Archive: 2008

  1. Football search loses another front-runner

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    A third candidate for the Yale football coaching vacancy has decided to stay put and not pursue the position.

    Steve Addazio, the offensive line coach at the University of Florida, was promoted to offensive coordinator on Saturday, taking him out of the running for the Yale post. Addazio followed University of Massachusetts coach Don Brown and Holy Cross coach Tom Gilmore, who withdrew their names from consideration earlier this month.

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    A person familiar with the search process, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss confidential deliberations, told the News earlier this month that Brown and Gilmore were seen as the two front-runners to succeed Jack Siedlecki, who last month announced his retirement after 12 seasons as Yale’s head football coach. After they removed themselves from the search, the New Haven Register identified the 49-year-old Addazio, the former head coach at Cheshire (Conn.) High School, as the University’s top choice for the position.

    There was only one complication: Addazio was also under consideration to succeed Florida’s current offensive coordinator, Dan Mullen, who earlier this month accepted the head coaching position at Mississippi State. The Florida job — while not a head coaching position — was seen as significantly more attractive than the Yale vacancy. Coordinators at major college football programs like Florida can make upward of $400,000 per year, and such a position can be a stepping-stone to a seven-figure head-coaching job like the one Mullen landed.

    With Addazio out of the picture, it is unclear where the Athletics Department will turn next. In their most recent reports, the Register has identified only one other candidate who is said to be under consideration for the job: Jacksonville Jaguars defensive assistant Tom Williams, who has never before served as a head coach.

    Officials in the Athletics Department have only said that they hope to name a head coach by the end of the year. Steve Conn, the director of Yale Sports Publicity, has declined to provide any specifics about the search’s progress or the candidates under consideration.

  2. Cross Campus 12.27.08

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    James Steinberg LAW ’78 was nominated to serve as one of two lieutenants to Secretary of State-designate Hillary Rodham Clinton LAW ’73, the transition team of President-elect Barack Obama announced Tuesday. Steinberg, formerly a top national security aide in the Clinton administration, will have to be confirmed by the Senate before officially assuming his duties as Deputy Secretary of State. Steinberg’s nomination makes him the third Yale alumnus to serve as Deputy Secretary of State since the Clinton administration, following former News Chairman Strobe Talbott ’68 and John Negroponte ’60.

    William Kaufmann ’39 GRD ’48, a major supporter of a shift away from the early Cold War strategy of mass nuclear retaliation, died Dec. 14 in Woburn, Mass. Kaufmann, who was 90, served as a special assistant to all seven defense secretaries in the Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford and Carter administrations. He helped develop the concept of counterforce, which called for precision bombing as an alternative to a full-force nuclear attack. After earning a bachelor’s degree, a master’s and a doctorate, all in international studies, from Yale, Kaufmann taught at Yale and Princeton University before joining the RAND Corporation, the military research institution, in 1956.

    A portrait of President George W. Bush ’68, painted by fellow Yalie Robert Anderson ’68, was unveiled at the National Portrait Gallery on Dec. 19. As he admired the painting, the lame duck president shared some self-deprecating remarks. “[Anderson] had a lot of trouble with my mouth,” Bush said. “I told him, ‘That makes two of us.’”

    “The Bridge at the End of the World,” a book by Yale FES Dean Gus Speth, was named one of the best nonfiction books of 2008 by the Washington Post. In the book, Speth critiques overly commercial and growth-centric capitalism. “[H]ow can the operating instructions for the modern world economy be changed,” Speth asks, “so that economic activity both protects and restores the natural world?”

  3. The year in review

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    For Yale, 2008 was a year marked by the approval of new residential colleges, the election of Barack Obama and an art project purportedly documenting months of self-induced miscarriages. To look back, the News hereby presents our most-read stories of the year.

    MARCH 7
    After campus gets ‘juicier,’ Yale considers legal options
    University administrators consider blocking the the gossip Web site JuicyCampus from Yale’s network or punishing users who log onto it.

    JAN. 22
    Misogyny claim leveled at frat
    The Yale Women’s Center threatens legal action after 12 Yale students affiliated with the Zeta Psi fraternity pose in front of the Center with a sign reading “We Love Yale Sluts.”

