The winner of the 20K was Matt Tegenkamp of Portland, Ore., with a time of 58:30, and the winner of the 5K was Ryan Pearl of Hamden, Conn., with a time of 15:33. Contact MASON KROLL at mason.kroll@yale.edu .
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YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
FROM THE FRONT
“The hardest thing about any political campaign is how to win without proving that you are unworthy of winning.” ADLAI E. STEVENSON FORMER U.S. VICE PRESIDENT
Campaigns draw some Yalies out of four-year path
PRESIDENTIAL SCHOLARS FOUNDATION
‘CHANGE IS 2012’ CAMPAIGN
YDN
NAME: MILLIE CRIPE
NAME: ZAC KRISLOV
NAME: VINAY NAYAK
YEAR: 2015
YEAR: 2015
YEAR: 2014
ACTIVITIES: PI BETA PHI
ACTIVITIES: YALE COLLEGE DEMOCRATS
ACTIVITIES: YALE MOCK TRIAL ASSOCIATION, YALE DEBATE ASSOCIATION, SIGMA PHI EPSILON
EVAN WALKER-WELLS
‘CHANGE IS 2012’ CAMPAIGN
NAME: EVAN WALKER-WELLS
NAME: JOSH RUBIN
NAME: NOAH REMNICK
NAME: JD SAGASTUME
YEAR: 2013
YEAR: 2014
YEAR: 2015
YEAR: 2014
ACTIVITIES: COMMUNICATION AND CONSENT EDUCATOR, YALE HERALD, DWIGHT HALL URBAN FELLOWS
ACTIVITIES: YALE COLLEGE DEMOCRATS, DAVENPORT COLLEGE COUNCIL
ACTIVITIES: THE YALE POLITIC, THE YALE HERALD, THE YALE HISTORICAL REVIEW, SIGMPA PHI EPSILON
ACTIVITIES: MASTER’S AIDE, AIESEC, YALE PRECISION MARCHING BAND
CAMPAIGNS FROM PAGE 1 beginning of the summer looking to get experience working on a campaign, pursue an interest in speechwriting and support Obama’s reelection efforts. There were long hours and the work was often exhausting, he said, while adding that the sense of mission and camaraderie he felt with other members of the campaign made the experience worthwhile. He said he did consider taking the fall semester off to continue his work, consulting with family, friends and coworkers. But ultimately, he decided to “stay on track” at Yale. “In the end, as much as I would have loved to stay on the campaign trail, I felt like there was still a lot for me to explore at Yale,” Pomeranz said. “I want to try and get a more solid foothold on my place in New Haven in both academics and extracurriculars. I’ve got a lot of time ahead of me for more campaigns.” Like Pomeranz, Alex Crutchfield ’15 considered spending the semester outside of the Elm City for the presidential race. In high school, Crutchfield worked for the California Republican party and his supervisor passed his name along to the campaign of GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney. In April, Crutchfield said he received an offer to help the Romney campaign in Colorado in a paid job — a rarity for an undergraduate political operative. Crutchfield kept the offer to himself at the beginning, saying the decision was very personal for him. He said he worried about losing momentum at Yale. Transitioning to a new graduating class and abandoning his commitments for the year — including floor leader of the Right for the Yale Political Union and member of the Model United Nations Team — would be challenging, especially after just finishing his freshman year, he said. “Missing out on these things would be tragic, and I would let down a lot of people,” Crutchfield said. By the middle of May, Crutchfield had made up his mind. He turned down the offer, saying he did not feel he would be missed at the well-staffed Colorado office.
“I’m very interested in politics, and I don’t think it’s ever going to go away; it’s something I’m very passionate about,” Crutchfield said. “Sometimes you realize that what’s important in life and what you have to do take priority over your passions.” At least two other current students are taking off this semester for the campaign season. Josh Kalla ’14 is working at Analyst Institute, a Democratic consulting firm, and Sam Hamer ’14 is interning at the White House. Even outside of election years, there are always Yale students considering politics outside of the classroom. Michael Knowles ’12 said he has little regret for turning down offers for a more hands-on political education no fewer than three times while at Yale. In the 2010 midterm congressional elections, Knowles served as special projects coordinator to U.S. Rep. Nan Hayworth, a Republican of New York’s 19th congressional district. Knowles chose to treat the campaign as an extracurricular activity. His work did not affect his school life save for “a little more stress and a little lower GPA.”
In the end, as much as I would have liked to stay on the campaign trail, I felt like there was still a lot for me to explore at Yale. CODY POMERANZ ’15 Over the next two years, he co-founded the Student Initiative to Draft Daniels PAC to convince Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels to run for president in 2012 and later joined the Jon Huntsman campaign, but he was never willing to leave Yale for these causes. “Politics is completely unpredictable and probably the least stable career you could get into,” Knowles said. “I loved the idea of having my Yale career remain a stabilizing force.” Knowles said he felt he could accomplish more politically from Yale’s campus than in the
field. Yale’s proximity to New York City — and the fundraising and political activity there — makes it a prime location to work on a campaign, he said. Knowles used Yale’s film resources, student leaders and name reputation to make political ads too. He even produced a web series with Jimmy McMillan of “the rent is too damn high” fame. “We ended up being able to do a whole lot more from campus,” Knowles said. “College is supposed to be the best four years of your life — bright college years and all that — and I think it would have been a pretty bad decision to leave. Maybe I have a few more bags under my eyes, but I certainly don’t regret staying at Yale.” But many Yale students who took a semester off for political campaigns in the past said they look back on their experience without a hint of regret. Brian Bills ’12 called his time working on the 2008 congressional campaign of Tom Perriello ’96 LAW ’01 “the most formative experience of my life.” Sam Schoenburg ’12, who took time off to work on the Obama campaign in 2008, said it was the best thing he has ever done. Both he and Bills said the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of working on a campaign as a student was well worth the sacrifice of a four-year university path. “I knew Yale had been around 300 or so years. It would probably be there when I got back in the spring,” Bills said. “I had roommates, I had a full plan, but [working on the campaign] was such a great opportunity that it was an obvious choice for me.”
YES WE CAN?
In 2008, at least five Yale students took off a semester to join the Obama campaign. Two of those interviewed by the News said their decision was largely personal: driven more by ideology than career gains. The day Obama won the Iowa caucus, Schoenburg said, was so exciting that he immediately knew he would take the semester off to work on his election campaign. Another Obama volunteer, Audrey Huntington ’12, said she was startled and upset by the state of the Obama campaign after spending her summer in Shanghai. Once on cam-
pus, she learned Sarah Palin was the vice-presidential nominee, and the announcement seemed to her to be a game changer. “One weekend during shopping period, I realized I couldn’t do what I wanted on campus,” Huntington said. “So I left. It was the most compulsive decision I made in my life.”
I knew Yale had been around 300 or so years. It would probably be there when I got back in the spring. I had roommates, I had a full plan, but working on a campaign was such a great opportunity that it was an obvious choice for me. BRIAN BILLS ’12 Despite similar numbers of Yale students working on this year’s Obama campaign and 2008’s, the president is not expected to retain the same level of youth support on a national level, according to a spring Harvard Institute of Politics poll. While he won the youth vote by a larger margin than any president since World War II, Obama’s once 35 point lead among those aged 18 to 29 has slipped down to the teens, according to the HIP survey. Sean Smith, Yale’s Global Affairs director of undergraduate studies, said that with an incumbent president, much of the “mystery” is gone. “It is always more exciting for someone running for the first time and representing a new direction for the country than someone who has been president for four years and who has to own the state of the country and economy,” Smith said. The particularly negative tenor of the current presidential race has also decreased student enthusiasm, Crutchfield suggested. Despite her great support of Obama in the 2008 election, Huntington said she would
“definitely not” leave Yale if she were in the same situation this year. “All reelection campaigns are less exciting,” she said. “While I really support President Obama and I am so happy he’s in office now and reelection is very necessary for this country, I don’t think it’s as testing or exciting as 2008.” “Also,” she added, “We already elected our first African American president. We can’t do that again.”
CAMPAIGN PERKS
Students describe their work on campaigns as overwhelming, time-intensive and fulfilling. Many discuss being thrown into situations with little training, and hours are often long by even the harshest internships’ standards; Schoenburg said he had two days off from June to November 2008 — including weekends — and Bills said he was working seven days a week, 10 to 18 hours a day, on his congressional campaign. “It made consulting jobs look easy,” Bills said. But the job has its perks. Smith, who now heads the Global Affairs capstone projects, said he began working on campaigns at age 17 and was “bit by the political bug.” He took time from college to work on Bill Clinton’s 1992 election, a decision he said he would make every time. His experience working on campaigns brought him better jobs once the campaigns ended, Smith said — just out of college, for example, he got a paid job as campaign manager for a state representative because of his time with the Clinton camp. By 2008, Smith was working on Obama’s general election campaign as Pennsylvania communications director, and he landed a job in the Department of Homeland Security after the election. “One of the great things about politics is it is a profession where young people can excel,” Smith said. “There is no age limit to how fast you can climb the ladder and gain more responsibility. No one cares if you’re 22 or 42. If you are getting the job done, you will be rewarded and promoted.” Students say their experience on campaigns has been helpful outside the world of politics
as well. Of the former political interns interviewed, only Knowles has continued working with elected officials, serving currently as a spokesperson for Hayworth. Others are working at Teach For America, nonprofit Progressives United and at Yale. Campaign work presents a number of academic opportunities as well. Eitan Hersh, political science assistant professor, said working on a campaign affords students the chance to get an inside view of how campaign operatives and other political actors behave. He advised students to remain at least partly objective to better analyze the situation around them. “As a political scientist, the campaigns are the rats in the maze that we’re studying,” Hersh said. Smith said the real-world experience campaign interns acquire can inform and complement the history, political theory and recent political races discussed and evaluated in class. “There is no real education that prepares you for working on campaigns,” Smith said. “That’s not to say that the education available at Yale can’t be valuable. But the insight [gained from campaign work] will make them better students and inform their peers as well.” Students said transitioning back to Yale can be challenging socially. Most Yalies taking time off for campaign work graduate a semester after their peers, and Huntington said she remembered her friends were “upset and hurt” by her decision to leave them and work on a campaign — Rubin, meanwhile, received 226 “likes” on his Facebook status announcing his decision to stay with the Obama team for the fall. But students say the academic transition is smooth and painless. “I think I learned more about how politics works in six months on a campaign than four year as a political science major,” Schoenburg said. “Our government is decided by elections. Elections are decided by campaigns. There is no better way to learn it than do it.” Contact MASON KROLL at mason.kroll@yale.edu .
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YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, SEPTE,BER 4, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
FROM THE FRONT
PEOPLE IN THE NEWS EDWARD SNYDER The current dean of the Yale School of Management started off as an economist with the U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division. His research focuses on antitrust economics, law and financial institutions.
Snyder’s SOM attracts, fights glare of media SOM REACTS TO N E GAT I V E P U B L I C I T Y
3,160
GRAPH ONLINE NEWS STORIES ABOUT SOM, 2005-’12
The New York Times and U.S. News & World Report have not issued corrections on their respective articles since SOM released its statement. “The Yale statement doesn’t actually correct anything in my column,” Adam Davidson, who wrote the initial piece in the New York Times, said in an email last Wednesday. “They say I missed crucial context, but the context they provide seems to be boilerplate public relations stuff about how awesome Yale SOM is.” Menachem Wecker, who wrote an Aug. 22 U.S. News & World Report article that cited Snyder’s $15 to $20 million figure, said he had never heard from SOM after his story’s publication, despite the statement’s sharp criticism of his work. Wecker’s piece, which described SOM as “bleeding cash” and in a “financial dive,” analyzed the extent to which a school’s administrative management affects the classroom experience. Asked whether SOM intends to pursue corrections to the Times or U.S. News stories, SOM Director of Media Relations Tabitha Wilde said the school released its statement to provide an “unedited perspective.” “When we’ve provided information, such as the fact that the school’s operating budget has been in the black since 2008, and that doesn’t make it into a story that’s questioning the school’s finances, but terms that describe the school as ‘bleeding cash’ and being in a ‘financial dive’ do, then resubmitting that same fact doesn’t seem productive,” Wilde said in an email Friday. Wecker said he was perplexed by SOM’s criticism of the references to its operating deficits as “losses” rather than “investments,” when the New York Times piece directly quotes Snyder as using the former term. The New York Times Magazine piece was quoted on several other news sites and blogs throughout the summer, and the SOM statement earned a comparable level of attention after its publication.
