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November
1999
A
Warmer Welcome for Foreign Students
President
Levin last year announced his intention to increase the number of
international students
at Yale. Now, by revamping the office that deals with these students'
concerns, the University hopes to make their time in New Haven easier
and more fulfilling. The Office of International Education, which
once dealt exclusively with passport, visa, and immigration issues,
has been replaced by a new Office of International Students and
Scholars.
Director
Ann Kuhlman, who comes to the position after 22 years at University
of Pennsylvania's Office of International Programs, says she wants
to continue to take care of practical matters quickly and easily.
But she also recognizes that, with her appointment, "Yale is looking
for someone who can take the existing office and enhance it." In
the future, she hopes to implement streamlined assistance with chores
such as obtaining a driver's license and finding housing. She also
plans to launch a special orientation for international students
and a new Web site, which is being developed by new associate director
Gang Wang.
Kuhlman's
appointment coincides with that of Catherine Eaton Hutchison as
director of the newly created Office of International Education
and Fellowship Programs, which deals with the concerns of Yale students
abroad. "It's exciting that the Provost and the President see the
new [international] mission as important," says Kuhlman.
Tobacco Ban Sparks Student Ire
If you
ever find yourself craving a pack of smokes while on the Yale campus,
you may have to look a bit harder in the future to find it. University
Properties, which operates the retail space owned by the University,
is now routinely including a ban on selling tobacco products in shopkeepers'
leases. The ban came to public attention in September when DeSisto
Food and Grocery on Wall Street (formerly Wall Food Store) stopped
selling cigarettes in accordance with its new lease.
"We
don't want to be in a position of encouraging or condoning a practice
that is demonstrably harmful to people," explains University spokesman
Lawrence Haas.
But
critics were quick to note that Yale has declined to divest itself
of some $17 million in tobacco stocks in its endowment portfolio.
In an editorial, the Yale Daily News accused President Levin of
hypocrisy, saying the policy is "punishing small businesses while
the University profits." Haas says the University does not see a
contradiction in the two policies.
Fraud
Charge in Town-Gown Race
Where,
legally speaking, do Yale undergraduates live when they are on campus?
The answer may seem obvious, but a Yale undergraduate won a primary
election for the New Haven Board of Aldermen by employing a novel
interpretation of residency laws. Asit Gosar '00 defeated four-term
incumbent Esther Armmand in the September 14 democratic primary
for the alderman's seat in Ward 7 by a 29-vote margin, but he later
withdrew from the race when it was alleged that as many as 33 students
had voted in the wrong ward.
Gosar
and his supporters—including his roommate, Yale Daily News editor-in-chief Isaiah Wilner '00—advised freshmen and off-campus
students who were affiliated with Pierson and Davenport Colleges
to list those colleges as their home addresses when registering
to vote. Pierson and Davenport are the only Yale residences in Ward
7; the Old Campus, where 20 of the 33 voters in question reside,
is in Ward 1.
Gosar,
who is majoring in ethics, politics, and economics, says he researched
residency requirements and believed it was legal for Old Campus
and off-campus students to register in their residential colleges.
But Connecticut's director of elections, Thomas Ferguson, and a
host of local officials maintained that "residence is determined
by where you lay your head at night." Gosar framed the issue as
one of student voting rights, explaining that having to register
each time they move is a disincentive to student voting.
In
the face of Armmand's threat to sue, Gosar withdrew from the race,
giving Armmand the nomination and a likely victory in the general
election. But Gosar insisted he had done nothing wrong. "I believe
the students in question have the right to vote in the Ward 7 election,"
he said. "However, I believe going to court to defend those rights
would be counterproductive." At the press conference called to announce
Gosar's withdrawal, Mayor John DeStefano Jr. said he would appoint
an ad hoc committee to clarify residency rules for students at New
Haven colleges.
Guides
for Less Traveled Paths
You're
all familiar with the Blue Book—formally
known as Yale College Programs of Study. But how about the Pink
Book and the Green Book? The two new hues are among recent efforts
by campus groups to raise awareness of related course offerings
in different departments and schools at the University.
The
Fund for Lesbian and Gay Studies has published its "Pink Book,"
which lists courses on themes relating to gender and sexuality,
since 1993. It has more recently been joined by the Yale Student
Environmental Coalition's "Green Book" (courses related to the environment)
and the Yale Hunger and Homelessness Action Project's "Urban Studies
at Yale." The Institution for Social and Policy Studies just this
year introduced "Bioethics at Yale," a guide to faculty, research,
and courses in the emerging field.
The
guides' creators see them as a way to build interest in fields that
don't have a departmental foothold at Yale. "One of our strongest
commitments is to better environmental education at Yale," says
Rachel Rusch '00 of YSEC. "If people take these courses and have
an interest in more advanced courses, we can build momentum. Ultimately,
we would like the Studies in the Environment program to become a
freestanding major."