    APRIL 21
    Yale threatens to ban Shvarts’ art project from show
    The University says it will not allow Aliza Shvarts ’08 to display her controversial senior art project at its scheduled opening unless she confesses in writing that the exhibition is a work of fiction.

    JAN. 2
    In campus-wide poll, Obama eclipses former Eli Clinton
    In a News poll on the eve of the Iowa caucuses, Senator Barack Obama receives the support of 26 percent of Yale undergraduates, more than twice the support of Sen. Hillary Clinton LAW ’73.

    APRIL 8
    Student arrested for defrauding Yale
    The Yale College Dean’s Office rescinds the admission of a transfer student, Morse College junior Akash Maharaj, after an internal investigation concludes that his transcript and letter of recommendation were fabricated.

    OCT. 28
    Shays concedes loss for McCain
    Locked in a tight congressional race, Republican Rep. Chris Shays of Connecticut’s 4th district predicts his party’s presidential nominee would lose to Sen. Barack Obama. “I just don’t see how [McCain] can win,” Shays tells the News.

    APRIL 18
    Shvarts, Yale clash over project
    As a media firestorm grows, a Yale official calls the purported senior art project by Aliza Shvarts ’08 a “creative fiction.” But Shvarts stands by her project and claims that administrators had backed her before the planned exhibition attracted national condemnation.

    FEB. 19
    Levin backs residential college expansion
    University President Richard Levin endorses the proposal to build two new residential colleges and announces he would recommend that the Yale Corporation proceed with planning for the project.

    APRIL 17
    For senior, abortion a medium for art, political discourse
    Aliza Shvarts ’08 says her senior art project will document a nine-month process during which she artificially inseminated herself “as often as possible” while periodically taking abortifacient drugs to induce miscarriages.

  4. News’ View: Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus

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    The following editorial was originally printed in the New York Sun on Sept. 21, 1897, after 8-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon wrote a letter to the paper’s editor. It has become the most reprinted editorial of all time and remains pertinent today, 111 years after its original publication.


    DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, ‘If you see it in THE SUN it’s so.’ Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?

    VIRGINIA O’HANLON
    115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET.


    VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except [what] they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

    Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

    Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

    You may tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

    No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

  5. Yale to pay $7.6 million to settle grant investigation

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    Yale has agreed to pay $7.6 million for allegedly making false claims on federal research grants, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Haven said Tuesday, concluding a two-year investigation of Yale’s grant administration.

    The investigation, which began in 2006, covered $3 billion in 6,000 grants from 30 federal agencies — including the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Defense and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration — between January 2000 and December 2006.

    Prosecutors accused Yale of breaking the law by mischarging federal grants in two ways. First, some Yale researchers are said to have improperly transferred grant funds to accounts that were not specifically related to the purpose of the grant. Second, the government alleged some researchers paid themselves for all their summer work, even time and effort unrelated to the grant.

    The $7.6 million settlement is half actual damages and half penalties for the false claims, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

    “This settlement sends a clear message that the regulations applicable to federally-funded research grants must be strictly adhered to,” Acting U.S. Attorney Nora Dannehy said in a statement.

    A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Tom Carson, declined to comment on the origin of the investigation.

    In a statement Tuesday, the University acknowledged that some errors did occur, particularly with transfers between accounts. As part of the settlement, Yale denied liability for the false claims and was released from it. The government will not sue the University, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

    The University said in the statement that it cooperated fully with the investigation, producing over a million pages of documents. The Yale Corporation, the University’s highest governing body, bolstered the Audit Committee and required regular reports on research compliance. The University established a committee to oversee audit, internal control and compliance issues.

    And in 2006, the University chartered the Office of Research Administration, which developed mandatory training courses for faculty and staff, reviewed policies, introduced a Web-based reporting system, and stiffened oversight of cost transfers.

    Andrew Rudczynski, who oversees grants and contracts as Yale’s associate vice president for research administration, did not return a telephone message seeking comment Tuesday.

    The thicket of subpoenas, audits and new compliance policies was a source of strain and sometimes a point of contention between faculty members and administrators, who sometimes tended to see the burden of improving grant accounting as resting on each other.