186
209
249
331
271
’05-’06
’06-’07
’07-’08
’08-’09
’09-’10
’10-’11
’11-’12 SOURCE: GOOGLE NEWS
SOM FROM PAGE 1 quoted Snyder saying SOM “lost $15 to $20 million over the last 15 years,” SOM released a 650-word “fact check” Aug. 22 criticizing the magazine and other publications for their descriptions of SOM as a financially mismanaged institution, and instead asserted that the losses were “controlled operating deficits” meant to invest in the school’s development. SOM has been in the black since 2008, when Snyder said then-Dean Sharon Oster tightened the budget. Snyder took office July 2011. John Byrne, who runs the business school news website Poets and Quants, said many other northeastern business school deans are less inclined to give interviews to the media. But Snyder, who interviews without the SOM communications team, said he prefers to be candid with the media since such an approach leads to more coverage. A Google search of news stories
containing the phrase “Yale School of Management” published between Sept. 1, 2011, to Sept. 1, 2012, roughly representing Snyder’s first year in office, returned 3,160 hits. A similar search for the years since Sept. 1, 2005, gave results consistently below 400 hits. “[Snyder is] honest and upfront and doesn’t always sit with some very sanitized message which some other school leaders do, whether it’s because he’s confident or wants to get the school’s story out there,” said a reporter, who covers business schools and requested anonymity for fear of jeopardizing professional relationships with SOM. “I think it’s a good thing. It’s refreshing — some deans will come into my office or I meet them and they have an army of PR people.” Byrne said he thinks Snyder’s transparent media strategy is particularly worthwhile for SOM, which has previously invested comparatively little in marketing efforts. Though Sny-
FAS meetings to begin FACULTY FROM PAGE 1 pointing to the faculty’s alleged lack of involvement in projects such as the University’s partnership with the National University of Singapore in the creation of a liberal arts college. In the case of Yale-NUS, University President Richard Levin has said the decision to launch the college ultimately rested with the Yale Corporation, as the venture is a new school and not a program within Yale College. Salovey deferred comment to the rules committee, which he said will propose procedures to be reviewed by the Expanded Executive Committee of the FAS — consisting of himself, Levin, Yale College Dean Mary Miller, Graduate School Dean Thomas Pollard, School of Engineering and Applied Science Dean T. Kyle Vanderlick, and the four faculty divisional directors in the physical sciences and engineering, biological sciences, social sciences and humanities. The Yale University Faculty Handbook states that this committee “is the final authority for all matters of policy within the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.” The FAS will review the proposed procedures after the Expanded Executive Committee, Salovey said. In the coming weeks, the rules committee will consider whether the faculty should be given formal deliberative powers at the FAS meetings, such as the right to pass motions and resolutions. Snowden said the committee is “likely to recommend” that the FAS meetings not only serve as a venue for discussion and exchange of information but also allow for the faculty body to pass “binding resolutions.” The committee will meet again this Friday and then submit an informal report with its recommendations to Salovey,
176
der decided to funnel $1 million last year into the school’s communications and media relations department, the school still lags behind its peers, Byrne said.
To the extent that [Snyder] can use himself as a vehicle to promote the school, that’s great because it can offset the fact that the school has been lagging. JOHN BYRNE Editor, Poets and Quants
one billboard after another of business schools advertising. You go online, you see tons of advertisements for business school programs, but you never see any for Yale, so to the extent that [Snyder] can use himself as a vehicle to promote the school, that’s great because it can offset the fact that the school has been lagging.” Della Bradshaw, the business education editor of the UK-based Financial Times, described Snyder’s contact with her as “high” compared to other American business school deans — a distinguishing characteristic given Bradshaw’s observation that American business schools are typically United States-focused. In the past year, Snyder has given interviews to numerous publications, including the Financial Times, Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal.
“When you listen to NPR, you often hear schools advertising,” Byrne said. “You go through the airport, you see
Profs want larger role in search SEARCH FROM PAGE 1
KELLY HSU/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Yale College Dean Mary Miller, center, pictured heading to a Yale College faculty meeting in March. which will be considered by professors at the first FAS meeting, he added. English professor Linda Peterson, another member of the rules committee, said in a Monday email that she hopes the procedures will allow for “robust discussion of serious issues and written resolutions.” She said the committee will not necessarily recommend that Robert’s Rules of Orders, which govern Yale College faculty meetings, also be implemented at FAS meetings, as some professors feel the parliamentary style “can stifle or limit discussion.” Joel Rosenbaum, profes-
sor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology, has tried in recent months to build support among his colleagues for a faculty senate that would be “organized and run by the faculty” without administrative presence. The senate would not necessarily have formal decision-making power but would rather assert its authority by advising the administration, Rosenbaum said. Though the FAS meetings may differ from the type of deliberative body he envisions, Rosenbaum said they are a “step in the right direction.” “Anytime you try to pro-
mote additional discussion is good,” he said. “I am a little bit cynical about whether it will work.” Professor of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations Benjamin Foster GRD ’75 said the FAS meetings are a great idea “in principle,” but that the important question is what role, if any, the body will have in making decisions at Yale. The first meeting of the FAS is scheduled for Oct. 1 at 4 p.m. in the Luce Hall Auditorium. Contact GAVAN GIDEON at gavan.gideon@yale.edu .
Contact DANIEL SISGOREO at daniel.sisgoreo@yale.edu .
email that he is currently “in the midst of a process of broad consultation” with the faculty. “In my view, the decision in the last search to appoint tenured members of the faculty who have had some administrative experience was wise, and I intend to follow that example,” he wrote to the campus on Friday. Bass would not provide an exact timetable for the search, but said he expects to nominate a committee chair by the end of the week and a successor to Levin by the time the president steps down on June 30. While Yale’s previous presidential search took 10 months to make its decision, both Levin and former Corporation senior fellow Roland Betts ’68 said Thursday that they expect the upcoming search to take between four and six months. Administrators have said the search will be conducted nationwide. In addition to naming members of the search committee, Bass announced four counselors who will be responsible for soliciting input from students, faculty, alumni and staff. Brandon Levin ’13, former Yale College Council president, will serve as the student counselor, while Associate Vice President for Administration Janet Lindner and former chair of the Association of Yale Alumni Board of Governors Michael Madison will represent the staff and alumni, respectively. Bass said he will choose a faculty counselor from among the names submitted by deans and directors. In the wake of Bass’s announcement, several professors have written the senior fellow to request that the faculty receive more representation — either in number of committee
members or in the nomination process for those members. French and African American studies professor Christopher Miller wrote a Saturday email to Bass advocating for an election among the faculty to chose their members of the search committee.
The four members of the search committee [should] be elected by the faculty of Yale College. CHRISTOPHER MILLER Professor, French and African Studies “I am writing … to request that the four faculty members of the search committee be elected by the faculty of Yale College,” he said. “This is how it is done at other institutions, and it is the only way to ensure that various points of view are included. With all of the resources available to the Corporation, it would surely be possible to make this happen in a timely fashion.” Fischer pointed to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s search to replace former President Susan Hockfield earlier this year as one in which faculty had more say — 10 of the committee’s 22 members were on the MIT faculty, though all were named by the school’s corporation. The Corporation will hold a series of forums open to the Yale community on Sept. 28 to discuss what qualities and priorities the next president should have. Contact TAPLEY STEPHENSON at preston.stephenson@yale.edu .
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NEWS
YALE DAILY NEWS 路 TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2012 路 yaledailynews.com
YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
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BULLETIN BOARD
TODAY’S FORECAST
TOMORROW
A chance of showers and thunderstorms. Cloudy, with a high near 78.
THURSDAY
High of 82, low of 64.
High of 84, low of 66.
UNDER THE WEATHER BY ABHIMANYU CHANDRA AND ILANA STRAUSS
ON CAMPUS WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5 3:00 PM S I M O N I D E S. Photographs by Norman McBeath, texts by Robert Crawford. This exhibition encourages contemplation of how we remember the dead, especially those killed in battle. The texts are versions of epitaphs and poetic fragments by the ancient Greek poet Simonides. Said to have developed a special art of memory, Simonides is associated with atrocity, war, loss, and remembrance. He made epitaphs for people, including friends, killed in the Persian Wars. Two and a half millennia ago, the city-states of Greece fought in conflicts against the empire of the Persians, which included the territories now known as Afghanistan, Iraq, and Iran. Whitney Humanities Center (53 Wall St.), The Gallery. 7:00 PM Yale Gospel Choir Open Rehearsal. The Yale Gospel Choir is having open rehearsals this fall, which all students are welcome to attend! Afro-American Cultural Center (211 Park St.).
ZERO LIKE ME BY REUXBEN BARRIENTES
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 6 5:30 PM A Tension So Exact That It Is Peace: The Work of Robert Adams. Presented in conjunction with the exhibition “Robert Adams: The Place We Live” Sponsored by the Martin A. Ryerson Lectureship Fund. Followed by a reception. Yale University Art Gallery (1111 Chapel St.). 8:30 PM Auditions for YCT’s Sherlock Holmes. Yale Children’s Theater is a Dwight Hall community service organization that puts on four shows a year in addition to teaching improv workshops for local New Haven kids. Come audition for the October production of Sherlock Holmes. Dwight Hall (67 High St.), Common Room.
DOONESBURY BY GARRY TRUDEAU
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 7 1:30 PM Ethnicity, Race and Migration Open House. According to the major’s website, ER&M majors study the world in order to change it. Founded in 1998, the program provides undergraduates with the methodological and practical tools for leadership in a diverse and dynamic 21st century. 35 Broadway (rear entrance), #215.
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CROSSWORD FROM THE ARCHIVES ACROSS 1 Hawaiian greeting 6 Recital highlight 10 Fr. religious figure 13 Fragrant purple flower 14 Stadium level 15 Bookstore sect. 16 Newcomer to Capitol Hill 19 Long story 20 Vessels like Noah’s 21 Frère du père 22 Massage facility 24 Begin a trip 25 Promising rookies’ doses of reality 31 Nitwit 32 They may be locked in battle 33 Flexed 34 Heavenly head covers 35 “Whatever shall I do?” 39 Writer Diamond or actor Leto 40 Overfill 41 Young company supervisor 46 Amerigo Vespucci, vis-àvis America 47 Score-raising stat 48 Whoop 49 Home of the Buckeyes 52 VCR insert 56 Breaks for AARP members 59 Quod __ demonstrandum 60 “The Razor’s __”: Maugham novel 61 Make sense, to a detective 62 China’s Sun Yat__ 63 Arthur of tennis 64 Varnish component DOWN 1 TV E.T. and namesakes 2 Former coin of Italy 3 Designer Cassini
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ONLINE TUTORS FOR SAT AND ACT PREP Connecticut test prep company wants to train and hire Yale GRADUATE STUDENTS to tutor students online. You don’t need to leave your apartment to make good money. You can tutor math or verbal. Starting pay is $30 an hour. College Planning Partnerships, Clinton, 860-664-9857 or sam@ satprepct.com
9/12/11
By James Sajdak
4 Just might pull it off 5 “Bah,” in Bavaria 6 Hollywood Walk of Fame feature 7 Sound from a snout 8 A smaller amount 9 Salem is its cap. 10 “Scrubs,” for one 11 Get ready for production 12 White wading birds 15 African language group 17 Hat-tipping address 18 Yuletide carols 23 Stovetop item 24 Federal IDs 25 One of the fam 26 Shelley tribute 27 Wrestler’s objective 28 Windy City airport 29 Pricey timepiece 30 Wash away slowly 34 Injure 35 Cockpit reading 36 __ polloi 37 Dallas NBAer
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38 Août’s season 39 “__ the World” 40 Fella 41 James and Owens 42 “Psst!” from above 43 Political columnist Peggy 44 Alaskan native 45 Gator’s cousin 49 __ and ends
9/12/11
50 A bit tipsy 51 “Makes sense to me” 53 Common conjunctions 54 Seed-spitter’s sound 55 “Baseball Tonight” channel 57 Stephen of “V for Vendetta” 58 Rowing need
3 8 5 2 8 4 7 1 3 5 7 9 2 4 9 5 7 1 8 4 2 9 1 5
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YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
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SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
“That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” NEIL ARMSTRONG AMERICAN ASTRONAUT
Fungi-infected trees full of methane BY IKE SWETLITZ CONTRIBUTING REPORTER Some trees, when infected by microorganisms, may be emitting significant amounts of the greenhouse gas methane, according to a recent Yale study. This study, published last month by a team of scientists at Yale, Columbia University, and the State University of New York at Buffalo in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, found that heart rot can produce high, sometimes flammable, levels of methane, which decrease a tree’s effectiveness as a carbon sink. “This study identifies a new, important source of methane, a greenhouse gas that is more potent than carbon dioxide,” said Stephen Wood, a graduate student in ecology, evolution, and environmental biology at Columbia and one of the authors of the study. “To that end, it presents compelling data that methane production in trees should be figured into global circulation and climate models.” This study dates back to September 2007, when Robert Warren, another co-author of the study and an assistant professor of biology at Buffalo State College, was extracting tree cores in the forest with his students. When they removed a core from one of the trees, they could hear a gas hissing out of the tree. “One of my more troublemaking students, of course, probably the best student, pulled out his lighter and lit it,” Warren said. “I was pretty amazed that there was enough methane that he could light it.” Foresters had already known that heart rot, a fungal infection caused by methane-producing archaea, produced methane, but they did not realize the magnitude of the phenomenon.The researchers also knew about three other pathways through which trees released methane, but none of those would be expected to contribute to the methane measured in the forest they studied, the YaleMyers forest in northeastern Connecticut. The team collected bark samples and trunk gas from about 60 trees in the forest, then analyzed the samples to determine how much methane was in the trees. Using a standard diffusion equation adapted by Xuhui Lee, professor of meteorology at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, to take into account the structure of wood and the liquid contained within it, the team generated estimates of how much methane was being released
into the atmosphere based on how much methane was present in the samples. They found that trees infected with heart rot contained much more methane than expected, a result that could help scientists better understand the methane cycle if the group’s results are replicated on a larger scale, said Kristofer Covey, the corresponding author of the paper and a Ph.D. candidate in silviculture and biogeochemistry at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. He noted that the methane emissions partially offset the carbon dioxide sequestration effects of trees.
