YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, APRIL 8, 2016 · yaledailynews.com
PAGE 3
NEWS
“Deliberation and debate is the way you stir the soul of our democracy.” JESSE JACKSON AMERICAN CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST
CORRECTIONS WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30
Construction plan raises parking concerns
The article “City charter school partners with water authority” misstated Kate Cebik’s title; in fact, she is Common Ground’s development assistant. It also inaccurately stated that the Regional Water Authority provides 46,000 gallons of water each day; in fact, the RWA provides an average of 46 million gallons per day. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 6
The article “First female Ph.D.s memorialized” misstated Laura Wexler’s title; in fact, she is a former co-chair of the Women Faculty Forum. The article “DeLauro promotes wage theft reform” incorrectly stated that Axel Tubac and Henry Tubac did not receive six weeks of pay in 2015; in fact, he did not receive seven weeks of pay. THURSDAY, APRIL 7
The article “Students call for Clinton support” misstated Howard Dean’s title; in fact, he is the former governor of Vermont.
Board of Alders pushes for new elementary school BY NOAH DAPONTE-SMITH STAFF REPORTER New Haven residents urged the Board of Alders to accept Mayor Toni Harp’s proposal to build a new public elementary school on the campus of Southern Connecticut State University at a Finance Committee hearing on Thursday. In last spring’s city budget submitted to the alders, Harp proposed building a new Strong Magnet School to replace its current location in The Hill. But after a protracted budget fight, alders rejected the proposal, even though the lion’s share of its funding would have come from the state. Harp re-proposed the school in her budget for fiscal year 2017, forcing the alders to reconsider the issue. The proposal to bond $10.6 million in funding for the school’s construction is identical to the proposal Harp presented to the alders last spring. Residents who spoke at Thursday’s hearing at the Augusta Troup School on Edgewood Avenue said a new Strong School on the campus of SCSU would be a vast improvement to its current cramped quarters in The Hill. Emma Woods, a special education teacher at the Strong School who works with autistic children, said her small classroom hinders her ability to help students. “They need to learn how to … take in the world around them, how to function in a socially acceptable way,” Woods told the alders. “You can imagine that this would be difficult under the best circumstances. Now imagine it with a gym class happening right outside your door.” Whenever a student becomes aggressive, Woods said, she must move all other students into the hallway due to the classroom’s small size. She said a larger classroom — like those the proposed new Strong School would house — would have enough space to cordon off aggressive students without disrupting the rest of the class. Charles Warner Jr., a school climate specialist at Strong, said approving a school on the SCSU campus would allow the city to fulfill its promise to encourage matriculation to college among public school students. Warner, a graduate of Hill Regional Career High School and Morehouse College, said a new Strong School would provide its students with the resources and facilities he enjoyed as a teenager. “These young people need an environment where they can be challenged daily to achieve,” War-
ner said. “New Haven has made a commitment to push its young people until they attend college, and this is right in with that.” Warner noted that many cities across the country have developed lab schools on college campuses. The University of Chicago; Columbia University; and the University of California, Los Angeles all have lab schools on their campuses, he said. SCSU Dean of the School of Education Stephen Hegedus said the Strong School proposal represents “a groundbreaking effort … to make a concerted effort that will impact the lives of our children in New Haven.” Hegedus said a school on SCSU’s campus would allow students in the New Haven Public Schools district, NHPS teachers and SCSU undergraduates to work closely with each other in the same environment. Wood added that being on a college campus would provide her access to new educational methods and techniques currently unavailable at The Hill location. Will Clark, the NHPS chief operating officer, compared the proposed Strong School to the existing Troup School. The Troup School, he said, is a cornerstone of Edgewood; the Strong School, if built, can be the same for its neighborhood in Amity. Carlos Torre, a former BOE president and current member, spoke in favor of the Strong School proposal, arguing that its approval would benefit students, parents and the Elm City. But New Haven resident and budget watchdog Ken Joyner was dubious of the proposal. “This is the identical proposal that the aldermen rejected last year,” Joyner said. “Now, the City has come before you in this budget proposing to make a new attempt to bond the $10.6 million for the Strong School without providing to you any documentation for why this proposal is any more valid than the one they proposed last year.” Joyner’s remarks on the Strong School were part of his extended testimony on the city’s capital budget — funds allotted to construction. He criticized the city for a “lack of accountability” on its spending plans, and especially its apparent inefficacy in addressing the city’s $808 million debt. The Finance Committee will hold its next meeting in City Hall on Monday evening. Contact NOAH DAPONTE-SMITH at noah.daponte-smith@yale.edu .
