YALE DAILY NEWS · THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2013 · yaledailynews.com
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NEWS
$1,717
University press adapts to digital age
Amount raised by Paul Chandler ’14
In the final filing period of the Ward 1 campaign, Chandler raised $1,000 more than Democratic incumbent Sarah Eidelson ’12.
Ward 1 sees final funds, support BY ISAAC STANLEY-BECKER STAFF REPORTER
KATHRYN CRANDALL/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
A separately endowed department of the University, the Yale University Press primarily publishes academic books about art, history, science, religion, philosophy, psychology and languages. BY SAMUEL ABER CONTRIBUTING REPORTER As digital media creates new challenges for traditional print sources, the Yale University Press is striving to adapt to a new era. A separately endowed department of the University, the YUP primarily publishes academic books about art, history, science, religion, philosophy, psychology and languages. Though YUP director John Donatich said print sales still account for 90 percent of revenues, he added that the publishing house has made a concerted effort to introduce a variety of new digital initiatives in recent years. Among these are a continued commitment to online e-book publishing, the introduction of new digital archives and the development of several iPhone and iPad apps. “I’ve been in publishing for 30 years, and I’ve been at Yale for 11 years, and I don’t think there was ever a time when we weren’t adapting to change,” Donatich said. “But in this past five years, that change has accelerated a lot because of the digital realm.” Virtually all non-art books published by the YUP today are simultaneously released in e-book format to be sold in marketplaces such as the Amazon Kindle Store and the Apple AppStore, Donatich said. He added that the YUP has also made digital versions of books published before the internet age. In total, about 60 percent of the non-art books ever published by the YUP are available as e-books. Though Donatich said increased digitalization has brought more access to information within the academic world, professors interviewed who have published with the YUP said the existence of e-books has had little effect on their interactions with publishers. Dale Martin, a professor of religious studies, recently published a book with the YUP entitled “New
Testament History and Literature.” Though his book is for sale as an e-book as well as in print, Martin said that digital media generally has not affected the decisions he makes as an academic about publishing his work. “I’m not particularly interested in [the digital realm] as an author,” Martin said. Likewise, Lewis Perry, a history professor at Saint Louis University, published “Civil Disobedience” with the YUP on Oct. 22. Perry said publishing his work in e-book format along with print was not a decision he actively made. Rather, the publication of an e-book version was a default feature of the contract he signed with the YUP.
It’s a really wonderful way to make this documentation available to scholars. JOHN DONATICH Director, Yale University Press Perry said he believes e-books may be less useful in classroom settings because it is harder for students to take notes and flip between sections of the book. Still, he said online versions have the capacity to expand readership of scholarly texts beyond academia, adding that he sees e-books as a positive innovation. “I don’t imagine anyone would object to [publishing an e-book version],” Perry said. “You really just want people to read your book.” Current digital projects at the YUP include the creation of the Stalin Digital Archive, Donatich said. The archive will feature about 400,000 digitized pages of Joseph Stalin’s recently declassified personal papers available on an interactive platform. According to the YUP website, the archive is slated to
be available early next year through East View Information Services. “[There are] some really cool things there, like his thank-you letter to Hitler for the non-aggression pact,” Donatich said. “It’s a real wonderful way to make this documentation available to scholars, whereas before you would [have] had to go to Moscow and apply to get access.” The YUP has also released a number of iOS apps, the most successful of which is an adaptation of “The Interaction of Color,” a book by artist and former Yale professor Josef Albers. The book has been a bestseller in the education category of Apple’s App Store and has seen 70,000 downloads in the three months since its release, with 10,000 users opting to purchase the full version. The project, according to Donatich, represents the YUP’s desire to use digital content to enrich their readers’ experience. “I think a lot of my frustration with enhanced digital content from books is that it’s just more stuff, it’s actually not transformed or enhanced in any way,” Donatich said. “And I think with this book it was actually transformed.” In fiscal year 2012, the YUP’s revenue reached a record $34.7 million. Though the YUP’s revenue fell by 10.9 percent during the recently concluded 2013 fiscal year, the overall trend remains positive. “We had a big bump because of a couple of things [in 2012],” Donatich said, referencing two unusually popular books — one about art and one about history — that the YUP sold that year. “[In fiscal 2013,] we didn’t have those big hits, and secondly, the digital growth sort of plateaued a bit.” The YUP published more than 400 titles in the 2013 fiscal year. Contact SAMUEL ABER at samuel.aber@yale.edu .