A teenager who smokes and drinks is more likely to abuse prescription painkillers as a young adult, according to a new Yale study. Researchers at the Yale School of Medicine analyzed nationally-representative survey data to explore a possible link between alcohol, cigarette, and marijuana use as an adolescent and subsequent abuse of prescription pain medication as a young adult. Their paper, published in the Journal of Adolescent Health, was the first to find that a link between these “gateway drugs” and prescription painkillers. They found that all three drugs are associated with higher levels of prescription drug abuse in men, but only marijuana use is associated with higher levels of prescription drug abuse in in women. The number of Americans abusing prescription opioids — drugs like Vicodin and Percocet — has exploded over the past decade, said Lynn Fiellin MED ’96, an associate professor of medicine at the School of Medicine and lead author of the study. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2010 more than 12 million Americans reported using prescription painkillers that their doctors had not prescribed for them. “Part of our aim was to demonstrate how the emerging epidemic of prescription opioids is a major issue that the general population doesn’t recognize,” Fiellin said. “They don’t recognize that that abuse does fall into the same category as hard, elicit drugs.” According to Steve Bernstein, an associate professor of emer-
BY JACQUELINE SAHLBERG STAFF REPORTER
conclusions can be reached as to the role of heart rot in the global methane cycle. Mark Bradford, assistant professor of terrestrial ecosystem ecology at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, also coauthored the study.
Play a sedentary video game and live a healthier life? That’s the hope of Yale researchers who are joining the booming health games industry with an iPad application designed to help ethnic minority teens learn about HIV prevention strategies. As part of Yale’s Play2Prevent initiative, a group from the School of Medicine conducted focus groups with New Haven teens to gain an understanding common factors and behaviors that affect HIV risk. The findings are guiding the design and content of a new iPad game titled PlayForward: Elm City Stories, which aims to promote better decisions among minority youth. The researchers will conduct a study on the game’s impact HIV transmission rates starting later this year. “The overall goal is to help kids practice skills in the game that will decrease their engagement in behaviors that put them at risk for HIV,” said brief author Lynn Fiellin MED ’96, associate professor of medicine and director of Play2Prevent. “The idea is to build an evidence-based HIV intervention. The game has to be fun and engaging, but it has to accomplish something.” According to the clinical brief that was published in the August edition of the journal Games for Health, national HIV infection rates among teens and young adults increased by 21 percent between 2006 and 2009. Ethnic minority youth are at greater risk, according to the Center for Disease Control, with African-American and youth accounting for 69 percent of teen HIV infection diagnoses in 2010, despite making up only 15 percent of the teen population. The research team conducted individual interviews and focus groups with 36 New Haven youth between the ages of 10 and 15, who reported that peer pressure, mentors and their neighborhood had the most influence over their decisions to engage in risky behaviors or not. Kimberly Hieftje, an associate research scientist at the School of Medicine and the lead author on the study, said these themes are fundamental in the development of
Contact IKE SWETLITZ at isaac.swetlitz@yale.edu .
This study identifies a new important source of methane, a greenhouse gas that is more potent than carbon dioxide. STEPHEN WOOD Graduate student, Columbia University “The methane being emitted has a climate effect 18 percent as powerful as the carbon being sequestered,” Covey said. “It’s a little bit like forests are paying a tax on the carbon that’s being sequestered. This tax is around the capital gains rate. So everyone can just remember that no one ever went broke paying capital gains tax. We’re happy to keep paying that.” Ed Dlugokencky, a researcher at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a federal environmental agency, warned against jumping to conclusions based on this study. He said in an email that the study measured only the methane in the tree, and it is unclear how much of that methane made it to the atmosphere. Lee said in an email that directly measuring the methane diffusion out of the tree trunks is an important next step for the team. “[This was] essentially a back of the envelope calculation. We may find dramatically different results when we do more intensive instrumentation of trees,” Covey said. Josh Schimel, a professor of soil and ecosystem ecology at University of California, Santa Barbara, said in an email that the study, while only the beginning of a longer process, was executed rigorously and had solid data. He added that further research is needed before any
gency medicine at the Medical School who was not affiliated with the study, prescription painkillers have presented a particularly difficult problem for doctors to negotiate. Over the past 20 years, he said, there has been an increasing focus on the adequate treatment of pain. In an effort to aid patients, doctors have been prescribing more painkillers, which has had the unintended effect of feeding the growing black market for the drugs. Fiellin said that in order to understand why the number of young adults abusing prescription drugs has increased, it is important to examine their drug habits as adolescents. The researchers used data from 2006 to 2008 from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, an annual study representative of the U.S. population, to study 18to 25-year-olds’ drug use behavior. They found that 12 percent of the survey population reported misusing prescription opioids around the time the survey was conducted. They also found that both men and women who had smoked marijuana between the ages of 12 and 17 were more than two times more likely to later abuse prescription drugs than those who had not. Young men who drank or smoked cigarettes as teens were 25 percent more likely to abuse prescription drugs — though this link was not found in women surveyed. Fiellin said there was no clear-cut reason why the results differed for men and women. Keith Humphreys, professor of psychiatry at the Stanford Medical Center, said that this association between “gateway drugs” and prescription pain medication was significant regardless of the
Nepali tigers go nocturnal to make peace with humans YALE OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS AND COMMUNICATIONS
A new iPad application designed to educate ethnic minority teens about HIV prevention strategies is being pioneered by a team of Yale researchers from the School of Medicine. the iPad app. The game is different from others, she said, in that teens also provided feedback on the characters’ speech and clothing. Images of New Haven were used to create more realistic scenes, Hieftje added. “What makes this game unique is that we are focused on behavior change, not just knowledge acquisition,” Hieftje said. “There are not a lot of clinical trials that have been done about the efficacy of games for behavior change. We want to see if kids can take what they learned and apply it to life.” The game involves creating an avatar who goes through a virtual life and makes decisions revolving around risk behaviors, including unprotected sex and drug and alcohol abuse. The player will be able to see how their choices and actions influence later situations and rewind to play out how making another decision could produce a different outcome. Researchers will study the impact of the game among New Haven teens in an 18-24 month clinical trial start-
BY THE NUMBERS HIV/AIDS 50 k 1.2 m 9284 20
Estimated number of deaths from HIV/AIDS in Connecticut since 1981. (CT Dept of Public Health) Percent of U.S. residents living with HIV estimated to be unaware of their infection. (CDC)
exact mechanism behind the link. “Some people believe the ‘gateway effect’ exists because early drug use primes the human brain for more drug-seeking, others argue that the friends you make using drugs as a youth are a ready source for other drugs later, and still others argue that there are factors, like impulsivity, that causes both early and later drug use,” Humphreys said. “Which camp is correct? Probably, all of them.” This argument would point to the fact that more interventions are needed earlier on in adolescents’ lives, Bernstein said. He said that it may be valuable to conduct a longitudinal study that would track children from a young age to see whether drinking or smoking actually caused later prescription drug abuse. But, he said, it would be a mistake to wait for more concrete research before creating programs and policies aimed at prevention. “You’d never intervene otherwise because you’ll never have perfect data,” Bernstein said. “The only way to really know would be to do a randomized trial — to have some people smoke and drink, and the others to stay abstinent — but of course that’s unethical.” But Fiellin cautioned that though a significant link was found in the data, it’s harder to know whether the findings will be meaningful in practice. The study was funded with grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the Department of Veteran’s Affairs in West Haven. Contact MICHELLE HACKMAN at michelle.hackman@yale.edu .
T
he recent passing of Neil Armstrong — by all accounts, a humble man in spite of his historic accomplishment — reminded me that if time travel were possible, I would immediately go back to July 20, 1969 to watch the moon landing. It is estimated that over 500 million people worldwide watched Armstrong’s walk on the moon and probably millions more listened to the live radio reports. To many, Armstrong is a potent symbol of the space age, an era in which science was more broadly valued. What happened? Why does America no longer care about science? For one thing, the Cold War is over and as a result, the tension with the Soviets that caused our nation to fixate on science during the space race is gone. Some of the blame must also be placed on scientists, who often fail to see the need to communicate to the general public about science. But the fall of science from the height of the space age has much more to do with an apathetic and misinformed general public, who seem just as likely to believe quacks as legitimate researchers. And poor science education is not limited to average citizens; in fact a hostility towards science seems to have infiltrated the national Republican Party. In the recent outcry over Missouri representative Todd Akin’s offensive and idiotic comment that “legitimate rape” will rarely lead to pregnancy, one embarrassing fact that did not get sufficient attention is that Akin serves on the House Committee on Sci-
ence, Space and Technology. This committee has several Republican members who openly ignore the SAHELI lth of SADANAND wea evidence supportScience ing manmade cliBabble mate change. Unlike in 2008, the recently released Republican Party platform does not have a section addressing climate change at all and preemptively rejects any new greenhouse gas regulations by the EPA. This is a shame because the GOP wasn’t always so hostile to research. Unfortunately, this mixture of hostility and apathy extends to the Yale campus. In the months to come, you will undoubtedly see an op-ed or two bemoaning the science requirement at Yale. I have been told that there is no point to a science requirement when it is highly likely that the vast majority of Yalies believe in evolution and human-caused global warming. Belief is not sufficient; those who cannot explain some of the evidence that supports the theory of natural selection are hardly better than those who adamantly reject it. There is no better arena to reinforce the importance of the scientific method and explain important scientific findings than science classes themselves. In an era when the leadership of an entire political party routinely
downplays or rejects science, it is irresponsible to declare required collegiate science education to be worthless.
WHY DOES AMERICA NO LONGER CARE ABOUT SCIENCE? I don’t want to be a complete downer. The recent excitement surrounding the landing of the rover Curiosity on Mars shows that we can still be inspired by science. I defy anybody to not be moved when watching the Youtube video from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory as Curiosity successfully landed — no, seriously, if you haven’t watched it go watch it now. The drive, the teamwork and the ingenuity that characterized the space race can be captured again, but doing so will require the participation of our entire society. Yale aims to educate the next generation of leaders and critical thinkers and science must be part of this. It’s not about knowing all the facts — it’s about wanting to. Our generation should have many more Mars rover moments — moments that our children and our grandchildren will wish they could time-travel to, but it is up to us to make those moments possible. Contact SAHELI SADANAND at saheli.sadanand@yale.edu .
ing later this year. Debra Lieberman, director of the Health Games Research national program and media researcher at the University of California, Santa Barbara, said health games have been around since the early 1980s. She explained that video games were once pegged as a health nemesis for promoting sedentary lifestyles, but health focused video games have recently gained acceptance as an asset for education and behavioral change. “In the past several years, the word ‘game’ has become less frightening to the health field,” Liberman said. “The field is absolutely growing. In most cases people know what they need to do to take care of themselves, but games can motivate them to keep their self-care in the front of mind.” Since the first Games for Health Conference in 2004, more researchers, developers and investors have joined the field, she said. She said that the increased affordability of mobile devices and continued technological innovations should aid further expansion. Fiellin said that while Play2Prevent has not studied the ownership of iPads among New Haven minority youth, she does not believe iPad avaliability will be a barrier to distributing the game. Tablets will be more affordable by the end of the 24 month trial and the game may be developed for other mobile devices and computers, she said. Play2Prevent was founded in 2009 to create video games focused on prevention. Playforward: Elm City Stories is being developed in collaboration with Digitalmill and Schell Games. Contact JACQUELINE SAHLBERG at jacqueline.sahlberg@yale.edu .
A recent study found that trees infected with heart rot fungus contain higher levels of methane than was previously thought.
Curiosity calling Earth
LAB
On Aug. 6, the aptly named NASA rover Curiousity landed on the red planet. The landing went smoothly, and the rover soon began sending images of Mars back to NASA headquarters on Earth. The rover, which looks suspiciously like WallE of Pixar fame, aims to discover whether Mars could ever have supported life.