In
the case of the Pink Book, the strategy may be working. The women's
and gender studies program introduced a concentration in lesbian
and gay studies last year.
Religion
Goes Back to Class
When
you put the words "religion" and "public schools" together, be prepared
for sparks to fly. But Yale religious studies professors Jon Butler
and Harry Stout are up to the task: The two are editing a 17-volume
series of books for secondary schools on the history of religion
in America.
Stout
says he and Butler were moved to assemble the series, which is being
published by Oxford University Press, because of schools' reluctance
to discuss religion at all. "We both share the conviction that a
knowledge of religion and its role in American society is essential
to any responsible understanding of what it means to be an American,"
says Stout. "The whole business of separation of church and state
has been taken to ridiculous extremes whereby the mere mention of
religion fills teachers with dread."
The
series, which is envisioned as a classroom resource for papers and
reports, features several volumes on various religious groups—including Catholics, Muslims, Protestants, Jews, Mormons, Orthodox
Christians, Native Americans and African Americans—and others
on topics such as church and state or women and religion. Each of
the books is written by an expert on the topic, and Stout says no
proselytizing is permitted. "All the authors approach their subject
as scholars," he says, "not practitioners."
"Before
our series there was no neutral treatment of the religious groups
and movements that make up the American mosaic," says Stout. "Now,
teachers can say, 'you need to know about these groups, and here
is the place to start.'"
Finally,
Writers Can Concentrate
For
all the emphasis Yale historically has placed on the importance
of writing as a tool of scholarship and communication, writing for
its own sake has sometimes been given short shrift. But the English
department hopes to encourage budding novelists, essayists, playwrights,
and poets through a new initiative that lets its majors "concentrate"
in writing.
The
six to 12 students who are accepted into the new Writing Concentration
are required to take four writing courses and produce a senior project
in addition to the senior essay or seminar already required for
the major. Director of undergraduate studies Langdon Hammer says
the new concentration will make it possible for more students to
do tutorials in writing, and that the quality of those tutorials
will be raised. The students in the concentration will meet as a
group to share their work.
While
no new courses are being offered to serve the concentration, Hammer
says the department's writing courses already have been expanded
in recent years. "We have added new sections of our fiction and
poetry writing courses, and we now offer screenwriting and playwriting,
too, in addition to Daily Themes and our non-fiction courses," says
Hammer.
A
Reborn Co-op, A Busier Broadway
While
the University was busy announcing new developments in the Broadway
retail district early this fall, the district's most famous ex-tenant
was unveiling an extensive makeover in order to compete with Broadway
bookselling giant Barnes & Noble. The Yale Co-op, which occupied
the site at 77 Broadway until the University replaced it with the
national chain in 1997, underwent a $2-million renovation of its
Chapel Square mall store over the summer.
Backed
by Wallace's Bookstores, a Kentucky-based college store chain with
which it signed a ten-year management contract last year, the new
Co-op is designed to accommodate changing seasonal demands, according
to Wallace's vice president, Tim Prather. The store features a bank
of computers for Internet browsing and will soon house a cafe overlooking
the Green. Prather says the Co-op did "at least twice as well" as
last year in getting textbook orders from faculty.
Meanwhile,
the Broadway redevelopment being overseen by University Properties
(see "Barnes and Noble and Mom
and Pop," Feb.) got a boost in September with the announcement
that the clothing retailer Urban Outfitters will be one of the tenants
in a new building replacing several Broadway storefronts. Another
new tenant, a locally owned Chinese cafe called the Ivy Noodle,
will open on the site of the former Daily Caffe. "We're creating
a place that will attract a wide variety of shoppers to support
the merchants when students are not on campus, and that will be
lively night and day," said Bruce Alexander, vice president for New Haven and state affairs.
Learning
How Cocaine Takes Hold
While
no drug habit is easy to kick, overcoming addiction to cocaine is
particularly difficult. But research by Eric Nestler, the Elizabeth
Mears and House Jameson Professor of Psychiatry and Pharmacology,
and his colleagues, offers an explanation for the intransigence.
In
the September 16 edition of the journal Nature, Nestler described
a key component of cocaine addiction: the production by the brain
of a protein called delta-FosB in response to the drug. The protein
is "almost like a molecular switch," says the scientist. "Once it's
flipped on, it stays on, and it doesn't go away easily."
In
the three-year study, Nestler and a team of researchers from the
Medical School, Harvard, and Northwestern worked with genetically
engineered mice as proxies for human addicts. The scientists found
that, sooner or later, cocaine caused delta-FosB levels to rise
dramatically in an area of the brain known to play a role in addiction
and in the perception of pleasure. The sharp increase then triggered
a cascade of other changes in the brain that made nerve cells more
sensitive to the drug.
