Last year at Yale, from porn to politicians

BY ANDREW HELLER

With news of the tragic death of Samuel Itty, JE '03, still on the minds of many students, the school year started on a somber note with a September memorial service in his honor. On Fri., June 16, Itty drowned in a swimming pool in Louisville, Ky., where he was participating in Bulldogs in the Bluegrass, an annual Yale internship program.

ALEX WONG/NEWSMAKERS Hillary Clinton, LAW '73, sparked controversy as the Class Day speaker.

One week later, University Properties announced that Krauszer's, long a late-night haunt for French vanilla coffee and turkey subs, would close its doors in December, to be replaced by Gourmet Heaven, a swanky food store from the Upper East Side of Manhattan.

On Sat., Sept. 16, Yale opened its football season with a historic bang, beating the University of Dayton 42-6 to become the first-ever collegiate football team to reach the 800-victory mark. That night, the Bulldogs made SportsCenter for the first—and last—time in months.

The next week, Oxford announced it would join a multimillion-dollar online alliance with Yale, Princeton, and Stanford Universities to provide course material over the Internet, marking a major advancement in Web-based education for the 21st century.

At the end of September, seven Yale students and high school crew recruits were arrested at the Sigma Alpha Epsilon ([[Sigma]][[Alpha]][[Epsilon]]) fraternity for underage drinking. Noise complaints from High Street neighbors prompted a Yale-led investigation into the fraternity, which was followed by a ruling from [[Sigma]][[Alpha]][[Epsilon]]'s national chapter forbidding students at the New Haven house from serving alcohol for the rest of the semester.

October was a month of exits, with Masters and Deans from Berkeley, Davenport, and Trumbull announcing their departures from Yale.

Former Sotheby's President Diana Brooks, PC '72, pleaded guilty to her involvement in a price-fixing scandal with auction house Christie's, after stepping down from the Yale Corporation just one month earlier.

On the weekend of October 20, Yale opened its doors for the first of three Tercentennial weekends, this one a celebration of the University's storied relationship with the city of New Haven. University President Richard Levin, GRD '74, gave tours of his Woodbridge Hall office, a pack of 30 bulldogs paraded around Cross Campus, and students descended upon a 300-pound cake, a replica of Old Campus in frosting and flour.

November brought major changes for the Office of Undergraduate Admissions. On Mon., Nov. 13, Yale announced it would reduce the size of the Class of 2005 by 50 students to alleviate growing housing problems. Just two days later, the University said it would initiate a need-blind admissions policy for international students, becoming only the second Ivy League University to do so. That weekend, Yale football players and fans traveled to Cambridge, coming away with a decisive 34-24 victory over Harvard in The Game.

And after years of fighting between the City of New Haven, the Town of Milford, the New England Development Corporation, and Westfield America, the plans for the New Haven Galleria at Long Wharf were abandoned.

Yale students came back from winter break to find that one of their favorite coffee spots—Willoughby's—was going to be replaced on York Street by another one of their favorite places—Koffee Too? University Properties announced two weeks later that Alexia Crawford, a women's accessories store from SoHo, would also come to Broadway, joining Urban Outifitters as one of the newest businesses on the block.

On Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, students protested Yale's failure to acknowledge the occasion as a University holiday, a move that would eventually lead to a faculty vote to cancel MLK Day classes for the 2001-02 school year.

At the end of January, news at two other universities sent shockwaves throughout the Ivy League. At Princeton, administrators announced the university would eliminate all student loans from their financial aid policy, to be replaced with Princeton grants. At Dartmouth, Professors Half and Susanne Zantop were found brutally murdered in their homes on Mon., Jan. 29. Two high-school students were arrested for the killings in mid-February.

Also in February, the national media salivated over "secret" society Porn 'n' Chicken's announced upcoming film, The StaXXX, a pornographic movie about Yalies, their sex lives, and Sterling Memorial Library. The New York Times, Premiere Magazine, and Time all ran articles about the society and the motion picture.

On Thurs., Feb. 22, Harvard followed up on Princeton's financial aid reform, offering across-the-board $2,000 grants to all applicants for undergraduate admission.

Freshman Ben Healey, BR '04, received the endorsement of New Haven's Democratic Ward One Committee at the end of February, beating out all five of his upperclassman opponents.

Over spring break, President Levin fired former Saybrook Master Antonio Lasaga, who pleaded guilty to federal child pornography charges in February 1999. Also during the recess, Yale and major drug manufacturer Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. eased their patent on d4T in South Africa, an AIDS drug invented at the Yale School of Medicine. The move marked a significant advancement in AIDS treatment on the continent, paving the way for other drug companies to manufacture cheaper generic versions of the medicine.

On Mon., Mar. 20, popular political science Professor Rogers Smith announced he was leaving Yale for a post at the University of Pennsylvania. Six days later, Yale acknowledged that Hillary Clinton, LAW '73, would be the Class Day speaker, precipitating a series of protests from conservative students against what they consider her partisan views.

In April, gay rights activist Larry Kramer, BR '57, donated his manuscripts and papers to Beinecke Library, which was accompanied by a $1 million gift to the Kramer Initiative for Lesbian and Gay Studies at Yale from Larry's brother Arthur Kramer, SY '49.

Former President George H.W. Bush, DC '48, came to Yale on Sat., Apr. 21, to speak at the University's second Tercentennial weekend. A week later, it was announced that his son, George W. Bush, DC '68, would receive an honorary degree at this year's Commencement.

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