Estimated persons aged 13 and older living with HIV in the United States in 2009. (CDC)
YALE SCHOOL OF FORESTRY & EVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
FROM THE
Mars rover lands successfully
Estimated number of people newly infected with HIV each year in the U.S. (CDC)
Gateway drugs link confirmed BY MICHELLE HACKMAN STAFF REPORTER
iPad game teaches HIV prevention
LEAKS
The tiger in Bill Watterson’s cartoon classic Calvin and Hobbes thought that tigers would only be happy if they could eat humans. However, tigers in the nation of Nepal may be working to counteract that stereotype: Research from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that the big cats may switch their sleeping patterns to better coexist with humans. Research shows that both felines and humans are making full use of trails and roads in Nepal’s Chitwan National Park, but at different times of the day. When the people sleep, the tigers roam, and when the sun rises, the cats go back to bed. — Robert Peck
Global warming could increase biodiversity YouTube videos of sad, habitat-less polar bears aside, scientists from the Universities of York, Glasgow and Leeds have determined through fossil and geological records analysis that our planet’s biodiversity generally increases as our planet warms. However, there’s a catch — such increases in diversity are usually the consequence of evolution occurring over millions of years, and cannot usually come about without the extinction of other species first. So if you were hoping that climate change might produce three different species of penguin where there once was one, you may, sadly, be out of luck. — Robert Peck
Stress causes brain shrinkage A study led by Yale postdoctoral researcher Hyo Jung Kang found that a type of genetic switch called a “transcription factor” can repress the expression of certain genes necessary for connections between brain cells to form properly. The study found that the transcription factor in question, GATA1, is activated in conjunction with stress and feelings of depression. — Robert Peck
Study looks at ‘nonsocial’ public behaviors BY CLARISSA MARZÁN CONTRIBUTING REPORTER Esther Kim is a Ph.D. candidate in sociology who conducted a study on people who create a private space in a public setting, a behavior which she terms “nonsocial transient behavior.” Her findings are based on personal experiences riding Greyhound buses from 2009-11 and gathering anecdotal data from passengers in keeping with the naturalistic ethnography methodology. She spoke to the News about the role of technology in creating behavior and the pitfalls of being a Yale sociologist.
There is this societal change that is more intruding, the fact that people are actually engaging in these nonactive modes of behavior. It is kind of sad but it’s not only sad because there are situations where you need to put your defenses up. So I don’t recommend that you should avoid other people or you shouldn’t because I think it depends on the situation.
build this kind of nonsocial transient space around them; it could be the same. But I think what a lot of people have missed about my article is that you build the space around you. It could happen anywhere, in a large public space, such as the park, or a bookstore, or even in a classroom; you can be sitting among 400 other students, but if you are making that nonsocial space around you that’s what creates this nonsocial transient behavior.
A
Q
Is there a particular reason why you chose the Greyhound, as opposed to the train or the plane, as the setting of your study?
was too simple a study and joked that they could all get a Ph.D.?
Q
Did you see any sort of hostility from any particular groups of people, such as younger people or women or children?
A
A
The frustrations of being a bus for a very long time in an enclosed space, where you can’t really move around much, those are the characteristics of how people create nonsocial spaces. So I would imagine that on an Amtrak, which is much roomier and people can walk up and down the train, it might be a similar setting, so someone might
civility in a really weird form. People are being civil to one another by completely avoiding them or pretending that people around them don’t exist. There isn’t much hostility or aggression going on in these spaces.
you think that technolQDo ogy has increased our need to privatize our social space?
A
I haven’t read anything about this, but personally I do specifically remember back when I was living in Philadelphia when the iPod first came out, the first generation iPod and it was that standard white headphones. And I remember going to New York and everybody had them on in the subway and that was not common at all before. Now you get on the subway and you don’t really see that many people with headphones anymore so I guess it was that one time when the iPod became a really huge thing. But I think that did initiate that nonso-
you plan to expand on this QDo study or do research in other settings?
said you got reactions Right now I live in Beijing, QYou from readers who thought it Aand I’ll be here for the next
is naturalistic ethnogdidn’t see any hostility, QWhat This is all about raphy? AIactually. Why I say it’s naturalistic is because we try to kind of blend in with the people whom we study. So ehtnograph, some people say it’s participant observation but it’s become kind of wider to mean interviews and asking interview-like questions to informants, but naturalistic ethnography is more just kind of hanging out. Like the “hang out” method.
ing to the general public. But then there is a lot of science that goes behind it, like that’s why I keep emphasizing the systematic study part, it’s not just random observation but actually making sense of what’s going on.
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
A Yale sociolgist’s recent study used Greyhound bus trips as examples of places where riders construct nonsocial spaces. cial transient behavior. If someone were to accidentally touch you or push you, people would react in a way like to be annoyed but now that you prefer this antisocial bubble around you and I would say that it is technology that initiated or ignited this type of behavior.
QThat sounds so sad.
A
I think that’s what interesting to me about sociology. Some people who have picked up on the news media about that was written about my article, (it’s funny because they read the article about my article), and my article is actually not that long but then they were commenting on how this is so common sense or “I can get a Yale Ph.D. if she’s writing about stuff like this.” I feel like they were missing the point.
I was thinking of writing a rebuttal short essay about this article’s reception to the public media because I think the way the original first article’s written on this article, it was listing the various ways to avoid strangers from a Yale sociologist. So immediately people were thinking, “Oh my gosh this Yale person,” which a lot of Americans kind of mythologize in a way. They think, “Those Yalies are rich snobby people and they’re going to to teach me how to avoid strangers on a bus, like I mean has a Yalie ever even been on a bus?” I think if I was connected to another university, like a third-tier university, it would not receive the same reaction that it did. So you say, “If I can make these common sense [findings] and I can get a Ph.D.,” I would say the first step would be to read the original article and that would maybe get you halfway through Yale’s door. But I think people were just going off on this article about my article. That’s why it’s kind of tricky and I think that’s why sociologists get a lot of bad publicity because the only thing that gets picked up is whatever might seem interest-
two years. I’ve been here for a few months before, and what I notice is the way that people kind of flock towards white people, like Chinese people are very obsessed … they’re very fascinated by white people and I think regular Beijingers might see white people here and there, but then you have a lot of migrants who come from Beijing to visit the historic places in Beijing, and they’ll want to take pictures of white people. I would want to, if I were to extend on this research project, I would see how people actively engage, so it would be an active engagement, a social engagement. I think a lot of foreigners … a lot of white people are very disturbed that they’re being taken pictures of by random Chinese people or Chinese people on the subway will pick at your hair; they’ll want to touch it, and if there is some loose blonde hair on your sweater then they’ll want to take it. It’s really bizarre so this is a really weird form of active engagement. They’ll want you to be their friend, they’ll want you to teach them English, so I think that’s kind of interesting to see the flip side of active engagement with complete strangers. Contact CLARISSA MARZÁN at clarissa.marzan@yale.edu .
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SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
“That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” NEIL ARMSTRONG AMERICAN ASTRONAUT
Fungi-infected trees full of methane BY IKE SWETLITZ CONTRIBUTING REPORTER Some trees, when infected by microorganisms, may be emitting significant amounts of the greenhouse gas methane, according to a recent Yale study. This study, published last month by a team of scientists at Yale, Columbia University, and the State University of New York at Buffalo in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, found that heart rot can produce high, sometimes flammable, levels of methane, which decrease a tree’s effectiveness as a carbon sink. “This study identifies a new, important source of methane, a greenhouse gas that is more potent than carbon dioxide,” said Stephen Wood, a graduate student in ecology, evolution, and environmental biology at Columbia and one of the authors of the study. “To that end, it presents compelling data that methane production in trees should be figured into global circulation and climate models.” This study dates back to September 2007, when Robert Warren, another co-author of the study and an assistant professor of biology at Buffalo State College, was extracting tree cores in the forest with his students. When they removed a core from one of the trees, they could hear a gas hissing out of the tree. “One of my more troublemaking students, of course, probably the best student, pulled out his lighter and lit it,” Warren said. “I was pretty amazed that there was enough methane that he could light it.” Foresters had already known that heart rot, a fungal infection caused by methane-producing archaea, produced methane, but they did not realize the magnitude of the phenomenon.The researchers also knew about three other pathways through which trees released methane, but none of those would be expected to contribute to the methane measured in the forest they studied, the YaleMyers forest in northeastern Connecticut. The team collected bark samples and trunk gas from about 60 trees in the forest, then analyzed the samples to determine how much methane was in the trees. Using a standard diffusion equation adapted by Xuhui Lee, professor of meteorology at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, to take into account the structure of wood and the liquid contained within it, the team generated estimates of how much methane was being released
into the atmosphere based on how much methane was present in the samples. They found that trees infected with heart rot contained much more methane than expected, a result that could help scientists better understand the methane cycle if the group’s results are replicated on a larger scale, said Kristofer Covey, the corresponding author of the paper and a Ph.D. candidate in silviculture and biogeochemistry at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. He noted that the methane emissions partially offset the carbon dioxide sequestration effects of trees.
A teenager who smokes and drinks is more likely to abuse prescription painkillers as a young adult, according to a new Yale study. Researchers at the Yale School of Medicine analyzed nationally-representative survey data to explore a possible link between alcohol, cigarette, and marijuana use as an adolescent and subsequent abuse of prescription pain medication as a young adult. Their paper, published in the Journal of Adolescent Health, was the first to find that a link between these “gateway drugs” and prescription painkillers. They found that all three drugs are associated with higher levels of prescription drug abuse in men, but only marijuana use is associated with higher levels of prescription drug abuse in in women. The number of Americans abusing prescription opioids — drugs like Vicodin and Percocet — has exploded over the past decade, said Lynn Fiellin MED ’96, an associate professor of medicine at the School of Medicine and lead author of the study. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2010 more than 12 million Americans reported using prescription painkillers that their doctors had not prescribed for them. “Part of our aim was to demonstrate how the emerging epidemic of prescription opioids is a major issue that the general population doesn’t recognize,” Fiellin said. “They don’t recognize that that abuse does fall into the same category as hard, elicit drugs.” According to Steve Bernstein, an associate professor of emer-
BY JACQUELINE SAHLBERG STAFF REPORTER
conclusions can be reached as to the role of heart rot in the global methane cycle. Mark Bradford, assistant professor of terrestrial ecosystem ecology at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, also coauthored the study.
Play a sedentary video game and live a healthier life? That’s the hope of Yale researchers who are joining the booming health games industry with an iPad application designed to help ethnic minority teens learn about HIV prevention strategies. As part of Yale’s Play2Prevent initiative, a group from the School of Medicine conducted focus groups with New Haven teens to gain an understanding common factors and behaviors that affect HIV risk. The findings are guiding the design and content of a new iPad game titled PlayForward: Elm City Stories, which aims to promote better decisions among minority youth. The researchers will conduct a study on the game’s impact HIV transmission rates starting later this year. “The overall goal is to help kids practice skills in the game that will decrease their engagement in behaviors that put them at risk for HIV,” said brief author Lynn Fiellin MED ’96, associate professor of medicine and director of Play2Prevent. “The idea is to build an evidence-based HIV intervention. The game has to be fun and engaging, but it has to accomplish something.” According to the clinical brief that was published in the August edition of the journal Games for Health, national HIV infection rates among teens and young adults increased by 21 percent between 2006 and 2009. Ethnic minority youth are at greater risk, according to the Center for Disease Control, with African-American and youth accounting for 69 percent of teen HIV infection diagnoses in 2010, despite making up only 15 percent of the teen population. The research team conducted individual interviews and focus groups with 36 New Haven youth between the ages of 10 and 15, who reported that peer pressure, mentors and their neighborhood had the most influence over their decisions to engage in risky behaviors or not. Kimberly Hieftje, an associate research scientist at the School of Medicine and the lead author on the study, said these themes are fundamental in the development of
Contact IKE SWETLITZ at isaac.swetlitz@yale.edu .