NOAH DAPONTE-SMITH/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
Budget discussions continued Thursday at Troup School.
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
Monday night, city leaders took steps to determine whether the J.W. Gibbs building project warrants an aldermanic parking review. BY FINNEGAN SCHICK STAFF REPORTER As the decadeslong planning of a new biology building to replace the J.W. Gibbs Laboratory on Science Hill nears completion, the city may be looking into whether the new building warrants the creation of additional nearby parking spaces. At an aldermanic meeting Monday night, city leaders took steps to determine whether the building project warrants an aldermanic parking review. While Yale looks to finish the proposed building, which has undergone two redesigns and one postponement, New Haven has its own concerns about dwindling parking spots for residents. The question of available parking hinges on whether the new science facility will increase the number of faculty and staff working there. According to science professors, this number will not change. “The size of the molecular, cellular and developmental biology faculty or staff will not change much,” said MCDB professor Thomas Pollard, who formerly chaired the MCDB Building Committee. “We are simply moving from our current quarters to the new building, which will replace Gibbs.” On Monday, city officials asked an outside legal counsel for a recommendation on whether the proposed building plans require an aldermanic review. The new building will fill the footprint currently occupied by Gibbs Laboratory,
which houses physics labs and the Astronomy Department. The 291 parking spaces currently nearby will see no increase or decrease as part of the construction. Currently, staff and students use a parking lot adjacent to Science Hill. But the proposed construction would temporarily close the lot for construction crew operations for a short period of time during the building process, which is scheduled to last around two years. Yale has said it will reassign parking during the construction period — which is expected to be completed in 2019 — to Lots 16 and 22V and the Pierson–Sage Garage, which are all located further up Whitney Avenue on the same block. While the building’s occupancy is not expected to increase considerably, Executive Director of the City Plan Department Karyn Gilvarg pointed out in a recent letter to the alders that the “new building and the below-grade service spaces [are] somewhat greater than the existing Gibbs Laboratory building.” The proposed building is 280,300 square feet and six stories tall, and will include a rooftop penthouse with a small greenhouse. The design uses the slope of Science Hill to bury the first two floors underground. A network of belowground tunnels will connect the new biology building with Kline Biology Tower. The new lab will be accessible from all of its sides and through hallways under the Kline Biology Tower Plaza.
But it still remains unclear whether the slight increase in the building’s size will influence either the occupancy of the building or the amount of parking needed nearby. According to the 1998 towngown agreement “Overall Parking Plan,” Yale is allowed to determine where and how many parking spaces are built on University property. Gilvarg said Yale meets frequently throughout the year with the City Plan Department. For every Yale building project proposal, Gilvarg said, the University provides the city with relevant information including occupancy changes. The next monthly City Plan Commission review is on April 20. According to Gilvarg, Yale officials have said anecdotally in meetings with the city that the new biology building will bring no significant change in faculty or staff. Although the square footage of the site is growing, this may not increase the number of faculty and staff who work there, Gilvarg said. Students are not required to have nearby parking, she said, so faculty and staff numbers are more relevant when considering parking availability. Parking near Science Hill has also been reduced temporarily by the construction of the new residential colleges, Pollard said. When the construction workers at the residential college site using parking spaces leave the site, more parking will become available, he added. Yale officials have previously said in public testi-
monies that Yale encourages employees to take shuttles and public transportation, but also provides off-street parking to all employees, for a price. But previous aldermanic proposals have addressed worries that Yale workers often take street parking from nearby residents. Gibbs Laboratory is bordered by residential communities on Whitney Avenue and Humphrey and Bishop streets. Parking is an especially vital issue for New Haven’s alders, who have repeatedly sought to relieve city residents of parking woes. City leaders have expressed concerns that the increasing demand for parking, coupled with a growing number of building projects, reduces available parking or does not create any new spaces. For example, Yale’s plans to construct a new graduate student dormitory on Elm Street on the current site of a parking lot garnered opposition from Deputy Director of Zoning Tom Talbot in February 2015. “There is an incredible demand for a vanishing supply of land,” City Plan Commission Chairman Edward Mattison LAW ’68 said at a November 2015 City Hall meeting. A new biology building has been planned for the Gibbs Laboratory site since the 1990s, but construction was postponed in early 2009 due to the 2008 financial crisis that tightened Yale’s wallet. The J.W. Gibbs Laboratory was built in 1955. Contact FINNEGAN SCHICK at christopher.schick@yale.edu .