Republican Ward 1 Candidate Paul Chandler ’14 raised $1,000 more than Democratic Incumbent Sarah Eidelson ’12 in the last filing period of the campaign, reversing his opponent’s initial fundraising lead and drawing in donations that he said prove his campaign can transcend party ideology. In campaign finance documents filed on Tuesday, Eidelson reported raising $732, the sum of five small student contributions and three from family members. Chandler reported raising a total of $1,717, in addition to a $200 contribution received just after the filing deadline from Ward 19 Alderman-elect Mike Stratton, a registered Democrat and trial lawyer in New Haven. Chandler’s total consists of a $250 contribution from the Republican Town Committee and 16 other donations, eight of them from Yale students. Chandler Campaign Manager Ben Mallet ’16 said news that the campaign trailed Eidelson in funds at the beginning of the month mobilized a significant number of donations in the past three weeks. Sterling Johnson ’15, treasurer for Eidelson’s campaign, said the campaign had already successfully motivated most students to donate during the first filing period but added that he was still satisfied with the fundraising total of $2,817. More important than the amount of money, Chandler said, is the source of his donations. In addition to the $200 raised from Stratton, the campaign took in a $100 contribution from U.S. Senator Rob Portman, whose son is a Yale senior. “Senator Portman met Paul at Yale when he was giving a speech and was impressed with him and his ideas,” Caitlin Dunn, Portman’s press secretary, told the News in a Wednesday email, referring to an informal conversation with Trumbull College students Portman held in early October. “The Senator gave him a small personal contribution to help him with his grassroots campaign.” Chandler cited the contribution from Stratton to emphasize that his candidacy crosses party lines. He said the fact that Stratton endorsed him rather than his Democratic opponent proves that the political divide on the Board of Aldermen is not attached to party affiliation, but is instead caused by the Yale unions. Stratton agreed, condemning Eidelson for running while no longer a current student and accusing her of voting in lockstep with Yale’s Unite Here Local 34, a union local representing clerical and technical workers at the University. “I think the only reason Sarah is still hanging on is because the union can’t find another student they can control as much as they’ve controlled her,” said Stratton, who added that his donation
to Chandler’s campaign marked his first ever to a Republican politician. Eidelson has forcefully denied that allegation. During Monday’s debate, she said her employment with Local 34 as a graphic designer does not dictate how she votes on the Board. “I represent Yale students,” Eidelson said. “I don’t represent Yale as an institution and I don’t represent Local 34 as an institution when I’m voting on the Board.” Eidelson has drawn support from a considerably different slate of political leaders than the ones who have flocked to Chandler, principally ones with whom she has worked over the past two years on the Board of Aldermen. The incumbent also won the endorsement of mayoral candidate and 11-term Connecticut State Sen. Toni Harp ARC ’78 in September. Eidelson said her support from a collection of sitting aldermen stems from her community activism work in New Haven even before she ran for alderman. Ward 29 Alderman Brian Wingate, Ward 22 Alderman Jeanette Morrison and Ward 28 Alderman Claudette Robinson-Thorpe also said they confidently endorsed Eidelson’s re-election campaign. Stratton said he supports Chandler because he sees him as an “independent-thinker willing to challenge the status quo,” likening the Ward 1 hopeful to a series of other candidates including himself, Democratic Ward 7 Alderman Doug Hausladen ’04, Independent Ward 8 candidate Andy Ross and Democratic Ward 25 write-in candidate Michael Pinto. None of these three candidates have officially backed Chandler. But the Ward 1 hopeful did win the support of two Connecticut state legislators on Wednesday evening, who stopped by campus to join the candidate for a discussion of education reform. Connecticut State Sen. Art Linares and Connecticut House Rep. Gail Lavielle GRD ‘81, both Republicans, backed Chandler, praising his knowledge of the city’s schools and his campus outreach efforts over the past two months. Robinson-Thorpe, who chairs the Board’s planning committee on the shuttered Goffe Street Armory alongside Eidelson, said it is due to Eidelson’s leadership that the Board was able to conduct a feasibility study and open the space for the City-Wide Open Studios arts event last week. While Chandler talked education reform with state leaders on Wednesday evening, Eidelson stopped in on a meeting of the Yale Student Environmental Coalition, speaking to the group about how sustainability efforts on campus can intersect with city initiatives. Contact ISAAC STANLEY-BECKER at isaac.stanley-becker@yale.edu .