This study identifies a new important source of methane, a greenhouse gas that is more potent than carbon dioxide. STEPHEN WOOD Graduate student, Columbia University “The methane being emitted has a climate effect 18 percent as powerful as the carbon being sequestered,” Covey said. “It’s a little bit like forests are paying a tax on the carbon that’s being sequestered. This tax is around the capital gains rate. So everyone can just remember that no one ever went broke paying capital gains tax. We’re happy to keep paying that.” Ed Dlugokencky, a researcher at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a federal environmental agency, warned against jumping to conclusions based on this study. He said in an email that the study measured only the methane in the tree, and it is unclear how much of that methane made it to the atmosphere. Lee said in an email that directly measuring the methane diffusion out of the tree trunks is an important next step for the team. “[This was] essentially a back of the envelope calculation. We may find dramatically different results when we do more intensive instrumentation of trees,” Covey said. Josh Schimel, a professor of soil and ecosystem ecology at University of California, Santa Barbara, said in an email that the study, while only the beginning of a longer process, was executed rigorously and had solid data. He added that further research is needed before any
gency medicine at the Medical School who was not affiliated with the study, prescription painkillers have presented a particularly difficult problem for doctors to negotiate. Over the past 20 years, he said, there has been an increasing focus on the adequate treatment of pain. In an effort to aid patients, doctors have been prescribing more painkillers, which has had the unintended effect of feeding the growing black market for the drugs. Fiellin said that in order to understand why the number of young adults abusing prescription drugs has increased, it is important to examine their drug habits as adolescents. The researchers used data from 2006 to 2008 from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, an annual study representative of the U.S. population, to study 18to 25-year-olds’ drug use behavior. They found that 12 percent of the survey population reported misusing prescription opioids around the time the survey was conducted. They also found that both men and women who had smoked marijuana between the ages of 12 and 17 were more than two times more likely to later abuse prescription drugs than those who had not. Young men who drank or smoked cigarettes as teens were 25 percent more likely to abuse prescription drugs — though this link was not found in women surveyed. Fiellin said there was no clear-cut reason why the results differed for men and women. Keith Humphreys, professor of psychiatry at the Stanford Medical Center, said that this association between “gateway drugs” and prescription pain medication was significant regardless of the
Nepali tigers go nocturnal to make peace with humans YALE OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS AND COMMUNICATIONS
A new iPad application designed to educate ethnic minority teens about HIV prevention strategies is being pioneered by a team of Yale researchers from the School of Medicine. the iPad app. The game is different from others, she said, in that teens also provided feedback on the characters’ speech and clothing. Images of New Haven were used to create more realistic scenes, Hieftje added. “What makes this game unique is that we are focused on behavior change, not just knowledge acquisition,” Hieftje said. “There are not a lot of clinical trials that have been done about the efficacy of games for behavior change. We want to see if kids can take what they learned and apply it to life.” The game involves creating an avatar who goes through a virtual life and makes decisions revolving around risk behaviors, including unprotected sex and drug and alcohol abuse. The player will be able to see how their choices and actions influence later situations and rewind to play out how making another decision could produce a different outcome. Researchers will study the impact of the game among New Haven teens in an 18-24 month clinical trial start-
BY THE NUMBERS HIV/AIDS 50 k 1.2 m 9284 20
Estimated number of deaths from HIV/AIDS in Connecticut since 1981. (CT Dept of Public Health) Percent of U.S. residents living with HIV estimated to be unaware of their infection. (CDC)
exact mechanism behind the link. “Some people believe the ‘gateway effect’ exists because early drug use primes the human brain for more drug-seeking, others argue that the friends you make using drugs as a youth are a ready source for other drugs later, and still others argue that there are factors, like impulsivity, that causes both early and later drug use,” Humphreys said. “Which camp is correct? Probably, all of them.” This argument would point to the fact that more interventions are needed earlier on in adolescents’ lives, Bernstein said. He said that it may be valuable to conduct a longitudinal study that would track children from a young age to see whether drinking or smoking actually caused later prescription drug abuse. But, he said, it would be a mistake to wait for more concrete research before creating programs and policies aimed at prevention. “You’d never intervene otherwise because you’ll never have perfect data,” Bernstein said. “The only way to really know would be to do a randomized trial — to have some people smoke and drink, and the others to stay abstinent — but of course that’s unethical.” But Fiellin cautioned that though a significant link was found in the data, it’s harder to know whether the findings will be meaningful in practice. The study was funded with grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the Department of Veteran’s Affairs in West Haven. Contact MICHELLE HACKMAN at michelle.hackman@yale.edu .
T
he recent passing of Neil Armstrong — by all accounts, a humble man in spite of his historic accomplishment — reminded me that if time travel were possible, I would immediately go back to July 20, 1969 to watch the moon landing. It is estimated that over 500 million people worldwide watched Armstrong’s walk on the moon and probably millions more listened to the live radio reports. To many, Armstrong is a potent symbol of the space age, an era in which science was more broadly valued. What happened? Why does America no longer care about science? For one thing, the Cold War is over and as a result, the tension with the Soviets that caused our nation to fixate on science during the space race is gone. Some of the blame must also be placed on scientists, who often fail to see the need to communicate to the general public about science. But the fall of science from the height of the space age has much more to do with an apathetic and misinformed general public, who seem just as likely to believe quacks as legitimate researchers. And poor science education is not limited to average citizens; in fact a hostility towards science seems to have infiltrated the national Republican Party. In the recent outcry over Missouri representative Todd Akin’s offensive and idiotic comment that “legitimate rape” will rarely lead to pregnancy, one embarrassing fact that did not get sufficient attention is that Akin serves on the House Committee on Sci-
ence, Space and Technology. This committee has several Republican members who openly ignore the SAHELI lth of SADANAND wea evidence supportScience ing manmade cliBabble mate change. Unlike in 2008, the recently released Republican Party platform does not have a section addressing climate change at all and preemptively rejects any new greenhouse gas regulations by the EPA. This is a shame because the GOP wasn’t always so hostile to research. Unfortunately, this mixture of hostility and apathy extends to the Yale campus. In the months to come, you will undoubtedly see an op-ed or two bemoaning the science requirement at Yale. I have been told that there is no point to a science requirement when it is highly likely that the vast majority of Yalies believe in evolution and human-caused global warming. Belief is not sufficient; those who cannot explain some of the evidence that supports the theory of natural selection are hardly better than those who adamantly reject it. There is no better arena to reinforce the importance of the scientific method and explain important scientific findings than science classes themselves. In an era when the leadership of an entire political party routinely
downplays or rejects science, it is irresponsible to declare required collegiate science education to be worthless.
WHY DOES AMERICA NO LONGER CARE ABOUT SCIENCE? I don’t want to be a complete downer. The recent excitement surrounding the landing of the rover Curiosity on Mars shows that we can still be inspired by science. I defy anybody to not be moved when watching the Youtube video from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory as Curiosity successfully landed — no, seriously, if you haven’t watched it go watch it now. The drive, the teamwork and the ingenuity that characterized the space race can be captured again, but doing so will require the participation of our entire society. Yale aims to educate the next generation of leaders and critical thinkers and science must be part of this. It’s not about knowing all the facts — it’s about wanting to. Our generation should have many more Mars rover moments — moments that our children and our grandchildren will wish they could time-travel to, but it is up to us to make those moments possible. Contact SAHELI SADANAND at saheli.sadanand@yale.edu .
ing later this year. Debra Lieberman, director of the Health Games Research national program and media researcher at the University of California, Santa Barbara, said health games have been around since the early 1980s. She explained that video games were once pegged as a health nemesis for promoting sedentary lifestyles, but health focused video games have recently gained acceptance as an asset for education and behavioral change. “In the past several years, the word ‘game’ has become less frightening to the health field,” Liberman said. “The field is absolutely growing. In most cases people know what they need to do to take care of themselves, but games can motivate them to keep their self-care in the front of mind.” Since the first Games for Health Conference in 2004, more researchers, developers and investors have joined the field, she said. She said that the increased affordability of mobile devices and continued technological innovations should aid further expansion. Fiellin said that while Play2Prevent has not studied the ownership of iPads among New Haven minority youth, she does not believe iPad avaliability will be a barrier to distributing the game. Tablets will be more affordable by the end of the 24 month trial and the game may be developed for other mobile devices and computers, she said. Play2Prevent was founded in 2009 to create video games focused on prevention. Playforward: Elm City Stories is being developed in collaboration with Digitalmill and Schell Games. Contact JACQUELINE SAHLBERG at jacqueline.sahlberg@yale.edu .
A recent study found that trees infected with heart rot fungus contain higher levels of methane than was previously thought.
Curiosity calling Earth
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On Aug. 6, the aptly named NASA rover Curiousity landed on the red planet. The landing went smoothly, and the rover soon began sending images of Mars back to NASA headquarters on Earth. The rover, which looks suspiciously like WallE of Pixar fame, aims to discover whether Mars could ever have supported life.
Estimated persons aged 13 and older living with HIV in the United States in 2009. (CDC)
YALE SCHOOL OF FORESTRY & EVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
FROM THE
Mars rover lands successfully
Estimated number of people newly infected with HIV each year in the U.S. (CDC)
Gateway drugs link confirmed BY MICHELLE HACKMAN STAFF REPORTER
iPad game teaches HIV prevention
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The tiger in Bill Watterson’s cartoon classic Calvin and Hobbes thought that tigers would only be happy if they could eat humans. However, tigers in the nation of Nepal may be working to counteract that stereotype: Research from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that the big cats may switch their sleeping patterns to better coexist with humans. Research shows that both felines and humans are making full use of trails and roads in Nepal’s Chitwan National Park, but at different times of the day. When the people sleep, the tigers roam, and when the sun rises, the cats go back to bed. — Robert Peck
Global warming could increase biodiversity YouTube videos of sad, habitat-less polar bears aside, scientists from the Universities of York, Glasgow and Leeds have determined through fossil and geological records analysis that our planet’s biodiversity generally increases as our planet warms. However, there’s a catch — such increases in diversity are usually the consequence of evolution occurring over millions of years, and cannot usually come about without the extinction of other species first. So if you were hoping that climate change might produce three different species of penguin where there once was one, you may, sadly, be out of luck. — Robert Peck
Stress causes brain shrinkage A study led by Yale postdoctoral researcher Hyo Jung Kang found that a type of genetic switch called a “transcription factor” can repress the expression of certain genes necessary for connections between brain cells to form properly. The study found that the transcription factor in question, GATA1, is activated in conjunction with stress and feelings of depression. — Robert Peck
Study looks at ‘nonsocial’ public behaviors BY CLARISSA MARZÁN CONTRIBUTING REPORTER Esther Kim is a Ph.D. candidate in sociology who conducted a study on people who create a private space in a public setting, a behavior which she terms “nonsocial transient behavior.” Her findings are based on personal experiences riding Greyhound buses from 2009-11 and gathering anecdotal data from passengers in keeping with the naturalistic ethnography methodology. She spoke to the News about the role of technology in creating behavior and the pitfalls of being a Yale sociologist.
There is this societal change that is more intruding, the fact that people are actually engaging in these nonactive modes of behavior. It is kind of sad but it’s not only sad because there are situations where you need to put your defenses up. So I don’t recommend that you should avoid other people or you shouldn’t because I think it depends on the situation.
build this kind of nonsocial transient space around them; it could be the same. But I think what a lot of people have missed about my article is that you build the space around you. It could happen anywhere, in a large public space, such as the park, or a bookstore, or even in a classroom; you can be sitting among 400 other students, but if you are making that nonsocial space around you that’s what creates this nonsocial transient behavior.
A
Q
Is there a particular reason why you chose the Greyhound, as opposed to the train or the plane, as the setting of your study?
was too simple a study and joked that they could all get a Ph.D.?
Q
Did you see any sort of hostility from any particular groups of people, such as younger people or women or children?
A
A
The frustrations of being a bus for a very long time in an enclosed space, where you can’t really move around much, those are the characteristics of how people create nonsocial spaces. So I would imagine that on an Amtrak, which is much roomier and people can walk up and down the train, it might be a similar setting, so someone might
civility in a really weird form. People are being civil to one another by completely avoiding them or pretending that people around them don’t exist. There isn’t much hostility or aggression going on in these spaces.
you think that technolQDo ogy has increased our need to privatize our social space?
A
I haven’t read anything about this, but personally I do specifically remember back when I was living in Philadelphia when the iPod first came out, the first generation iPod and it was that standard white headphones. And I remember going to New York and everybody had them on in the subway and that was not common at all before. Now you get on the subway and you don’t really see that many people with headphones anymore so I guess it was that one time when the iPod became a really huge thing. But I think that did initiate that nonso-
you plan to expand on this QDo study or do research in other settings?
said you got reactions Right now I live in Beijing, QYou from readers who thought it Aand I’ll be here for the next
is naturalistic ethnogdidn’t see any hostility, QWhat This is all about raphy? AIactually. Why I say it’s naturalistic is because we try to kind of blend in with the people whom we study. So ehtnograph, some people say it’s participant observation but it’s become kind of wider to mean interviews and asking interview-like questions to informants, but naturalistic ethnography is more just kind of hanging out. Like the “hang out” method.
ing to the general public. But then there is a lot of science that goes behind it, like that’s why I keep emphasizing the systematic study part, it’s not just random observation but actually making sense of what’s going on.
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
A Yale sociolgist’s recent study used Greyhound bus trips as examples of places where riders construct nonsocial spaces. cial transient behavior. If someone were to accidentally touch you or push you, people would react in a way like to be annoyed but now that you prefer this antisocial bubble around you and I would say that it is technology that initiated or ignited this type of behavior.
QThat sounds so sad.
A
I think that’s what interesting to me about sociology. Some people who have picked up on the news media about that was written about my article, (it’s funny because they read the article about my article), and my article is actually not that long but then they were commenting on how this is so common sense or “I can get a Yale Ph.D. if she’s writing about stuff like this.” I feel like they were missing the point.