    “I recognize that this investigation has been stressful for many members of our faculty and staff, and I also recognize that federal regulations are sometimes burdensome,” University President Richard Levin said in a letter to faculty and staff Tuesday. “We are doing our part to make the regulations more clear and compliance less burdensome.”

    Robert Kenney, an attorney at Hogan & Hartson, the Washington law firm that represented Yale, referred questions to Yale’s Office of the General Counsel, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday. Shauna King, the vice president for finance, did not return a telephone message seeking comment.

    Income from grants and contracts, about $400 million annually, accounts for about a quarter of Yale’s operating budget.

  6. Acting JE master appointed

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    Penelope Laurans, an associate dean of Yale College and special assistant to the president, has been appointed acting master of Jonathan Edwards College while the college’s master-designate, Richard Lalli MUS ’86, recovers from a brain hemorrhage.

    Lalli, who was scheduled to take office on Jan. 1, sustained the hemorrhage two weeks ago and remains in the intensive care unit at Yale-New Haven Hospital, according to a hospital spokesman. In an e-mail message to the JE community sent Monday afternoon, University President Richard Levin said Lalli is “improving every day” and that he looks forward to the time when Lalli will formally assume the master’s post.

    “It did seem that it would be some time before Master Lalli would assume his full duties,” Levin said in a telephone interview. “We thought we should start the JE community off with someone who would be available to students.”

    Laurans, who will take over from outgoing Master Gary Haller, has been affiliated with JE for 33 years as an adviser and fellow, Levin wrote. She has been a member of the English Department faculty for 35 years, in addition to working in the Office of Undergraduate Admissions, the Yale Review, the Yale College Dean’s Office and the Office of the President. She was acting dean of the college in the 1980s.

    Laurans, who has worked with Lalli on musical productions in the past, said she is a close friend of both Lalli and his partner, Michael Rigsby MED ’88, the medical director for Yale University Health Services and the associate master-designate of the college.

    Although Laurans said she would step down from the mastership as soon as Lalli can assume the duties, even in the middle of the semester, Haller said Laurans was prepared to remain in the position for at least the remainder of the academic year.

    Levin named Lalli, an adjunct professor of music and a JE fellow, to the mastership in March.

    Paul Needham contributed reporting.

  7. Mory’s to go on indefinite hiatus

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    Mory’s will not reopen immediately after winter break and may shut its doors for good, said Christopher Getman ’64, the newly appointed president of Mory’s Board of Governors.

    The iconic eating club’s decision to close follows a series of economic hardships, Getman said. Over the next few months, he said, the Yale-exclusive institution, founded in 1849, will rethink its operating policies and membership recruitment.

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    “Last week we realized if we stayed opened we would be flat broke by the middle of January,” Getman said. “So we decided to close so we could honor our obligations to vendors.”

    Getman said revenues and the value of Mory’s endowment have declined “big time.” A Mory’s press release on Friday attributed these losses to higher operating costs “faced by virtually all restaurants” and the poor economic climate. The News reported in September that Mory’s lost nearly $170,000 in 2006, an indication of the club’s financial situation.

    During the Mory’s closure, he said, the management team will focus on making the club more appealing to students. The club will also explore renovating its “aging facility,” as the press release put it.

    “There is a perception that Mory’s is an elitist place, which it is not,” he said. “So we are going to try to get that message out to students the best way we can.”

    Mory’s initially became successful by focusing its attention on undergraduates, Larned Professor Emeritus of History and Yale historian Gaddis Smith ’54 GRD ’61 said. When Mory’s first opened more than 150 years ago, the residential college system had not yet been implemented. It was an inexpensive place for students, faculty and even University presidents — such as A. Whitney Griswold and A. Bartlett Giamatti — to eat, Smith said.

    Smith blamed Mory’s recent hardships on the increased number of restaurants in the New Haven area, the perception that New Haven is relatively unsafe at night and “old-fashioned” food. Plus, Smith added, Mory’s became less fashionable to students over time as Yale became a more diverse place.

    “The club for all undergraduates doesn’t fit,” he said.