KATHRYN CRANDALL/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Ward 1 Candidate Paul Chandler ’14 could become the only Republican on the Board of Alderman come Nov. 5.
European Commission VP talks free trade BY EDDY WANG CONTRIBUTING REPORTER On Wednesday afternoon, European Commission Vice President Viviane Reding spoke on campus about the benefits of a free-trade agreement between the United States and the European Union, as well as her vision for the future of the EU. Reding — who serves as the first European Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship — addressed an audience of roughly 40 in the Hall of Graduate Studies on Wednesday. She spoke to the potential benefits of a first freetrade agreement between the U.S. and the EU, which have two of the largest economies of any country or region in the world.
Reding’s hourlong talk also delved into her views on U.S.EU relations and the need for political and fiscal centralization within the EU. “If [the U.S. and the EU] want to work even more [closely] together, the only way not to [make] too many mistakes is to know more about each other,” Reding said. Reding outlined a variety of potential benefits of a U.S.EU free trade agreement, highlighting the financial benefits. According to the EU website, the proposed free-trade agreement — which was formally called the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership — has been in the works since July 2013 and would generate more than $120 billion a year in revenue for the
U.S. and more than $160 billion a year for the EU.
[The proposed agreement] would mean the addition of another Oklahoma to the national economy. VIVIANE REDING Vice President, European Commission In addition to the projected revenues from the free trade agreement under negotiation, Reding spoke about the proposed combination of industry standards between the U.S. and the EU.
“For the United States, [the proposed agreement] would mean the addition of another Oklahoma to the national economy,” Reding said. Reding said she has been working with American officials for a long time to combine different industry standards, adding that if the U.S. and the EU continue down this road of collaboration, the two entities could set a “golden world standard.” Jolyon Howorth, a visiting professor at the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs who was present at the talk, said in a Wednesday email to the News that the harmonization of U.S. and EU standards may prove difficult. “[The different standards] go to the very heart of the cultural and lifestyle differences between
the two sides of the Atlantic,” he said. “Europeans and Americans want and expect rather different products.” Reding also spoke about potentially harmonizing customs standards between the U.S. and the EU. She praised the recent increase of supervisory power given to the European Central Bank and advocated for a direct election for the European Commission President in place of the current parliamentary election procedure. Many audience members came away impressed by Reding’s passionate defense and vision for the EU. “I enjoyed her spirited defense of the European project, which ran counter to most American ‘doom and gloom’ portrayals of
the situation across the pond,” Fil Lekkas ’14 said. “I was pleasantly surprised at her good sense of humor and rhetorical flair.” Igor Mitschka ’15, the editor in chief of Accent magazine — the group that organized and hosted the event — said he hopes Reding’s talk will inspire Yale students to continue the debate on the future of the EU. Mitschka added that he hopes students can contribute towards narratives and policies that will ultimately make Europe a role model for other areas of the world. Before becoming vice president of the European Commission, Reding was a member of the European Parliament. Contact EDDY WANG at cheneddy.wang@yale.edu .