From campus scandal to student protest

The Seattle anti-World Trade Organization protests in December might have marked the resurgence of activism nationally, but Yalies took to the trenches from the start of the school year. Students passionate about their causes grabbed headlines for their tactics, ranging from petitions to sleep-outs on Beinecke Plaza.

The year's news began in Yale's home city, New Haven. Returning students were shocked to find some of their favorite local eateries and stores closed down or relocated under the guiding hand of Yale's Office of Properties. In their places sprang up such locales as Starbucks and, by the end of the school year, the Ivy Noodle restaurant. Berkeley students also experienced major changes as they moved back into their newly-renovated residential college, made possible by millions of dollars in grants from Robert M. Bass, BK '71, and Joseph G. Fogg III, BK '68. The changes included a balcony and self-serve area in the dining hall and a basketball court in the basement. Following in the footsteps of Berkeley, this year Branford students braved Swing Space, a dormitory that Yale created to house sophomores, juniors, and seniors while their college is being renovated. Swing Space will house Saybrugian upper-classmen next year.

COURTESY BRANFORD COLLEGE FACEBOOK The body of Greg Norris, BR '00, was found over winter break. A memorial service was held in January.

Several key Administrative shifts also greeted returning students. Pamela George took over as the new cultural Dean of African-American Student Affairs, and Christopher Pan, DC '99, served as the one-year Acting Director of the Asian-American Cultural Center, following Cultural Dean Mary Li Hsu's, SY '80, summer departure. The Drama, Engineering, and Divinity schools will also have new Deans in the near future. And, in the one Administrative change nearest and dearest to all Yalies, Philip Jones took the helm at Undergraduate Career Services (UCS). Under Jones' direction, UCS has increased its visibility on campus, created the Office of International Education and Fellowship Programs (IEFP), and expanded its services to students not interested in Wall Street jobs.

A town-gown scandal rocked the boat in late September, as a Yale student running against a local incumbent in the Ward Seven primary was accused of committing voter fraud. The Yalie, Asit Gosar, PC '00, and his roommate, Isaiah Wilner, PC '00, then editor-in-chief of the Yale Daily News, had told Pierson and Davenport freshmen living on Old Campus—i.e., Ward One—to register as Ward Seven voters. Gosar narrowly defeated his opponent Esther Armmand, who was prepared to file a suit challenging the election results. Under a compromise set forth by Mayor John DeStefano, Jr. and Yale's Director of New Haven and State Affairs, Bruce Alexander, BK '65, Gosar withdrew his candidacy. Town-gown relations were somewhat restored, and three former Yalies—Julio Gonzalez, CC '99, Jelani Lawson, MC '96, and Gerald Garcia, ES '94, SOM '01, won re-elections in Wards One, Two, and Nine in November.

Back in the halls of academia, unexpected overcrowding in lecture classes and a teaching assistant (TA) shortage plagued the history department throughout the fall and spring. As a result, some professors began using non-Yale graduate students as TAs, and an increasing number of professors resorted to capping classes. The crisis prompted forums with undergraduates and graduate students and petitions from undergrads; the proposals still under consideration include eliminating sections or making them optional. Others suggested more capped classes.

In mid-fall, student activists began their highly publicized campaigns to pressure the Administration into becoming more responsible in their corporate dealings. Students Against Sweatshops (SAS), founded two years ago, succeeded in getting President Richard Levin, GRD '74, to agree to full disclosure of the factory locations that produce Yale apparel. The Student Alliance to Reform Corporations (STARC), submitted various proposals asking the University's Investments Office to reveal the investments made with the $7.2 billion endowment, but Yale has repeatedly refused, claiming that it does not want other institutional investors to copy its unique strategy which, ironically, performed worse than comparable institutions this year.

Sadness permeated the campus when Branford senior Greg Norris was announced missing in early November. Witnesses had last seen Norris, who reportedly suffered from depression, in New Haven on Halloween, and the Yale Police Department (YPD) undertook an investigation and search to locate him for the next two months. Yalies returning from winter break got word that Norris' body had been found in the Harlem River and that his death had been classified as a suicide. The University held a memorial service in mid-January in Battell Chapel in his honor.

On a much brighter note, over 52,000 spectators were in attendance for the 116th Yale-Harvard game at the Yale Bowl, which Yale won 24-21. Generations to come will hear of how quarterback Joe Walland, TD '00, spent the previous night in the hospital with a high fever, but still played brilliantly, completing the game-winning touchdown pass to receiver Eric Johnson, JE '01, who nabbed the ball just inches off the ground with 29 seconds remaining. During Coach Siedlecki's three-year tenure, the team's record went from 1-9 to 9-1, and Yale tied with Brown for the 1999 Ivy League championship.