    A Mory’s membership used to last for a lifetime, but the club recently amended its policy to include an annual fee for members. Smith said he paid the voluntary fee last summer.

    Getman said new policies implemented in September — including later hours, a relaxed dress code and a “pub-style” menu — have helped the club expand its clientele. In November, 250 students signed up for Mory’s memberships, he said. Still, he added, the changes were not effective enough to keep the club solvent.

    “It was just too little too late,” Getman said.

    Steven Blumenfeld ’11, an associate director of the Yale Entrepreneurial Society, has been coordinating an initiative to help garner student interest in Mory’s. Blumenfeld said that he was approached by Yale political science and School of Management professor Douglas Rae, who is also on the Board of Governors at Mory’s, to head the initiative.

    Blumenfeld’s efforts have included organizing the open house lunch at Mory’s on the same day as the YHAAP fast. That event helped recruit 180 new members. He also said he has been working to change Mory’s menu.

    The closure does not mean that the efforts have failed, Blumenfeld added.

    “Mory’s isn’t dead,” he said. “Perhaps the internal structure of Mory’s is going to change radically.”

    Peter Johnston ’09, who created the Facebook group group “Bailout Mory’s Temple Bar,” said that Mory’s has become a “staid” establishment. Johnston told the News on Saturday he believes that Mory’s needs to transform to become more of a “watering hole for students.”

    “It became a little too formal over time for it to be relevant to students,” he said.

    Johnston said he is considering a march from Mory’s to Woodbridge Hall on Jan. 12 to encourage University President Richard Levin to bail out Mory’s.

    “We have to use our funds to maintain the essentials of the Yale experience,” he said.

    But Getman, who replaced Cheever Tyler as president of the Board of Governors this week, said he does not believe the University will help Mory’s.

    If Mory’s cannot find a way to sustain itself, it will be forced to close for good, Getman said. Events that were planned to take place at Mory’s in the months following winter break will be canceled, he added.

    Right now, Getman said, the club’s management is struggling to come up with ways to restore Mory’s to its former glory.

    “We’re at a loss right now,” he said. “We are hoping maybe some alumni may step forward and give us a cushion to start again. But, who knows? We have tried that in the past and it hasn’t worked so far.”

  8. Students’ travel plans thwarted as storm hits

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    New Haven received its first major snowfall of the year on Friday, leaving students scrambling to adjust their travel arrangements before the exam period ends and residential colleges close for winter break.

    The National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning until 3 p.m. Saturday and projected that six to 10 inches of snow will accumulate in the New Haven area in the meantime. Mayor John DeStefano Jr. ordered a parking ban until noon on Saturday, and scores of flights departing from airports frequented by Yale students were canceled as a result of the storm.

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    At Tweed-New Haven Airport, the US Airways Express flight scheduled to depart at 3:56 p.m. was canceled, and by midday, more than 30 flights had been canceled at Bradley International Airport, said John Wallace, a spokesman for the airport. At New York City-area airports, more than 600 flights were canceled.

    Yale students taking trains are experiencing fewer problems. As of Friday afternoon, Amtrak had not reported any cancellations of trains through New Haven, and most trains have only minor delays, according to the railroad. The Metro-North Web site is reporting that all trains are running as scheduled.

    But students still in New Haven may experience problems getting to the train station as a result of the snowstorm. Yale shuttle service was suspended at 4 p.m. Friday because of the severe weather, with regular routes not expected to resume until 6 p.m. Saturday, according to a statement on the Yale Transit Web site. Mini-buses will also not be running until then.

    Exams end on Saturday, and University regulations mandate that student rooms be vacated by noon on Sunday, with “no exceptions to this rule.” But many residential college masters sent e-mail messages to their students on Friday offering to help anyone who is stranded in New Haven, and the University pledged to help, too.

    “As we do on occasion with international students, the kind of options available would be to stay with local alums or fellow students that live in the area, or stay in guest suites or other spaces that the masters would identify,” Deputy University Secretary Martha Highsmith said in an e-mail message on Friday.

    “But,” she added, “let’s hope everyone gets safely where they are going!”

    The Associated Press contributed reporting from Hartford.