I was thinking of writing a rebuttal short essay about this article’s reception to the public media because I think the way the original first article’s written on this article, it was listing the various ways to avoid strangers from a Yale sociologist. So immediately people were thinking, “Oh my gosh this Yale person,” which a lot of Americans kind of mythologize in a way. They think, “Those Yalies are rich snobby people and they’re going to to teach me how to avoid strangers on a bus, like I mean has a Yalie ever even been on a bus?” I think if I was connected to another university, like a third-tier university, it would not receive the same reaction that it did. So you say, “If I can make these common sense [findings] and I can get a Ph.D.,” I would say the first step would be to read the original article and that would maybe get you halfway through Yale’s door. But I think people were just going off on this article about my article. That’s why it’s kind of tricky and I think that’s why sociologists get a lot of bad publicity because the only thing that gets picked up is whatever might seem interest-
two years. I’ve been here for a few months before, and what I notice is the way that people kind of flock towards white people, like Chinese people are very obsessed … they’re very fascinated by white people and I think regular Beijingers might see white people here and there, but then you have a lot of migrants who come from Beijing to visit the historic places in Beijing, and they’ll want to take pictures of white people. I would want to, if I were to extend on this research project, I would see how people actively engage, so it would be an active engagement, a social engagement. I think a lot of foreigners … a lot of white people are very disturbed that they’re being taken pictures of by random Chinese people or Chinese people on the subway will pick at your hair; they’ll want to touch it, and if there is some loose blonde hair on your sweater then they’ll want to take it. It’s really bizarre so this is a really weird form of active engagement. They’ll want you to be their friend, they’ll want you to teach them English, so I think that’s kind of interesting to see the flip side of active engagement with complete strangers. Contact CLARISSA MARZÁN at clarissa.marzan@yale.edu .
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YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
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Obama criticizes Romney’s ‘unnecessary roughness’ BY DAVID ESPO AND BEN FELLER ASSOCIATED PRESS CHARLOTTE, N.C. — On the eve of the Democratic National Convention, President Barack Obama declared that Republican rival Mitt Romney should be penalized for “unnecessary roughness” on the middle class and accused him in a ringing labor Day speech of backing higher taxes for millions after opposing the 2009 auto industry bailout. “I’ve got one piece of advice for you about the Romney-Ryan game plan: Punt it away. It won’t work. It won’t win the game,” Obama said, blending sportsthemed remarks with economic barbs before a cheering crowd in the nation’s industrial heartland. He backed up his rally comments with a new television commercial that says Romney doesn’t understand the “heavy load” the middle class is carrying yet wants to give himself a big new tax break. It’s the president’s first new ad since last week’s Republican National Convention, a reminder that he and his allies have been outspent by millions in the ad wars over the past several weeks. His sports comments in Toledo, Ohio, amounted to a rebuttal to Romney’s weekend appeal to voters to fire the current coach Obama - and install the Republicans instead at the controls of an economy sputtering along with 8.3 percent unemployment. The president headed to hur-
ricane-damaged Louisiana late in the day as he slowly made his way toward the Democrats’ convention city. First lady Michelle Obama was already there, and made a quick trip to check out the stage at the Time Warner Cable Arena where she will speak on Tuesday night.
I’ve got one piece of advice for you about the RomneyRyan game plan: Punt it away. It won’t win the game. BARACK OBAMA U.S. President A few blocks from the hall where Democratic delegates will gather on Tuesday, union members staged a Labor Day march through downtown. Though supporting Obama, they also expressed frustration that he and the Democrats chose to hold their convention in a state that bans collective bargaining for teachers and other public employees. There was disagreement among the ranks of the marchers. “I understand their frustration ... but do they really think they’re going to be better off with Romney?” asked Phil Wheeler, 70, a delegate from Connecticut and
a retired member of United Auto Workers Local 376 in Hartford. Democrats chose the state to underscore their determination to contest it in the fall campaign. Obama carried North Carolina by 14,000 votes in 2008, but he faces a tough challenge this time given statewide unemployment of 9.6 percent in the most recent tabulation. Romney relaxed at his lakeside home in New Hampshire with his family as Obama and running mate Joe Biden sought to motivate union voters to support them in difficult economic times. Romney took a mid-morning boat ride, pulling up to a dock to fuel up his 29-foot Sea Ray and pick up a jet ski that had been in for repairs. In a statement emailed to reporters before he left his house, the businessman-turned-political candidate said: “For far too many Americans, today is another day of worrying when their next paycheck will come.” Campaigning on Saturday in Cincinnati, Romney likened Obama to a football coach with a record of 0 and 23 million, a reference to the number of unemployed and underemployed Americans. Obama rebutted him 48 hours later - and play by play. “On first down he hikes taxes by nearly $2,000 on the average family with kids in order to pay for massive tax cuts for multimillionaires. ... Sounds like unnecessary roughness to me,” he said.
“On second down he calls an audible and undoes reforms that are there to prevent another financial crisis and bank bailout. ... “And then on third down, he calls for a hail Mary, ending Medicare as we know it by giving seniors a voucher that leaves them to pay any additional cost out of their pockets. But there’s a flag on the play: Loss of up to an additional $6,400 a year for the same benefits you get now.” Romney denies that his plan to help the economy and reduce federal deficits will result in higher taxes for the middle class. But he has yet to provide enough detail to refute the claim, and Obama’s assertion rests on a study by the non-partisan Tax Policy Center. As for the auto bailout that he backed and Romney opposed, Obama told the audience, “Three years later, the American auto industry has come roaring back. Nearly 250,000 new jobs.” Obama’s new campaign commercial said that under Romney’s “a middle class family will pay an average of up to $2,000 more a year taxes, while at the same time giving multimillionaires like himself a $250,000 tax cut.” Aides said it would air in Colorado, Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, Ohio and Virginia, the by-now familiar list of battleground states where the 2012 race for the White House is likely to be decided.
PABLO MARTINEZ MONSIVAIS/ASSOCIATED PRESS
President Barack Obama waves to supporters after speaking a campaign event at Scott High School, Monday, Sept. 3, 2012, in Toledo, Ohio.
Days after Isaac, 1000s still in the dark 4-year progress query puts Obama in box BY CHARLES BABINGTON ASSOCIATED PRESS
MATTHEW HINTON/ASSOCIATED PRESS
A convoy of utility trucks head to Louisiana to restore power lost from Hurricane Isaac near West Point. BY CAIN BURDEAU AND KEVIN MCGILL ASSOCIATED PRESS NEW ORLEANS — Tens of thousands of customers remained in the dark Monday in Louisiana and Mississippi, nearly a week after Isaac inundated the Gulf Coast with a deluge that still has some low-lying areas under water. Most of those were in Louisiana, where utilities reported more than 100,000 people without power. Thousands also were without power in Mississippi and Arkansas. In Louisiana, many evacuees remained at shelters or bunked with friends or relatives. “My family is split up,” said Angela Serpas, from severely flooded Braithwaite in Plaquemines Parish. Serpas and her daughter were staying with her in-laws while her husband and son were staying in Belle Chasse, a suburban area of the parish. “This is the second time we’ve lost our home. We lost it in Katrina,” she said. Meanwhile, inspectors from
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the Federal Emergency Management Agency are out trying to get a handle on losses. Residents can apply for grants to get help with home repairs and temporary housing, among other expenses. President Barack Obama was to visit Louisiana on Monday, a day ahead of the Democratic National Convention. He will meet with local officials, tour storm damage, and view response and recovery efforts before addressing reporters at St. John the Baptist Parish. Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney visited the state Friday. Obama’s Homeland Security Secretary, Janet Napolitano, visited Bay St. Louis, Miss., and Slidell, La., on Sunday. “We are part of a team to make sure Hurricane Isaac is put to rest as soon as we can for all those affected,” Napolitano said. “In the meantime, please know all of us are thinking about those in Louisiana who are without their homes or without their businesses.” At least seven people were killed in the storm in the U.S. five in Louisiana and two in Mis-
sissippi. In St. John the Baptist Parish, where the president was to visit, residents spent Labor Day dragging waterlogged carpet and furniture to the curb and using bleach and water to clean hopefully to prevent mold. LaPlace resident Barbara Melton swept mud and debris from her home, which was at one point under 2 feet of water. The garbage, debris and standing water - combined with heat reaching the 90s - created a terrible stench. “It’s hot, it stinks, but I’m trying to get all this mud and stuff out of my house,” she said. Melton was grateful for the president’s visit. “I think it’s awesome to have a president that cares and wants to come out and see what he can do,” Melton, 60, said. A few houses away, Ed Powell said Isaac was enough to make him question whether to stay. “I know Louisiana’s a gambling state, but we don’t want to gamble in this method because when you lose this way, you lose a lot.”
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — It’s a question that aides to any president seeking re-election should be ready to handle: Are Americans better off now than before he took office? This seemingly simple query, however, flummoxed President Barack Obama’s team over the Labor Day weekend, throwing the campaign on the defensive just as the Democrats are about to open their national convention. Republican Mitt Romney’s campaign pounced. Running mate Paul Ryan, speaking Monday in another North Carolina town, amped-up his party’s long-running efforts to persuade Americans, once and for all, that Obama’s economic record disqualifies him for a second term. Democrats acknowledged that Obama’s team must get a better handle on the question, an updated version of the Ronald Reagan line that helped sink President Jimmy Carter in 1980. The Obama aides’ halting responses reflected the dilemma the president faces. If he emphasizes the economic crisis he inherited from President George W. Bush, then Obama looks as though he’s shirking responsibility for current problems. But if Obama claims positives flowing from his policies’ effectiveness - even with endorsements from independent economists - he risks appearing
tone-deaf and insensitive to millions of voters’ fears in a climate of 8.3 percent unemployment, sharply lower home values and uncertain futures.
I think the average American recognizes that it took years to create the [2008 financial] crisis. DAVID AXELROD Senior advisor to President Barack Obama “You can understand the Obama campaign’s ambiguity,” said Ferrel Guillory, an expert on Southern politics at the University of North Carolina. Obama’s stimulus and intervention policies clearly averted bigger problems in banking, auto-making and other sectors, he said, but harping on it “doesn’t satisfy the concerns of people who don’t feel better off.” Others are less sympathetic. “The Obama team made a significant tactical error on Sunday with their stumble over the `better off’ question,” said Republican pollster Steve Lombardo. “It is stunning that they were not prepared for this question.” Even Lombardo, however, conceded “the president is in a box.” Obama’s top advisers struggled with the question, repeat-
edly posed on Sunday talk shows. David Axelrod said: “I think the average American recognizes that it took years to create the crisis that erupted in 2008 and peaked in January of 2009. And it’s going to take some time to work through it.” Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley was blunter when CBS’s Bob Schieffer asked if he could “honestly say that people are better off today than they were four years ago?” “No,” O’Malley said. “But that’s not the question of this election. Without a doubt, we are not as well off as we were before George Bush brought us the Bush job losses, the Bush recessions, the Bush deficits.” With Republicans attacking from all sides, the campaign dispatched spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter early Monday with a new message. Americans are “absolutely” better off, she told NBC, highlighting the problems Obama inherited in January 2009. “In the six months before the president was elected,” Cutter said, “we lost 3.5 million jobs, wages had been going down for a decade,” and the auto industry was “on the brink of failure.” Republicans vowed not to let Obama off the hook. “People are not better off than they were four years ago,” Ryan told a crowd in Greenville, N.C., 220 miles east of the convention site. “After another four years of this, who knows what it’ll look like?”
YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
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AROUND THE IVIES
541
Students implicated in a grades scandal
Southern University in Louisiana was the subject of much controversy in 2003 when it was discovered that an assistant registrar had changed the grades for 541 students — and had been doing so since 1995.
