The Week in Brief

COURTESY RICHARD LEVINE/NEWSMAKERS Supporters nationwide rallied Monday, October 12.

Support may have been strong for National Coming Out Day on Mon., Oct. 11, but turnout among the Yale population was low. "The general reaction to Coming Out Day was good, but not as many people as I expected wore jeans and white t-shirts or showed up for the events," Thom Cantey, SY '00, the event's organizer, said.

Representatives from the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Co-op and the Queer-Straight Alliance staffed information booths on Cross Campus, distributing pamphlets and buttons. They also held a movie screening of Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss that evening.

"We tried to make it a fun day," Cantey said. "It's a way for people who aren't totally out to come out. It shows that there is a community to support you." However, many Yalies had no idea that these events were happening. "I didn't even know Coming Out Day existed. However, when I realized I was wearing khakis and a blouse, I felt like a schmuck," Missy Andersen, JE '01, said.

"The participation rate just showed us that we need to blast the campus with publicity next year," Cantey said.

Even Coming Out Day's climax, the "Kiss-In" at 12:30, was met with reluctance by onlookers, many of whom were embarrassed to kiss their neighbors. Cantey explained, "Queer people at Yale are, after all, people at Yale."

—Zoë Konovalov

Yale seeks tenant for Davies Mansion

Davies Mansion looks like it will remain empty for a while longer. Restoration to the long-neglected and fire-gutted 1686 house—located on Prospect Street near the Divinity School—will not be complete until Yale finds an occupant and the interior is renovated.

Yale has supervised the exterior renovation of the mansion since last November; renovations should be completed in December. The outside of the three-story house is being sandblasted and painted as workers finish a new Mansart roof and the renovation of the first floor parlor.

While Yale is paying $2.7 million to reconstruct the home, the entire restoration will cost $3.6 million, according to Kemel Dawkins, Yale's associate vice president for facilities. The interior work will cost twice that amount, Dawkins told the New Haven Register on Sun., Oct. 10.

Yale bought the mansion in 1972. Unoccupied since then, Yale has been unable to decide what to do with the house. Over the years it fell into ruin and was almost completely destroyed when fire consumed the mansion in 1990.

The Davies restoration follows the demolition of Maple Cottage on Trumbull Street, another historic building that was destroyed after a long court fight and bitter protests from preservationists. In February 1998, Yale arrived at an agreement with the New Haven Preservation Trust that allowed the University to tear down Maple College and sell the Kingsley-Blake House at 88 Trumbull St. if it restored Davies, the John Pierport House at 149 Elm St., the Skinner-Trowbridge House at 46 Hillhouse Ave., and the Abigail Whelpley House at 31 Hillhouse Ave.

—Melissa Muscat

New law to require HIV testing of newborns

According to the New Haven Register [10/8/99], Connecticut has implemented a new state law requiring newborns to undergo HIV testing 24 hours after birth. The screening, enacted on Fri., Oct. 1, and required in New York and Connecticut, is to be carried out even if the mother denies permission.

Citing breach of the patient-doctor contract, the Connecticut Hospital Association (CHA) is preparing to take legal action against the law. It plans to argue that since the antibodies tested are produced by the mother, it is the mother who is tested, violating Fourth Amendment rights against illegal search.

The Supreme Court has grappled with several mandatory screening cases in recent years. Quinnipiac College Law professor Elizabeth Marsh noted that the trend has been to hold the benefit for public health above the potential for intrusion on individual rights. "The Supreme Court has been particularly tolerant of govern-ment intervening to protect public health," Marsh said.

—Andra Waniek

Recent power outages inconvenience campus

Weary students throughout campus caught up on sleep when their alarms failed to go off on Fri., Oct. 8, due to a power outage. For slightly under two hours, large portions of Science Hill and Central Campus, including dorms and classrooms were without power.

While the rest was probably a much needed one for students, the outage was merely the result of a contractor's mistake. According to Michael Shea, the Senior Electrical and Energy Engineer, Plant Engineering, a contractor's backhoe accidentally hit a "duct vault," which houses high-voltage electrical wiring. The excavation was part of a project to put in a new mechanical vault.