FAS Senate releases conduct standard report BY VICTOR WANG STAFF REPORTER The drawn-out debate over recently created faculty-conduct standards and draft procedures may soon turn into tangible action as a Faculty of Arts and Sciences Senate report spurs the administration to consider charging a new committee to re-examine the policies. The conduct standards and draft procedures have been a major source of discussion among FAS professors, raising concerns about issues of faculty governance and administrative overreach, since an administratively appointed committee released a draft of the standards for faculty feedback in February 2015. Despite significant faculty pushback, the standards were formalized in the Faculty Handbook at the start of the current academic year. The senate released a report last week to the FAS, reaffirming its concerns and calling for a new ad hoc committee to re-examine various aspects of both the standards and the procedures by which alleged misconduct would be judged. While administrators said discussions are still ongoing, senate members interviewed expressed confidence that a new committee will
be charged, per the report’s recommendation. “We have met with [University President Peter Salovey] and [FAS Dean Tamar Gendler] together to talk about the report. Our understanding is that a new committee will be appointed to think about the procedures and standards,” Senate Chair and History Director of Undergraduate Studies Beverly Gage said. The report, which synthesizes faculty opinions previously submitted online or shared at town hall meetings, reiterates the senate’s stance that the current conduct standards and the draft procedures are unacceptable. Religious Studies Chair Kathryn Lofton, one of the lead authors of the report, said the standards are vaguely worded and that examples of misconduct used in the description are “disparate and odd.” She added that the draft procedures need serious revisions. “Despite the admirable work of the faculty committee that constructed them, the current standards do not yet meet the intellectual or ethical conventions of our community,” the report states. “As a result, they have no legitimacy among the FAS faculty, whose dissatisfaction with them is significant and widespread. Standards for faculty conduct have no value if
they do not reflect faculty consensus about proper conduct.” The report offers a series of recommendations to reexamine both the standards and procedures. It states that “it is unclear what types of behavior the standards were created to address.” Lofton, who is involved with the University-Wide Committee on Sexual Misconduct, said the report could be improved by emulating the way sexual misconduct cases are shared with the community. The University releases a Semi-Annual Report of Complaints of Sexual Misconduct twice each year, detailing specific instances of sexual misconduct complaints without identifying individuals involved. Scenarios and examples of faculty misconduct, Lofton said, could be shared in a similar way. The report also states that the procedures should place greater emphasis on using “informal mediation of complaints” and recommends that chairs and deans receive additional training and resources to handle informal resolutions. The report also recommends that the FAS hold a binding vote on the standards and procedures when they have been further re-examined — a recommendation the senate has pushed for consistently. This
binding vote, Gage said, remains the “trickiest part” of the discussion. Gendler reiterated her willingness to hold an FAS vote, but Gage noted that since the standards and procedures are currently University-wide, the FAS could vote against the conduct standards but still potentially be subject to the policies if other schools’ faculty bodies approve them. “There is no resolution to that fundamental question yet,” Gage said. Lofton said one possible system would include a broad University-wide set of standards, complemented with local, school-specific adjudication procedures for each of the University’s teaching units. It is unclear whether the administration will accept these specific recommendations, but the report has sparked further discussions among administrators. Polak said he has received the report and discussed it with Gendler. “I am considering the next steps, and will be consulting with the deans of the other schools,” he said. The FAS Senate was established in December 2013. Contact VICTOR WANG at v.wang@yale.edu .