T H E D A I L Y P E N N S Y L VA N I A N
T H E H A R VA R D C R I M S O N
Autistic man denied HUP heart transplant
Cheating accusees frustrated by process
BY SHELLI GIMELSTEIN STAFF WRITER After an autistic patient was denied a heart transplant at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, his mother started a petition to reverse the decision and place her son on the transplant list. Paul Corby, Karen Corby’s 23-yearold son, was diagnosed in 2008 with left ventricular noncompaction, a congenital disorder that impairs the left part of his heart which pumps blood through his body. In 2011, Paul was referred to Penn Medicine, but was denied a heart transplant due to “psychiatric issues, autism, the complexity of the process, multiple procedures and the unknown and unpredictable effect of steroids on behavior,” according to a June 2011 letter from his cardiologist at the time. When Paul was not recommended for a transplant, his mother said she was “stunned — I couldn’t believe that we were in this position, that my son was this sick and no one was going to help him.” In addition to the support she has received on her online petition — which, as of press time, had nearly 300,000 signatures — Corby said a number of autism organizations, including Autism Connection of Pennsylvania and the Philadelphia chapter of the Autism Society of America, have offered their help. According to a statement from HUP spokesperson Susan Phillips, the Penn Health System evaluates transplant
candidates based on “the current health status and posttransplant prognosis of the recipient, the impact of other ex i s t i n g h ea l t h problems on the PENN success of the surgery itself and over the longer term, as well as the potential interaction between a patient’s existing drug therapies and the drugs that would be necessary to stop transplant rejection.” The transplant team at Penn is “at a real disadvantage in this case,” said psychiatry professor David Mandell, who is the associate director of the Center for Autism Research at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “They are not allowed to share their reasoning with the public, only with the family, due to patient confidentiality laws.” Psychiatry professor Anthony Rostain, who specializes in adult developmental disorders, said that autism should not have been listed as a factor in the transplant denial. He believes, however, that the decision was based on psychiatric issues in the patient’s record “above and beyond autism.” “If he was being denied because of his developmental disorder, that’s a civil rights issue and clearly would be of concern for everyone,” he said. “But apparently there was more to this case than we were informed about.” Rostain added that HUP has done two transplants for patients with autism in
the past. “Ultimately, any decision to carry out a transplant is based in part on the medical issues and also on the ability of the patient’s support network to manage the complexity involved in recovering from the procedure,” he said. According to Mandell, Penn’s transplant policy does not exclude individuals with developmental disabilities. However, he feels it should be made explicit “that they do not make decisions about a candidate’s appropriateness for transplant or any other surgical procedure based solely on the presence of a developmental disability.” Around 40 percent of people requesting heart transplants are turned down, according to Rostain. Since she began circulating the petition, other hospitals have begun reaching out to Corby, offering to look at her son’s medical records. Her son’s case also gained additional publicity in an Aug. 14 Philadelphia Inquirer article. “I can say with 99 percent certainty that we probably won’t be going to [HUP] even if they reversed the decision,” Corby said. “I can’t imagine him getting fair treatment there with all the media coverage.” Mandell added that while Corby’s petition may cause the transplant team to reevaluate this particular case, “[his] hope is that it will have a more systemic response — that we would think much more broadly about policies that affect the care of individuals with developmental disabilities.”
T H E C O R N E L L D A I LY S U N
Police warn students after third sexual attack BY KERRY CLOSE STAFF WRITER Police are urging Cornell students “to take prudent and necessary safety precautions” after three sexual assaults were reported Sunday. Thirty minutes before an alleged rape occurred near the suspension bridge on campus, a different female victim was reportedly forcibly touched in her Collegetown home at 3:15 a.m. Sunday morning, according to the Ithaca Police Department. On Sunday night, the University said that a third female victim reported being forcibly touched while walking through Hughes parking lot early Sunday morning. The victim of the forcible touching reported in Collegetown, who lives at 205 College Ave., said she answered a knock on her door to find an unknown male asking for someone who did not reside there, police said. The resident told the male subject that she was unfamiliar with the person he was asking for and attempted to close the door on him, according to police. The male, however, allegedly forced his way into the residence. After a brief struggle, he put his arm around the victim and reached under her dress, police
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said. The female victim was eventually able to push the intruder from her home, according to IPD. The victim said CORNELL the assailant was a college-aged Hispanic male with dark hair, between 5’9” and 5’10” tall, with a mole on one cheek. At the time of the attack, he was reportedly wearing a white long-sleeve button-down shirt and plaid knee-length shorts, police said. The subject was last seen headed in the direction of Collegetown. The victim reported the incident to the Cornell University Police Department at 8:05 a.m. Sunday morning after reading an earlier crime alert about the alleged rape on campus, police said. The victim of the attack in the Hughes parking lot, a female Cornell student, said a male attacker grabbed her around the waist from behind and aggressively pulled at her shirt. The student screamed and used a bag she was carrying to hit the assailant, police said. Other students in the area intervened and the male subject then
fled toward the Hughes Hall pathway, according to police. In a joint statement released to the Cornell community, Vice President of Student and Academic Services Susan Murphy ’73 and Vice President for Human Resources Mary Opperman said the University is reaching out to the victims of Sunday’s attacks. “Please be assured that the victims of these incidents are receiving assistance and support from university staff,” the statement said. “All of us at Cornell condemn, in the strongest terms, any action that threatens the safety of any member of our community.” In the wake of the incidents, CUPD urged Cornellians to consider increased personal safety measures. “Due to the increased level of criminal activity last night, we are strongly urging members of the Cornell community to take prudent and necessary safety precautions, including: locking your doors and windows at all times [and] using alternative methods of transportation, such as Blue Light escorts, Blue Light buses, taxis,” CUPD said in a press release. CUPD also told students to travel in groups regardless of the hour and to call 911 “if you see anything suspicious.”
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BY MERCER COOK AND REBECCA ROBBINS STAFF WRITERS As Harvard conducts its most sweeping investigation into academic dishonesty at the College in recent memory, several of the roughly 125 students implicated in the case say they are frustrated by the uncertainty they face as Harvard’s disciplinary board debates if and how to punish them. On Thursday, Harvard administrators took the unprecedented step of announcing that they were investigating the large group of students for allegedly plagiarizing answers or inappropriately collaborating on a final take-home exam in an undergraduate class, which The Crimson reported was assistant professor Matthew B. Platt’s spring course Government 1310: “Introduction to Congress.” Dean of Undergraduate Education Jay M. Harris declined to comment on how long the investigation, which is being conducted on a case-by-case basis, could take, but one undergraduate among the suspected cheaters said that Secretary of the Ad Board John “Jay” L. Ellison had told him in a personal meeting that he could expect to receive a verdict by November. The student said he feels the Administrative Board process has left him unable to make plans for the new semester that begins on Tuesday as he waits to hear whether he will be forced to withdraw from Harvard. “I don’t know whether to unpack for the year or not,” said the student, who was granted anonymity by The Crimson because he did not want it known that he is suspected of cheating. “Do I buy textbooks? ... Because you can’t go on as if everything’s okay, because everything’s not okay.” Although the Ad Board does not meet during summer months, the student said he wished Harvard had summoned administrators to campus during the break to expedite the process so students would know their fate before the fall semester began. “Because of the unprecedented nature of this, they should have started this process as early as they could,” he said. “When Harvard realized that they were dealing with such a big widespread issue…they should have said, ‘Hey, we need [administrators] back here.’” In an internal email between College administrators obtained by The Crimson, Ellison wrote on Aug. 16 that if the Ad Board votes to require a student in this case to withdraw from the College for a year—a known penalty for academic dishonesty at Harvard— that penalty would likely take effect immediately, allowing the student to return for the Fall 2013 semester. He discussed the possibility that some students, especially those who believe themselves to be guilty, might choose to take a voluntary leave of absence at the start of the term, before the board adjudicates their cases. Such a leave would likely be converted to a required withdrawal on their records if they were later convicted, the email said. The message was addressed to “Colleagues,” and one resident dean, who was granted anonymity by The Crimson due to the secrecy of the Ad Board’s deliberations, said that the email was delivered to others of the 12 House resident deans, who all serve on the Ad Board. In the message, Ellison wrote, “The only folks that may want to really consider [a leave of absence] are those students who know that they cheated,” and noted that some students found guilty in the case may be sentenced only to probation or a lighter penalty, not a required withdrawal. But he also wrote that any student athletes under investigation might choose to withdraw voluntarily before their first games of the season, even if their cases
have not yet been settled. “Once they compete one time their season counts and they would HARVARD lose eligibility if they had to take a year off and return,” he wrote, though he noted that advising students on NCAA eligibility is not the job of the Ad Board. Both Ellison and Jeff Neal, a spokesperson for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, declined to comment on the email, which also mentioned that several students had expressed confusion about the reprisals they might face. “We have had some feedback from students about confusing messages in reference to possible sanctions for the Gov 1310 case,” the email opened, naming the course which administrators have said they will not publicly identify. One alumnus under investigation, who took “Introduction to Congress” last spring before graduating in May, said the lack of answers about how cheaters could be punished is especially nervewracking for recent graduates. “It’s unfair to leave that uncertainty, given that we’re starting lives,” said the alumnus, who was granted anonymity by The Crimson because he said he feared repercussions from Harvard for discussing the case. “It’d be a huge financial and emotional hardship…. If my degree was threatened, I would not take that lightly.” The current undergraduate under investigation complained that Harvard’s decision to announce the cheating scandal publically—a choice which Harris said was based on the College’s desire to use the widespread accusations as a teachable moment to caution against academic dishonesty—might hamper students who take a voluntary leave of absence while awaiting their verdicts from pursuing alternate occupations. If these students apply for jobs or internships for the fall semester, the student said, they will likely face questions from potential employers who may have seen media coverage about the case. That may be especially problematic if those applications require a transcript—which would list the now-besmirched Government 1310. By going public with the investigation, the student said, Harvard has made it “just impossible to keep what’s supposed to be a confidential matter a confidential matter.” According to the Ad Board website, a student under investigation in a case that does not involve a peer dispute is first notified that a complaint has been received, a step which has already been completed for this investigation, the College said. The student then meets with the Secretary of the Ad Board to discuss the complaint and the Ad Board process, a step that some students said they had already completed. Next, the student submits a written statement which is reviewed along with other case materials by a subcommittee that meets with the student before filing a disciplinary case report. The student can respond to the report before all materials are reviewed by the full Ad Board for a final decision. The student is then notified of the verdict, which either preserves or takes away the student’s “good standing” at the College. In academic dishonesty cases, possible sanctions that do not change a student’s status at the College include a grade penalty, failure of the assignment in question, or a mark on a student’s transcript indicating no credit. Sanctions that do change a student’s status include a probationary period or a requirement to withdraw. Students under investigation or out of good standing cannot receive diplomas.
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SPORTS
PEOPLE IN THE NEWS ERIN DIMEGLIO Erin Dimeglio of South Plantation High School is believed to be the first female quarterback to play in a high school football game in the state of Florida. Last Friday, she helped her team to a 31-14 seasonopening victory against Nova with two hand-offs.
Bulldogs denied first win
Bullodgs slide past Bobcats FIELD HOCKEY FROM PAGE 14 with 4:54 left in the game. Spectator Kirsten Leung ’14 said she had a lot of fun watching Sunday’s home opener. “You could tell that the team had been practicing really hard, had a lot of energy and were all working together to win for a great cause,” she said. On Friday, the Elis were down early on in their first game of the season against the Fairfield Stags. Yale allowed three goals in the first 11 minutes of play. Although Stags scored only once more in the remainder of the game, the Bulldogs fell 4–0 in their first contest. Yale ended the game with 15 saves in net by Emily Cain ’14 and nine shots on the opposing goal. The Elis will take a break until next Saturday, when they will take on Hofstra (3–1) at Johnson Field at 1 p.m. Contact ADLON ADAMS at adlon.adams@yale.edu .
GRAHAM HARBOE/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Captain and goalkeeper Bobby Thalman ’13 made 13 saves during Yale’s opening weekend. BY EUGENE JUNG STAFF REPORTER Despite facing one opponent they had beaten last year and outshooting another opponent, the Bulldogs failed to find a win this weekend.
