NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT · FRIDAY, MARCH 27, 2015 · VOL. CXXXVII, NO. 108 · yaledailynews.com
INSIDE THE NEWS MORNING EVENING
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CROSS CAMPUS
DESTINATIONS EXAMINING VOLUNTOURISM
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College Freedom Forum sparks discussion on human rights.
YALE TO HOST JOURNALISM CONFERENCE.
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students plan to take activism a step further with Unite Yale: Rally for Student Power, an organized protest calling on the University to resolve campus unrest over every one of the year’s most talked-about issues — mainly divestment and mental health policy — in one fell swoop.
All grown up. But student
protests are so college. If you’re looking to balance things out by channeling your inner middle schooler later, you’re in luck: Crushes and Chaperones is tonight. We still don’t think “Sweet Caroline” was ever a dance floor song, despite the Branford College Council’s insistence otherwise. Job freeze. As it turns out, the brutal winter that we endured was more than just inconvenient. Amidst persistent snowfall and frigid temperatures, Connecticut lost 3,700 jobs in February, bringing state officials, labor economists and Yalies all to the same conclusion: We want warmer weather. Romanticism is dead.
Actually, we’re not quite sure what Romanticism is (and neither are the real experts, apparently). Fortunately, the YUAG is hosting a talk on the subject this afternoon. You’re welcome, HSAR 115 students.
The Utopia. In an attempt to
create a “happier, healthier Yale,” the YCC is inviting students to participate in “Recharge Yale” this Sunday by shelving their cell phones and computer screens for some sun and sky. If only it were that easy to just unplug.
Ring by spring. Class ring,
that is. For the first time, the class of 2017 received an email from ASA YaleClassRings on Thursday inviting them to order now. Isn’t it a little early to be thinking about that? THIS DAY IN YALE HISTORY
2014 Admissions decisions are released to the 30,000 high school students applying for a spot in Yale’s class of 2018. Ultimately, 1,935 are accepted for a 6.26 percent admit rate. Follow along for the News’ latest.
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PAGE 12 SPORTS
Move spurred by $20m in donations
here before, Yale. The NCAA men’s hockey tournament kicks off today as your Elis take on Boston University at 2 p.m. If you’re not already halfway to Manchester, N.H., catch the game on a TV screen near you — we recommend the one in Payne Whitney for the University’s official watch party this afternoon. Let’s party like it’s 2013.
It’s a revolution. Today,
Men’s hockey’s bid for the NCAA Championship gets under way tonight.
CS to expand faculty, move under SEAS
You know the drill. We’ve been
Finest against Bravest. With the Bulldogs on the road, Ingalls Rink will host a game between the New Haven Police Department and their counterparts from the Fire Department. They might not be playing for a national title, but the pride that’s at stake just might be worth more.
JUST LIKE 2013?
BY EMMA PLATOFF AND STEPHANIE ROGERS STAFF REPORTERS
cited the large size of rival departments at peer institutions. The recent donations, along with one other faculty addition for a specialist in online privacy, will only ensure that the Yale Computer Science Department grows from 20 faculty to 26. But Harvard already has 24, and following an estimated $60 million donation earlier this year, plans to hire 12 additional professors. Still, students said the news represents an exciting first step. “It might not be enough, but you need to start somewhere,” Gupta said.
Thursday afternoon found hundreds of students and faculty celebrating in the Center for Engineering, Innovation and Design with “byte size” cupcakes frosted with binary code. These cupcakes were, in fact, pieces of “wedding cake,” symbolizing the new union between the Yale Computer Science Department and the Yale School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. The move comes along with two anonymous donations, totaling $20 million, that will provide the Computer Science Department with five new faculty positions, increasing the department’s size by roughly 25 percent. These donations — officially given to the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, which absorbed the CS Department as of noon on Thursday — may solve problems that have plagued the department for years, said administrators, students and faculty at the event. “It’s thrilling for me to feel like Yale is taking these important steps to having the caliber of Computer Science Department that all of us feel Yale deserves,” Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Tamar Gendler said. Although most major universities, including peer institutions like Harvard and Princeton, house their computer sci-
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SEE CS PAGE 4
BRIANNA LOO/SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER
The Computer Science Department announced an expansion of the faculty after a $20 million donation to the SEAS.
