The Week In Brief

Abortion funding stirs student outrage

Approximately 25 students stood in the busy midday spot, holding posters and speaking into a microphone for an hour, letting other students know about Yale's policy on abortion. A small counter-protest of about half a dozen students was also held for about 20 minutes before the Pro-Life League asked them to leave.

"I wanted the counter-protesters there," rally organizer Gene Vilensky, TC '03, said. "I told my friends at the Women's Center about the rally beforehand hoping to get people out for an honest debate about the issue. But the counter-protesters there instead just started shouting obscenities at us. And, since we were the ones with the permit to use Beinecke Plaza, I asked them to stop. Instead, they just left."

The Pro-Life League plans on organ-izing more protests next fall. Vilensky also expressed hope that the group would be able to organize a few Master's Teas next fall with some of the country's top pro-life leaders.

—Averill Harrington

Toad's Place stakes out new places

"New Haven has been a great home to us for over 20 years," Brian Phelps, president of the World of Toad's Development Corporation, said. "We just want to spread our wings a little bit and take the concept of `total nightclub entertainment' nationwide."

Phelps said that the new clubs will be exactly like the original, featuring a combination of national bands, local bands, and frequent dance parties. "We want this concept to sweep across the country," Phelps said. "Going nationwide will just help promote our reputation."

Although Phelps stressed the fact that nothing has been finalized, he hopes to open a Toad's Place in Hartford by the end of 2001. Other possible locations include Portland, Me., Indianapolis, Nashville, Tenn., and Jacksonville, Fla.

—Andrew Heller

Branford says that rooms are filled

After several meetings and a review of preliminary housing forms, the Branford housing committee adjourned its Tues., Mar. 28 meeting with relatively good news: only 25 students will be annexed, "much less than we originally expected," according to Freshman Housing Chair Jon Herczeg, BR '03.

The final housing form issued from Parisier on Wed., Mar. 29 contained soothing words for those of 2003: "Please know that this will all work out, and everyone will be housed." While no one fears being left homeless, and while the quality of all housing options is high, there are some long-term concerns. If the rising sophomores are again annexed as juniors, they will never spend a year in the same building, divided as freshmen between McClellan and Vanderbilt, as sophomores between Branford and Durfee, and later between some combination of on-campus and off-campus housing.

As unappealing as annexation may appear, those whom it will affect seem unfazed. Herczeg said. "Dean [Nicole] Parisier did everything she could to have people not annexed, but there's just no way around it." The alternative to Branford, the spacious and recently renovated suites of Durfee is by no means inadequate. Some groups of housing applicants have even volunteered to inhabit the space.

—Ewan McDougall

Native American events bring crowds to Yale

ANAAY community outreach chair Amanda DeZutter, PC '01, said that even with such attendance, New Havenites exceeded Yalies last year. "We're getting plenty of support from the president, from UOFC, from [Yale College] Dean [Richard] Brodhead, [BR '68, GRD '72], from a lot of different places within Yale," she said. "We'd like to see more students."

The conference—being run in conjunction with the powwow in the Yale Law School Auditorium on Fri., Mar. 31, and Sat., Apr. 1—is also a significant event. "Some of the biggest Native American scholars in the country and lawyers are going to be on campus for this conference," DeZutter said.

The powwow will be held from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. in Payne-Whitney Gymnasium on Sun., Apr. 2 and will feature Native-American dress, food, dancing, and vendors. "It's a chance for people to experience our culture and maybe even learn a little about us and also support our efforts," DeZutter said.

—Kushal Dave

CAYTE PUSHKAREVA/YH Students in Beinecke Plaza on Thurs., Mar. 30, protested Yale's funding of abortions. (see above)

Ivy League Notebook

Harvard
Although the Crimson haven't yet forsaken the written medium like their Big Red counterparts, they are debating the relative merits of hot, home-cooked meals. Anthropology professor Richard W. Wranghamhas says he "discovered" that hot meals lay at the central axis of human gender relations as long as 1.9 million years ago. He theorizes that men ran a "protection racket" in which they protected a female's stores of food in exchange for sex and hot meals. In an unrelated move, Harvard has tapped Al Bundy as this year's Commencement speaker.

Princeton
Yale juniors and seniors remember the Indigo Girls from 1998's Spring Fling. Now, two years later, Princeton has finally drawn the New Haven natives to their arboreal campus. Undergraduate student government President P.J. Kim '01 is bubbling with ideas for spicing up this year's event, including "having [Spring Fling] outside." Nevertheless, he has faced opposition from history-conscious Princetonians, who note that the Indigo Girls' style "is inconsistent with our school's legacy of closed-minded intolerance."

—Compiled by David S. Wertime from the Cornell Chronicle, Harvard Crimson, and the Daily Princetonian.

CR/D/F

YALE INDEX
1. Number of classes taught this year by mathematics Professor Serge Lang	2
2. Number of classes taught this year by English Professor Harold Bloom	2
3. Number of classes taught this year by history Professor Lee Blackwood	4
4. Number of stars in Amazon.com's average rating for Lang's Challenges	5
5. Number of reviews on Amazon.com for Lang's Challenges	1
6. Classes on Shakespeare taught by Bloom	2
7. Classes on Shakespeare taught by other professors	2
8. Classes on Poland taught by Blackwood	2
9. Classes on Poland taught by other professors	0
10. Odds that Blackwood makes more than Bloom or Lang	1:100
11. Odds that Bloom and Lang will stay here longer than Blackwood	100:1
12. Ratio of full professors to non-ladder faculty in 1988	3:1
13. Ratio of full professors to non-ladder faculty in 1998	1.9:1
14. Words misspelled in a Yale's self-study appendix title, "University-Wide Full-Time Equilivalent Faculty and Staff"	1

—Compiled by Kushal Dave

Sources: 1,2,3,6,7,8,9) Yale College Programs of Study; 4,5) The magic of the Internet 10) Capitalism; 11) Ears; 12,13) Yale's Reaccreditation Web Site; 14) A little something called the first grade.

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