M. SOCCER As if on a mission to avenge last season’s loss at Yale’s hands, Central Connecticut State University played aggressively from the start of the two teams’ game Friday, taking three shots that were too close for comfort for the Bulldogs in the first ten minutes of the first half alone. Although captain and goalkeeper Bobby Thalman ’13 made eight spectacular saves, it was not enough to help the Elis avoid a 2–0 defeat against the Blue Devils on Friday. “It was definitely a tough start to the season, especially since I know that our team is capable of playing much better soccer,” defender Nick Alers ’14 said. The Bulldogs won 2–0 when the two teams last met, but the score was reversed in favor of the Blue Devils this time around. Midfielder Max McKiernan ’14 said the team is staying positive and using the loss as a learning experience for future matches. “The first game was a rough start
for us, but it’s good to get the first game out of the way and to know exactly where we need to improve moving forward,” he said. Three of the Bulldogs’ key players are also out with injuries, but McKiernan said they should be back in the game soon. Alers added that CCSU had several impressive players and that the Blue Devils played with more vigor than they did last year. Just five minutes into the game, the Devils began their barrage of attacks, averaging three shots at Yale’s goalposts every three minutes. At 16:21, CCSU’s Eddy Bogle took a bold shot that found its way into the Bulldogs’ net. During the next 20 minutes, the Elis tried hard to bounce back but ended up giving away unnecessary opportunities to the Devils. Seven minutes before the end of the first half, CCSU’s Reece Wilson, who assisted the first goal, lashed a powerful shot, but Thalman pointedly denied the attempt. “They had a lot of fans at the game, and it seemed as if they fed off that energy to really press us,” Alers said. After going through three substitutes, the Bulldogs once again regrouped to reverse the score, but their efforts proved futile. The Devils continued their assault, firing
two more threatening shots during the next seven minutes of the second half. At 53:51, CCSU’s Jesse Menzies took a shot that went straight past Thalman to make it 2–0 for the Devils. Twenty minutes later, defender Milan Tica ’13 gave a glimpse of hope for Yale as he powered a shot toward CCSU’s net, only for it to be palmed to safety by Devils’ goalkeeper. Despite a successful pre-season, the Elis are still getting in the swing of the competitive season and making adjustments, Alers said. “We made a couple of mistakes defensively, but it is nothing that we cannot fix as we look forward to our next game,” Alers added. Thalman made more saves than CCSU’s Anthony Occhialini (8–1), and the Elis committed fewer fouls, seven to CCSU’s eight. But the opponents outdid the Bulldogs in shots (19–3) and controlled possession for most of the match. “I think it is important to have perspective and realize that it was the first game of a long season,” Alers said. “We have plenty of time to make things right.” Monday, the Elis again failed to grab their first win of the season and fell to Albany 2–0 at home. Thalman said the team improved in the second half, maintaining possesion for longer and becoming more aggressive on offense to open up scoring
opportunities. The Bulldogs took 17 shots to Albany’s 15, but were unable to complete these plays with goals. Sixteen minutes after the kickoff, four different Bulldogs took shots to shake up the visitors and dictate the flow of the game. In 18:34, Thalman dived left and captured the ball just seven feet outside of the net off a shot by Albany’s Pomare Te Anau. The Bulldogs did not soften up and tried everything to consolidate a victory by recording five more powerful shots for the next 20 minutes, but all failed to translate into goals. Three minutes before the first half came to a close, Great Dane Brandon Wilson leveled the score and turned the tide of the match by manoevering past Thalman. The visitors continued their aggressive assault in the second half. After taking six more threatening shots, the seventh one did the trick of finding its way into the Bulldogs’ net at 89:57, just three seconds before the whistle, to secure Yale’s loss. The Elis will seek their first win next weekend instead, against Colgate on Friday at Reese Stadium at 7 p.m. Contact EUGENE JUNG at eugene.jung@yale.edu .
Yale goes 2–1 in season-opening tournament VOLLEYBALL FROM PAGE 14 10 and 11 kills respectively. The Elis showed confidence in the class of 2016 all match and finished the afternoon with three members of the group on the court. “The 2016 class is really strong, and they’re definitely going to contribute a lot,” Rudnick said. “Just having confidence in yourself as a freshman is huge. They do a great job playing not only for themselves but also for the team.” Yale ended its weekend with a sweep of American, a team that won the Patriot League last season and competed in the NCAA tournament. This season, the Patriot League’s head coaches voted American as a preseason favorite to win the conference’s title. But unlike Stony Brook, American (2–3) did not present a serious challenge in any of the three sets. The Eagles were plagued by service errors throughout the match, committing nine to Yale’s six. Last year’s freshman sensation Mollie Rogers ’15 broke out in a big way against American after failing to find a consistent rhythm in the team’s first two matches of the season. She recorded 12 kills on a .417 shot percentage to go along with 17 digs. The Elis will be hosting another tournament this weekend, the Yale Invitational, where they will take on Villanova and Northwestern. The action begins Friday night at 7 p.m. in the John J. Lee Ampitheater. Contact KEVIN KUCHARSKI at kevin.kucharski@yale.edu .
W. soccer earns win in season opener W. SOCCER FROM PAGE 14 that all the way through,” Meredith said. “I was impressed with the spirit shown by the team. It’s been a while since we’ve scored two goals so late.” The Elis failed to carry their momentum into Sunday’s game against Stony Brook. The Seawolves, playing their sixth game of the season, came out firing on all cylinders, though Jackson-Gibson staved them off with four saves in the opening half hour. But in the 31th minute, Stony Brook’s persistent attack on the Yale goal paid off. Larissa Nysch capitalised on some poor marking to head in Kristen Baker’s corner and score her first goal of the season. Yale came into its second game of the season with less competitive play than the Seawolves, and Meredith said communication gaps were present all over the field and the team needed to improve in the final third. The second half started off much like the first, with Stony Brook (4–1–1) enjoying the lion’s share of possession. But the Elis held them off with some resolute defending. Jackson-Gibson was particularly impressive, finishing the game with 9 saves. The game ebbed and flowed, but sprung to life in the last 10 minutes. Melissa Gavin ’15 whipped a low cross into the box for Paula Hagopian to equalize with six minutes to play.
Just two minutes later, Stella Norman took advantage of Yale’s difficulty defending corners to put the Seawolves back ahead, setting up a frantic end to the game. Hagopian came agonizingly close to snatching a point for the Bulldogs, striking the post in the 88th minute. Despite Yale’s onslaught on the Stony Brook goal, the Seawolves held out and handed Yale to its first loss of the season. Stony Brook finished the game with 20 shots, 12 if them on target. Yale meanwhile, fired eight shots and just three on target. Jackson-Gibson said coming back from a goal down in both games served as a source of inspiration for team going into the rest of its competitive season. But the second game also showed the team it still has a lot to work on, she added. “We were poor at defending corners today,” Meredith said. “Other than that, I was pretty happy with the performance … We need to step up our first half performance, I loved the spirit shown by the girls, but it would be nice to not to go a goal down early. We don’t want to become the comeback kids.” Yale will hope to bounce back fast from their defeat for the first home game of the season against Sacred Heart. The game is scheduled to kick off at 7 p.m. Tuesday. HERNRY EHRENBERG/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Contact HAMMAAD ADAM at hammaad.adam@yale.edu .
Yale rode a late goal in its season opener on Friday to a 2–1 victory over Hartford. But the team fell by the same score two days later, as Stony Brook scored a late goal and Yale was unable to make up the difference.
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PAULA HAGOPIAN ’16 NAMED IVY ROOKIE OF THE WEEK Hagopian was honored after a strong first weekend of pla. On Friday, she assisted the game-winning goal in Yale’s 2–1 victory against Hartford with just 26 seconds left to play. Two days later, she tallied the only goal for the Elis as Yale lost to Stony Brook, 2–1.
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“Once I got on the court my teammates really helped me out. The nerves went away when I started playing.”
GEORGIA HOLLAND ’14 SELECTED TO AMERICAN U21 TEAM Holland, who plays midfielder and back for Yale’s field hockey team, will represent the United States in the Junior Pan American Championship as part of the Under-21 team. The championships will take place from Sept. 10 to Sept. 23 in Guadalajara, Mexico.
KELLY JOHNSON ’16 SETTER, VOLLEYBALL YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2012 · yaledailynews.com
Yale wins home opener, kicks off Get a Grip
Elis split opening weekend BY HAMMAAD ADAM CONTRIBUTING REPORTER The women’s soccer team got its season underway last weekend, with a 2–1 win at Hartford on Friday, followed by a 2–1 loss at Stony Brook on Sunday.
W. SOCCER
balance to propel the Elis to a 3–2 win. “Playing in my first collegiate game [against Fairfield] was obviously a little nerve-wracking,” Wolf said. “It’s exciting to get to take the field with my team and see all our hard work pay off.” The Bulldogs had fallen behind in the first half 2–0. But then the freshmen stepped up, and Borgo followed with the game-winning goal off of a pass from forward Gabby Garcia ’14
Against the Hartford Hawks (1–1–1), the Bulldogs (1–1–0) fell behind just eight minutes in. Caitlin Alves burst down the flank and crossed from one yard off the goal line to find an unmarked Amelia Pereira, who chipped the ball into the net to make it 1–0. Pereira came close to doubling Hartford’s lead minutes later when she struck wide. However, as the half proceeded, Yale began to find its rhythm, almost drawing level in the 39th minute with a shot by Mary Kubiuk ’13 that was saved by opposition goalie Erin Quinlan. Hartford came out strong in the opening minutes of the 2nd half, but Eli keeper Adele JacksonGibson ’13 fended off a shot from Natasha Douglas. Both defenses showed good discipline, leaving very little space for the offenses to make plays. But the introduction of Paula Hagopian ’16 — accompanied by Head Coach Rudy Meredith’s decision to switch to an audacious 3–4–3 formation — opened up the game. Yale started attacking down the wings, and 81 minutes in, the Elis had their equalizer, with Ally Grossman ’16 capitalising on a rebound and smashing it home. After that goal, the Elis kept pushing for the winner. With less than a minute left on the clock, Hagopian picked up the ball on the flank and crossed into the box, where Kristen Forster ’13 converted to give Yale the victory. Meredith said other than conceding the goal, the defense played well this game. “We were much improved in the second half, and hopefully in the next game we can play like
SEE FIELD HOCKEY PAGE 13
SEE W. SOCCER PAGE 13
JACOB GEIGER/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Molly Wolf ’16 scored her first career goal in Yale’s victory against Quinnipiac on Sunday. Yale beat the Bobcats 3–2, two days after losing their season opener 4–0 at Fairfield. BY ADLON ADAMS STAFF REPORTER Yale field hockey ended its home opener against Quinnipiac in a victory with minutes to spare.
FIELD HOCKEY With Sunday’s match, the field hockey team launched its third annual Get A Grip fundraiser for the Myotonic Dystrophy Foundation in honor
of teammate Ona McConnell ’13, who has been battling the disease since her freshman year. The Bulldogs came out of the weekend with a win and a loss, and a large turnout of fans, family and the Yale Precision Marching Band attended the home game to support both the team and the campaign. “Our first weekend of games is always filled with a combination of nerves and excitement, especially with the Get A Grip campaign happening during this time as well,” midfielder
Erica Borgo ’14 said. “We expected both teams to come out ready to play, considering they already had a few more games under their belts than us, so we knew we had to be on our toes.” With the graduation of high-scoring players last spring and a shifting of roles up front, three freshmen had the chance to prove themselves as part of the starting lineup. Defender Molly Wolf ’16 and Nicole Wells ’16 scored in the second half of Yale’s game against the Bobcats on Sunday and shifted the
Bulldogs shine at Yale Classic BY KEVIN KUCHARSKI STAFF REPORTER Behind All-Tournament Team performances from Kendall Polan ’14 and Kelly Johnson ’16, the volleyball team got its season off to an excellent start this weekend in the Yale Classic and finished with the second-best record in a field of four teams. The Bulldogs (2–1) beat Stony Brook and American in straight sets and fell at the hands of Texas A&M (5–1), a team that received 17 votes in the most recent national ranking by the American Volleyball Coaches Association. Libero Maddie Rudnick ’15 said the Classic was a good launching point for the season.
VOLLEYBALL “Overall I thought the weekend was really good for us,” she said. “The first game is always going to be a struggle. We had some low points but we had some good stuff to work on so I’m really excited for the season.”
The Elis jumped right in against the tournament’s toughest opponent, Texas A&M, in their first match of the season Friday night. The Bulldogs looked nervous during the first set against the Aggies, who finished 18th in the nation in RPI last year, and Yale fell 25–20. But the Elis came out to compete in a wild second set that went to a 35–33 Texas A&M victory. Polan led the Yale effort with six kills and five assists, part of a tripledouble of 17 kills, 18 assists and 15 digs. The reigning Ivy League Player of the Year is playing a different role than last year, when she was the team’s only setter. With the addition of Johnson, who also plays setter, Polan will be able to attack more on the offensive side of the ball this season. “Obviously Kendall hits the ball pretty well, so it’s a nice advantage if we can have it,” head coach Erin Appleman said. “I think she enjoys that kind of role, being a hitter. It worked well tonight, and I thought she did a good job.” The Bulldogs managed to capture the third set 25–22 but dropped the fourth to
STAT OF THE DAY 2
give Texas A&M the 3–1 victory. All five freshmen saw court time during the season opener. Three of them recorded at least one kill, and Christine Wu ’16 recorded a service ace. Leading the group, Johnson came one kill away from the team’s second triple-double of the night with nine kills, 21 assists and 16 digs. “I was really nervous before the match, but once I got on the court my teammates really helped me out,” Johnson said. “The nerves went away when I started playing.” The Bulldogs made up for Friday night’s loss by winning six straight sets on Saturday. The first sweep came over Stony Brook (1–5). Despite the 3–0 final score, it was not an easy match for the Bulldogs. The Seawolves pushed the score past 25 points in both the first and third sets, though Yale finally took the first 26–24 and the third 28–26. Johnson and fellow freshman Karlee Fuller ’16 led the Elis offensively, with SEE VOLLEYBALL PAGE 13
SARAH ECKINGER/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Setter Kendall Polan ’14 tallied 32 kills, 68 assists and 33 digs this weekend en route to a spot on the Yale Classic All-Tournament team.
THE NUMBER OF GOALS SCORED BY FRESHMEN ON THE FIELD HOCKEY TEAM IN THE ELIS’ TWO GAMES THIS WEEKEND. After Yale was shut out by Fairfield, 4–0, on Friday, the freshmen’s goals were crucial to a 3–2 victory over Quinnipiac on Sunday.