"With
this new research, we are beginning to understand exactly what the
switch is and how it works," says Alan I. Leshner, the director
of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. "This should help us develop
medications to turn the switch off."
Campus
Clips
The University's
endowment, for those of you who are keeping track, is now worth
$7.2 billion,according to figures released recently by the Investment Office.
Last year's return on investments was 12.2 percent, lower than in
the previous four years but higher than most universities. Since
1989, the Investment Office has overseen investments with an average
annual return of 15 percent, two points higher than the median rate
for similar institutions.
If you've
always thought the old campus was beautiful,you may now rest assured it's not just chauvinism. The American
Society of Landscape Architects has placed the quad on its list
of the 362 most beautifully landscaped spots in the country, along
with 21 other campus sites. The designation follows a massive 1998
redesign carried out by the Olin Partnership of Philadelphia, which
relocated several of the old pathways to allow students to "get
to where they want to go."
Researchers
at the Yale Sports Medicine Centerhave determined that women
athletes are more likely to suffer knee injuries—and may
take longer to heal—than men. Dr. Peter Jokl, director of the
Center, says women's bone and muscle structures may be a factor.
A national
fraternity that was founded at
Yale in 1845 hopes to return to campus.Alpha Sigma Phi, which built the building now occupied by the Yale
Cabaret, became inactive in 1945 due to financial problems. But
national leaders say the environment at Yale now is conducive to
their return; they hope to establish a tentative "colony" by December.
The
quality of day care that children receive can affect their progress
in school,according to a study of 400 children conducted at Yale and three
other universities. The study followed children through second grade;
those who had been in high-quality child care programs scored higher
in tests of academic and social skills than those in programs of
lower quality.
Sporting
Life
A Coach's Double Life on the Links
by Mark Alden Branch '86
It was
a ritual for the women's golf team early this fall. When playing
a tournament, the five players on the traveling team passed the
phone around their hotel room for an evening check-in with coach
Heather Daly-Donofrio '91. They reported the ups and downs of the
day, and Daly-Donofrio responded with news of her own. For the coach
was in another city, playing on the LPGA women's professional golf
tour.
The
arrangement is a consequence of Daly-Donofrio's quest to play and
coach at the same time, an unusual feat that requires some juggling
and accommodation for all involved. Because Daly-Donofrio is a "conditional"
player on the tour this year, she can only enter tournaments when
more established players opt out. When an opportunity comes, she
seizes it, even if it conflicts with a tournament. So far this year,
though, things have worked well in both arenas. Daly-Donofrio is
currently ranked 98th on the tour and has winnings totaling $74,446.
And the team has won its first three tournaments, including a one-stroke
victory over Princeton at the Dartmouth Invitational in September.
Part
of the credit for the team's success in the coach's absence goes
to assistant coach Glenn Richetelle, who was hired this year to
fill in when Daly-Donofrio is away. "Most of us were not really
thrilled to learn Heather would be gone for our first three tournaments,"
says captain Emily Johnson '00. "But we've all completely clicked
with Glenn."
The
strong start for this year's team, whose top three players are sophomores,
raises hopes that Yale can reclaim the Ivy League title from Princeton
this spring. They won the league tourney in 1997 and in 1998, Daly-Donofrio's
first year, but placed second last year.
And
if their coach does well on the tour, life for her and the team
could become less hectic. Daly-Donofrio is close to cracking the
top 90 touring professionals, which would make her an "exempt" player—allowing her to choose tournaments so as not to conflict with
her coaching schedule. Since Richetelle was hired, the coach is
less anxious about her team while playing. "I'm starting to feel
more comfortable on the road, so I hope I'll play better," she says.
And
Daly-Donofrio's players are eager to see more of her. "One of the
best things about her is that she's very much in that competitive
mode," says Johnson, "so she can relate to what we're feeling when
we're out there."
Sports
Shorts
After
opening with a 25-24 loss to Brown, the football team won three straight games against Valparaiso, San
Diego, and Holy Cross. The first two wins came without starting
quarterback Joe Walland '00, who left the Valpariaso game with a
shoulder injury.
The men's
soccer team has won six of its first eight games this fall, including
a 3-0 September victory over Harvard. The Bulldogs were ranked 16th
in the nation before losing 3-2 to Dartmouth on October 9. Their
only other loss was to nationally ranked Connecticut.
Twins
Laura and Kate O'Neill '03 have emerged from a strong pack of freshman
Eli runnersto lead the women's cross-country team. The sisters from Milton,
Massachusetts, were Yale's top finishers in meets this fall in Boston
and Bloomington, Indiana.
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