Students, faculty cautiously optimistic BY EMMA PLATOFF AND STEPHANIE ROGERS STAFF REPORTERS On Thursday, dozens of students across campus could be seen wearing navy blue shirts that read “SEAS++” on the front, a play on the computer programming language C++; on the back of the shirts, “BYTE ME” — spelled out in binary. The shirts came from a noon ceremony in the CEID, at which administrators announced two donations — totaling $20 million — to the SEAS, the move of the Computer Science Department to the engineering school and the addition of five new faculty
spots to the department. All students interviewed were ecstatic about the announcement, but many were careful to temper their enthusiasm — even with the donation, CS at Yale is far from where it needs to be, they said. “It’s even more than just hiring professors — [University President Peter] Salovey and other administrators made it clear that they’ve admitted this is a problem and they’re working to solve it,” said Debayan Gupta GRD ’17. “I definitely see this as a very positive first step, as long as the administration keeps going in this direction.” Among other concerns, students
Higgins emails present limited snapshot of campus crime BY STEPHANIE ADDENBROOKE STAFF REPORTER On Feb. 13, two Yale students were walking home from a party. They were assaulted and robbed of their phones on Cross Campus, and one of the students suffered a broken jaw. The cases were not reported to the Yale Community — a result not uncommon for crime occurring on campus. Since the beginning of the spring semester, students have received 11 campus-wide emails
from Yale Police Department Chief Ronnell Higgins alerting them of various crimes on and close to campus. The emails have ranged from reporting cases of sexual assault and voyeurism to robberies. Although most students interviewed assumed that these emails covered all reported crime on and around campus, the reality is that administrators decide which crimes to report to the community. University spokesman Tom Conroy said in an email to the News that messages to the cam-
pus community are sent out on a case-by-case basis, when a crime is judged to represent an “ongoing threat to the community.” Higgins, a key member in making these decisions, did not respond to multiple requests for comment. While 15 students interviewed said they were more frightened by a lack of information, a full list of the crimes that have occurred on campus is available online through the Public Safety department’s daily crime log. This is a requirement
In MH&C, session limit does not exist BY AMAKA UCHEGBU AND VIVIAN WANG STAFF REPORTERS As students and administrators focus on the state of Yale’s mental health resources, questions of availability have become particularly contentious — namely, whether students are allowed more than 12 visits to Mental Health & Counseling per year. The short answer is yes, they are. No such cap exists. During an open forum on Feb. 25, at which administrators opened the floor for discussion about Yale’s mental health resources, Caroline Posner ’17 questioned why Yale Health limits students to 12 therapy sessions per year. When MH&C Director Lorraine Siggins responded by claiming that no such limit exists, her voice was quickly drowned out by noises from students in the audience who, like Posner, had heard the very opposite. While Siggins acknowledged that MH&C needs to improve the way it communicates with students, lit-
of the Federal Clery Act, which places certain requirements on universities regarding how they report different campus crimes. Under the act, universities are also required to send a campuswide when the police department deems the crime poses an “ongoing threat.” In an email to the News, Janet Lindner, deputy vice president for human resources and administration, said that in addition to sending campus-wide notifications, the department also sends regular safety updates to advise
students on how to best protect themselves. “Information on crimes is not meant to frighten anyone, but to increase awareness,” she said. The crime log reveals that the incident on Feb. 13 may not be the only crime on campus students would have expected to hear about.
AN AMBIGUOUS ACT
In 1986, Jeanne Ann Clery, a 19-year-old freshman at Lehigh SEE YPD PAGE 6
MEN’S HOCKEY
tle else since the forum has been said publicly about the supposed cap on therapy sessions, leaving students as confused as they had been before the forum. Students interviewed maintained that they had been told that a 12-session cap exists, with some adding that the limit is indicative of a larger resource shortage at MH&C. “When my therapist [gave me more than a certain number of sessions], she specifically said she was bending the rules,” Posner, a staff columnist for the News, said in an interview.
DOES THE LIMIT EXIST?
During the forum, Siggins asked the audience where on the MH&C website they had read that such a limit exists. Students said they had learned about the cap not from the Yale Health website but rather from their individual therapists. The MH&C website does state that some students attend only a few sesSEE MH&C PAGE 4
The Yale men’s hockey team takes on Boston University in the first round of the NCAA Tournament today, hoping to make another miracle run to the national championship. PAGE 12