  9. Two candidates withdraw from football search

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    It turns out that not everyone wants to be the next Jack Siedlecki.

    The two coaches said to be the University’s top choices to take the helm of the Yale football program have withdrawn their names from consideration for the post, and a spokesman for the Yale Athletics Department said Thursday that a new coach will not be announced until next week at the earliest.

    A person familiar with the search process, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss confidential deliberations, told the News this week that University of Massachusetts coach Don Brown and Holy Cross coach Tom Gilmore were seen as the two frontrunners to succeed Siedlecki, who last month announced his retirement after 12 seasons as Yale’s head football coach.

    But both coaches have since decided not to pursue the Yale position. Gilmore told the Worcester Telegram & Gazette on Wednesday that he plans to remain at Holy Cross, and officials in the UMass athletic department told the Springfield, Mass., television station WWLP on Thursday that Brown has decided to take himself out of the running for the Yale job.

    Steve Conn, the director of Yale Sports Publicity, said by telephone Thursday that the announcement of a new football coach would not be made this week. He did not say who was under consideration for the post, nor did he confirm or deny whether Brown and Gilmore were the University’s top choices.

    “We’re waiting to announce it and nothing is going to happen this weekend,” Conn said. “We’re not sure when it’s going to happen, but we hope it’s going to happen soon so that everyone will know who the coach is. Hopefully it will be sometime next week, or it might be the following.”

    For weeks, Brown had been seen as a top contender for the head coaching job, a position for which Siedlecki beat him out 12 years ago. Brown was the defensive coordinator under legendary Yale coach Carm Cozza from 1987 to 1992, and rumors began circulating among football players shortly after Siedlecki’s resignation that Brown might be tapped to return to Yale.

    It is unclear who remains under consideration for the position now that Brown and Gilmore have withdrawn from the search. Citing unnamed sources, the New Haven Register reported Wednesday that three other candidates have been interviewed by the Yale Athletics Department: Steve Addazio, the offensive line coach at Florida and the former head coach at Cheshire (Conn.) High School; Jim Fleming, the defensive coordinator at Akron; and Dave Shaw, the offensive coordinator at Stanford.

    Another rumored candidate for the position, Yale defensive coordinator Rick Flanders, told the Register last week that he was not interested in succeeding Siedlecki. “I like the job I have,” he said.

    Jorge Castillo contributed reporting.

  10. Cross Campus: 12.18.08

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    Updated Thursday, Dec. 18

    A Seoul court ordered that Shin Jeong-ah, of “Shin-gate” notoriety, receive 150 million won ($113,000) in damages from a local paper that published a nude photograph of Shin, according to The Korea Times. But it was not all good news for Shin: the court also confirmed the photograph was genuine, dismissing her claim that it was doctored.

    Rep. Rosa DeLauro’s (D-New Haven) chances at being named Labor Department secretary were short-lived in the blogosphere. Citing “sources familiar with her travels,” The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that DeLauro is a top contender. The Huffington Post chimed in Thursday to say that DeLauro is not a likely candidate, citing “several sources” who “were well positioned to know about the discussions.” But Politico put the nail in the coffin: DeLauro is no longer in the running, according to “a person familiar with the discussions.” A final decision is expected later this week; a call to DeLauro’s office was not immediately returned.

    Tina Fey’s rendition of Sarah Palin topped Yale librarian Fred Shapiro’s list of the most notable quotations of 2008 (“I can see Russia from my house!”). The real Sarah Palin snagged the no. 2 spot; when CBS News anchor Katie Couric asked her in October what newspapers she reads, Palin responded, “All of them, any of them that have been in front of me over all these years.” University of Florida student Andrew Meyer’s memorable “Don’t tase me, bro!” took the top spot in 2007.

    Dec. 17, 2008

    Elizabeth Alexander ’84, will be the poet at the presidential inauguration in January, the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Committees announced Wednesday. Alexander is a professor of African American Studies and is slated to serve as the next chair of the department. The last time a ceremony featured a poet was in 1997 when Miller Williams read at the swearing in of Bill Clinton LAW ’73, the Washington Post reported. Alexander, the author of four books and a finalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize, will read her poetry immediately after President-elect Barack Obama’s inaugural address, according to the line-up released today.

