The Week in Brief

After visiting Yale two weeks ago, conservative pundit David Brooks has retreated from his assertion—published last year in an Atlantic Monthly article titled "The Organization Kid"—that college students lack morality, independent thought, and political involvement.

When Brooks came to New Haven on Wed., Oct. 24, he did not find the meek, apolitical schedule maniacs he expected after his visit to Princeton, where he did his research for "The Organization Kid." Instead, he found students who had "fervent debates around the dining hall tables, anguished wrestling with moral problems, and a general sense that the old fixed points of the universe have been shaken loose." In two articles, one published on Sun., Nov. 4 in a Newsweek "web exclusive" and the other published on Mon., Oct. 29 in the Weekly Standard, Brooks declared that things have changed since the spring.

Whereas before "there was little discussion about intellectual matters outside class" and an unquestioning acceptance of authority, college students now are discussing "whether the American response...is moral." Brooks found his visit to Yale so striking that he declared it "a place of true inquiry." —Ellie Cheung

Prof's Microsoft defense may be biased

When the U.S. Department of Justice announced a settlement agreement with Microsoft on Wed., Oct. 31, the deal was met with an angry chorus of opposition. As major media outlets debate the terms of the settlement, an antitrust expert at Yale Law School has served as an outspoken defender of the software titan. George Priest, Olin Professor of Law and Economics, has issued press releases to newspapers nationwide, appeared on the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, written an opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal, and been quoted by the New York Times in defense of Microsoft. He has also been identified as a consultant to Microsoft, drawing into question his status as a purely academic observer of the legal proceedings.

Priest has been harsh in his criticism of those opposing the deal. "The states that have refused to join the agreement have complaints not with the Justice Department, but with the ruling of the Court of Appeals," he said in a Tues., Nov. 6 press release. "Their complaint is no different from a Yankee fan complaining about giving the trophy to Arizona on the grounds that the Yankees were ahead in the 8th inning."

Although some media outlets—specifically the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times—have identified Priest as a consultant, most have not. When reached for comment, Priest vigorously denied charges that he was biased—or even that he has consulted Microsoft.

"[I've spoken] strictly as a professor," he told the Herald. He added that the extent to which he is serving Microsoft is minimal, saying that all the company wants from him is a paper. —Phuoc La and Zander Dryer

Drawn-out mayoral race finally decided

On Tues., Nov. 6, incumbent John DeStefano, Jr. soundly defeated Republican challenger Joel Schiavone, SM '58, in the New Haven mayoral race. Building on the 64 percent of the Democrats who supported him in the primary, DeStefano collected nearly three-quarters of the citywide vote in the general election. The Mayor will officially begin his fifth two-year term in 2002.

Schiavone's campaign offices were already shutting down just 24 hours after the Yale alumnus fell victim to a city that has sent a Democrat to City Hall for nearly 50 years. "The voters definitely sided with the incumbent, and decisively so," Schiavone campaign manager Ted LeVasser told the Herald.

LeVasser suggested the DeStefano's get-out-the-vote efforts were a major asset. "We definitely didn't have the ground support necessary in terms of people putting in the time, volunteering for the campaign," LeVasser said. LeVasser also noted the relatively low voter turnout—just over a third of the city's eligible voters.

As DeStefano prepares to enter his fifth term, he does so with several additions to his administrative team. Perhaps most important, Campaign Manager Julio Gonzalez, CC '99, will assume a full-time position as the mayor's executive assistant. "When I first came to the city, I thought it was a community with a lot of potential," Gonzalez said. "I'm grateful to the mayor for giving me the opportunity to be a partner in a successful administration."

But much of that success, and indeed the programs the mayor was elected to enact, were designed before the events of Sept. 11 and the subsequent economic downturn. Asked if the recent events would pose challenges to the mayor as he set about to achieve his campaign promises, Gonzalez remained confident. "The mayor had the mettle to weather economic difficulties," he said.

—Ted Diskant

Around the Ivies

How do restaurants respond to bogus allegations of food poisoning? They sue. Frank Flynn, an assistant professor of organizational behavior at Columbia's School of Business, recently confirmed this hypothesis when, in the name of science, he sent 240 letters to New York City restaurants claiming that he became sick after dining at their establishments. In response, several restaurants have filed lawsuits against both him and the University.

Flynn sent the letters nearly two months ago as part of a study on how restaurants react to complaints. Each letter said that Flynn became violently ill after celebrating his wedding anniversary with his wife at the particular restaurant. Flynn stated in his letter, "Our special romantic evening became reduced to my wife watching me curl up on the floor of our bathroom between rounds of throwing up."

The professor could face disciplinary action as a result of his aborted research, which both Flynn and the University have said was conducted without the prior knowledge or approval of the University. The results of the study will not be used for publication.

Penn

On Thurs., Oct. 25, Penn became the nation's largest purchaser of wind- derived energy when it agreed to buy 20 million kilowatt hours of wind energy from Community Energy, Inc. The deal will provide the University with five percent of the total electricity it uses annually. Students in the Penn Environmental Group initiated the purchase when they made contact with a Community Energy representative at a Greening of the Ivies conference at Cornell in April.

Dartmouth

Dartmouth freshmen have a time-honored tradition of sneaking into frat parties from which they are officially banned. But last week the Greek Leadership Council (GLC) announced it would lift the ban. Under the new policy, which has already gone into effect, Greek houses can decide for themselves whether or not to admit first-year students to registered frat gatherings.

—Compiled by Sarah Lemagie from the Columbia Daily Spectator, the Dartmouth, the Cornell Daily Sun, and the Daily Pennsylvanian

Heard

— Paul Bloom, Introduction to Psychology

"This class is unbelievable. This class is really unbelievable. This class is un-fucking-believable."

— Brian Scholl, Introduction to Cognitive Science

Index

3) Number of combs I own: 0

4) Number of times my head has been mistaken for a dandelion: 3

5) Number of times I do laundry in a three week period: 1

6) Number of days in three weeks: 21

7) Number of shirts and t-shirts I have: 43

8) Number of times I've had to go without a clean shirt: 0

9) Number of pairs of underwear I have: 18

10) Number of times I've had to go without clean underwear: 9

11) Number of women interested in me after reading this index: 0

12) Number of women interested in me before reading this index: 0

1, 2, 3, 5, 7, ) personal knowledge; 4) I keep count; 6) calendar; 9) none of your business; 8, 10) Math 118; 11) common sense; 12) my social calendar

— Compiled by Phuoc La

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