Yale carpetbaggers keep out

Pie in Your Face
    By Sheela V. Pai

There must be something in the water. It seems like Yalies young and old are infected with an annoying strain of "carpetbagger disease." Don't get me wrong: I admire First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, LAW '73, and I sincerely hope she's victorious in her run for the Senate—if only to keep Rudy Giuliani's grubby hands off the funding for the National Endowment for the Arts. But as a native New Yorker, I have to admit Mrs. Clinton's sudden devotion to my home state just doesn't ring true. It makes me wonder whether she really understands what New Yorkers' concerns are. And, more troubling to my status as a Yalie, it seems that a rash of Yalies who run for positions on the New Haven Board of Alders year after year are following in her footsteps.

I am always angered when I read table tents and posters from student candidates boasting about the fact that they've spent their summers in New Haven and have volunteered in the community. According to them, spending a couple of a hours a week helping a child learn to read or cleaning up a neighborhood makes them capable of representing the interests, concerns, and values of an entire community. Well, it doesn't. Briefly venturing out from behind Ivy walls, only to return at the end of the day to live within them, cannot possibly allow a Yalie to immerse himself in the dynamics of a New Haven community. These candidates cannot understand what exactly a given ward's problems are, let alone what is at the root of them. How can somebody who has spent 18 years of his life in another town or state, and now lives in the comfort of his residential college under the protection of Yale's "Big Stick" New Haven policy, ever understand the extent of the drug problem in a neighborhood? How can someone understand why New Haven students are doing so poorly on mastery tests—so poorly, in fact, that the city has 10 of the worst public schools in the state—if he doesn't have to face the same reality as those students on a daily basis? Simply put, he can't.

The Ward Seven primary scandal didn't cause a public uproar just because a candidate for public office committed a potentially illegal act. The incident played on the community's deeper resentment of Yalies who ride a wave of student support into office and then, equipped with nothing but school smarts and ignorance about the city beyond Yale's borders, make legislative decisions that affect the lives of year-round New Havenites. And all this they do so they can abandon the city once their term is up to go to that Ivy League law school they'd always dreamed of.

I don't blame New Havenites for being resentful. In the end they're the ones who suffer the brunt of this quest for the ultimate padded résumé. However, that doesn't mean I think all Yalies should stay out of public office in New Haven. I do respect those who are willing to become a true member of their ward's community and use what they've learned to fight for its best interest. In fact, I admire one such candidate: Pete Stein, DC '99,who is running for the Ward 22 aldermanic seat. Not only does he currently live in the Dixwell neighborhood that he wants to represent, but he's also made it clear that his commitment to the city is a long-term one. I'm not endorsing him, but I am saying that he is a legitimate candidate who has proven that he has a sincere interest in the well-being of New Haven.

So, to those Yalies who want to run for public office but aren't willing to sacrifice the comforts of Yale life; to those résumé-padders who plan to press every one of their friends for votes, I have a suggestion: run for Yale College Council president instead.

Recent Herald Columns by this Columnist:
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• At Yale, free speech hits a wall, 10/1/99
• Berkeley serves up superiority, 9/17/99
• Yale elitism: alive and kickin', 9/3/99

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