Shortly after the Norris investigation was concluded, another somber story came to a close when former Saybrook Master and geology and geophysics Professor Antonio Lasaga plead guilty to two counts of federal child pornography charges in late February. He still faces state charges of sexually assaulting a minor. Though FBI agents had obtained his computer and thousands of files when raiding his Saybrook residence in November 1998, Lasaga had previously maintained his innocence. President Levin initiated the process for revoking Lasaga's tenure in mid-April.

Looking to the future, Yale announced an ambitious $500 million plan to bolster its commitment to science and engineering in February, jump-started by a $24 million gift from John Malone, TD '63, for the construction of a new engineering facility. Over the next 10 years, Yale will construct four other science buildings, a new dining hall and social space, and new lecture halls on central campus, along with its renovations of existing buildings. The hope is to better connect the Science Hill area—located on Prospect Street and Hillhouse Avenue—to the rest of campus, and to revitalize the scientific culture and environment at Yale.

On the sports scene, athletic director Tom Beckett stated that Dan Ireland, an assistant at Georgetown, and Dave Shoehalter, an assistant at Yale, would fill the posts of retiring men's track and cross country coach Steve Barthold. Women's squash gained 1998 Australian Junior National Squash Champion Laura Keating, ES '02, as a mid-year transfer. Swimmers Stephen Fahy, MC '01, and George Gleason, TC '01, will return to Yale after competing in the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

This spring, even professors resorted to protest. Hazel Carby resigned her position as chair of African-American (Af-Am) studies in response to comments President Levin made at a dinner in honor of her Harvard counterpart Henry Louis Gates, Jr., CC '73. While Carby is on leave this spring, some version of Levin's praise, along with rumors that Levin wanted Gates to take over the program, had filtered back to her. But unknown to Carby at the time of her resignation was the fact that the Yale Corporation had already included on its agenda the promotion of Af-Am studies to departmental status, and she was convinced to withdraw her resignation.

CAYTE PUSHKAREVA/YH Ari Holtzblatt, BK '00, speaks at a heated rally for Students against Sweatshops (SAS) that brought students and professors to Woodbridge Hall.

Controversy struck again in the history department, when a full departmental committee voted not to renew the contract of popular Assistant Professor Lee Blackwood, GRD '95, reversing the unanimous recommendation of a three-person review committee. Blackwood, who teaches Russian and Eastern European Studies, believed that he was being punished for a memo he circulated in March 1999 in which he criticized the department's hiring practices. Blackwood submitted a formal appeal to Provost Allison Richard, GRD '86, in early April. Student supporters of Blackwood gathered hundreds of signatures supporting his reappointment.

The Office of Public Affairs (OPA) experienced a public relations nightmare for the rest of the school year when ABC's 20/20 aired a report this March on the unsolved 1998 murder of Suzanne Jovin, DC '99. OPA's troubles stemmed not from the show's topic but from a quote attributed to deputy director Tom Conroy, who allegedly told a reporter that "bringing more attention to the murder can only hurt Yale." Jovin's parents, friends, and faculty advisors lambasted Yale for its insensitivity, and demanded the resignations of Conroy and University Secretary Linda Lorimer, LAW '77. Conroy and the OPA denied having ever made the statements and President Levin publicly voiced regret for any offense the Jovin family felt from the alleged comments.

The year ended back in the trenches of student activists, as SAS members staged a 16-day sleep out on Beinecke Plaza—in front of Levin's office—for the first two weeks in April. SAS protested Yale's membership in the Fair Labor Association, demanding instead that Yale join the Workers Rights Consortium, a non-governmental and non-corporate monitoring system whose founding conference took place in early April. While the University never gave in to their demands, YPD officers watched the students every night from parked cars on Wall Street, and Levin held an informal forum with all students to discuss the issue. SAS called it quits during the last week of classes, stating they needed to focus on academic work and acknowledging that fewer Yalies would pass by Beinecke Plaza during reading week.

Perhaps it was fitting that the year ended with two prominent and politically charged figures visiting campus. Hip-hop artist Wyclef Jean, formerly of the Fugees, was the main event for the annual Spring Fling, and Pulitzer Prize-winning Watergate reporter Bob Woodward, ES '65, was the Class Day speaker for graduation.

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