    The Whiffenpoofs a capella group sang for President George W. Bush ’68 at a White House private function on Friday night. Whiffenpoof Business Manager James Warlick described the party as a relatively intimate gathering. After performing for 45 minutes during the party’s cocktail reception, Warlick said, the Whiffenpoofs were requested to sing a few songs after dinner, as well. Bush’s uncle and cousin, both of whom are alumni of the group, joined the ensemble for the traditional Whiffenpoof song. Remarked Warlick: “Bush made a toast to us and everything, it was really quite spectacular.”

    Eight days after telling a crowd of Yalies at the Slifka Center that he would be named to a top post in the Obama administration, the New York Post reported that Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion is to head the newly created White House Office of Urban Policy.

  11. Q&A | Levin: ‘This is not the end of the world’

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    Richard Levin, who assumed office in 1993, has served as Yale’s president in a period of remarkable economic prosperity. Now, as he outlined Tuesday in a 2,000-word letter to faculty and staff, he and his colleagues face the challenge of balancing ambitious new initiatives with the reality that Yale’s endowment is today worth three-quarters of what it was on June 30. Levin, who is also the Frederick William Beinecke Professor of Economics, spoke by phone to the News on Tuesday about the state of Yale’s finances.

    Q: Looking back, what kind of steps has Yale taken up to this point in terms of preparing for and addressing the economic crisis?

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    A: If we go back a year or two, we’ve tried to manage the rapid increase in the value of our endowment prudently. In the period of rapid growth that preceded last year, we’ve managed to accumulate substantial reserves that will help cushion any decline. And, in adjusting our spending rule last year — which we did in order to increase our commitment to financial aid — we also kept a certain amount of endowment returns undistributed. We can now spread those over the years ahead. So we’ve been conservative in recognizing that the enormous returns would not persist forever. That’s point one.

    I guess the second point is that we’ve been an amazingly resilient institution. We have a very good sense of our highest priorities and we have great leadership across the campus. I believe all of our deans and directors are prepared to cope with making prudential choices in a period when resources are constrained. They’ve been terrific at expanding our institution when our resources were growing, and I think those same leadership qualities will serve Yale well in more difficult times.

    Q: Do you regret that so many ambitious proposals are converging just as the economy is suffering?

    A: Of course I regret that. It’s a lot more fun to be able to say yes to every good idea. We’ve been in a period … essentially we’ve been in a period of being able to support virtually every good idea that came along. That’s historically unprecedented and it was bound to be a finite amount of time where that prevailed. We’re going to do just fine — this is not the end of the world — but we’ll have to set priorities more carefully.

    Q: If Yale’s financial situation gets much worse in the coming months or years, though, what further adjustments might you make?

    A: I think there’s a lot more we can do. The measures we’ve taken today are not without pain, but there are clearly opportunities to — if we had to — to curtail expenses more. That said … you’d want to equalize on all the margins. If there are 10 different places to cut, you don’t want to cut one and not the other nine; you want to find the appropriate amount to cut each. Our endowment only passed the $17 billion mark a little less than three years ago. It’s not like this is a catastrophe.

    Q: So there’s really no chance that, say, the new colleges or new SOM campus just won’t happen at all?

    A: I really want those things to happen, and I’m going to do my best to raise the money and make it possible for them to move forward.

    Q: What about Yale Tomorrow [the capital campaign]? Will it take longer to reach its goal, or might you revise it back down to the initial $3 billion target?

    A: I feel pretty confident that we’ll make the goal of the campaign. Now the demands are such that we will want to do even more if we could.

    Q: Len Baker ’64 [the chair of the Corporation finance committee] said today that Yale could possibly capitalize on these economic woes because of decreases in construction costs and investment opportunities. What’s your assessment of that possibility?

    A: I think there’s a lot of validity in what he’s saying. We haven’t seen construction costs falling yet, but we’re going to watch that closely and respond accordingly. And I certainly think we will see tremendous opportunities for the endowment to make great investments down the line. This is where having someone with the acumen of David Swensen will serve us extraordinarily well.