Although Yale provides contractors with wiring schematics, it is still the job of the contractor to abide by the markings. "It's up to to the contractor at that point to supervise on the site," Shea said. He explained that they are investigating the incident, and that the contractor and his insurance company will be responsible for any reparations.

Fortunately, such occurrences are not frequent. "It's extremely rare, probably the first time this has happened in about 10 years," Shea said. He explained that other recent power outages on campus, like last week's outage in Pierson College, were not related to this event.

Most Dean's offices sent out mass e-mail notices that excused students from classes they may have missed as a result of failed alarm clocks.

—Kushal Dave

PATRICK MCGARVEY/YH Another Broadway tradition hit the dust as Cobden's General Store was replaced by Campus Customs this week.

IVY LEAGUE NOTEBOOK

Haven't they realized that they don't matter? It seems that Princteon's Faculty Committee on Examinations and Standing wanted to deflate grades "collaboratively or in parallel with our peer institutions."

Unfortunately, Princeton's "peer institutions" went ahead and told Princeton just exactly what it could deflate. Both Harvard and Cornell told Princeton they intended no changes in policies on grade inflation.

Tom Violante, Yale's associate director for institutional issues, said Yale has no plans to combat grade inflation because it is not a problem. "We don't feel that there's any such thing here," he said.

Eighty football players want to say thank you, Tom.

Harvard frosh flees cops, reality

A Harvard frosh football player remains hospitalized after he fell off a fence the the night of Sun., Oct. 10. Witnesses said the accident occurred while the student was fleeing from the Harvard police.

Andrew St. Pierre, along with at least two other first-years, was seen attempting to steal license plates off cars along Linden Street, officials said. Alerted by a 911 call, Harvard Police officers began to chase the frosh down the street. St. Pierre jumped over a wooden fence, landing on a ramp below and breaking his jaw and wrist.

That's trippy...dude

Brown students may have thought it was just their latest joints kicking in, but in fact there was a house being carried across Providence on Sun., Oct. 10. The University-owned historic house at 55 Charleston St. was sold to the Omni Corporation, which moved the 72-ton house on a 24-wheel truck to its new location on the south side, where it will provide affordable housing for low-income families.

"I don't see how this is worth all the work it involves," Providence police officer John Lagasi said. But Brown students were enthusiastic. "How cool is this? It's the highlight of my Brown experience," Josh Levine '01 said.

—Compiled by Zoë Konovalov from the Harvard Crimson, the Daily Princetonian, and the Brown Daily Herald

YALE INDEX
1. Number of people on earth as of Mon., Oct. 11, midnight.	Six billion
2. Number of Senate votes cast to defeat the comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty on Wed., Oct. 13	51
3. Number of people who would die in a global nuclear war	Three billion
4. Number of lives potentially lost per vote	58,823,529
5. Number of fallout shelters available to Yale undergraduates	11
6. Half-life of Uranium-235, in years	704 million
7. Half-life of Dining Hall's soylada, in years	704 million
8. Percent chance that dining hall soylada contains Uranium-235	99.98
9. Value of one U.S. dollar, in Kazak Tenge	142.15
10. Price of Uranium-235 in Kazak Tenge, per ounce	1.3 billion
11. Price of dining hall soylada in Kazak Tenge, per serving	1278.1
12. Percentage of world's nuclear weapons using soylada triggers	0

—Compiled by Cornelius Kaestner and Daniel Serviansky

Sources: 1) United Nations Population Fund; 2) New Haven Register, [10/14/99]; 3) Watching Terminator 2; 4) Math; 5) Counting old signs; 6) High school physics (Gunn High School, Palo Alto, Calif., and Ransom Everglades School, Fl.); 7,8,9) Personal investigation; 10) OANDA Currency Converter; 9) Uri, at Kazak Defense Ministry; 11) Yale University Dining Halls.

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