Tag Archive: International Affairs

  1. Koh’s confirmation vote is held up in Senate

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    A vote on Yale Law School Dean Harold Hongju Koh’s nomination to the post of legal adviser to the Department of State has been delayed indefinitely in the Senate, sources familiar with the situation told the News this week.

    Two Senate aides, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the delicate nature of confirmation votes, said that at least one senator had placed a “hold” on Koh’s vote. A hold is an informal practice in which senators express to the leadership that they may filibuster a bill, usually preventing it from coming to the floor until certain concessions are made.

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  2. Did Shingate drive South Korea’s ex-president to kill himself?

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    The authorities say that former South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun, overwhelmed by corruption allegations, committed suicide on Saturday by jumping to his death while hiking near his home.

    This is the same Roh Moo-hyun to whom the romantic partner of Shin Jeong-ah, the Korean art curator who was convicted a year ago for faking a doctorate from Yale, served as a top aide.  Shin’s lover, Byeon Yang-kyoon, who had been chief presidential secretary for national policy, was convicted of using his influence to land Shin — with her Yale “degree” in hand — a professorship at Dongguk University.

    Roh was (understandably) upset about the scandal, which sent his approval rating plummeting in 2007.

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  3. Brooke Shearer, founding director of World Fellows program, dies at 58

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    Brooke Shearer, a former Clinton administration official who later served as the founding director of Yale’s World Fellows program, died on Tuesday at her Washington home.  She was 58.

    The cause was cancer, according to The Washington Post.

    Shearer, the wife of former deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott ’68, served as a personal aide to Hillary Clinton LAW ’73 during the 1992 presidential campaign and then directed the White House Fellows program during the Clinton administration.  She came to New Haven in 2001 to serve as the founding director of Yale’s World Fellows program, which allows for emerging leaders from around the world to spend a semester studying at the University.

    She left Yale a year later when Talbott, who had been the inaugural director of the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization, accepted the presidency of the Brookings Institution.

    (Photo: Yale University)

  4. ¡Viva travel to Mexico!

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    Students planning to spend the summer in Mexico will be able to use Yale funds for their projects or travel, thanks to the U.S. State Department’s decision to lift the travel advisory to Mexico, Yale officials said Tuesday.

    Earlier this month, Yale refused to fund undergraduate projects or travel in Mexico unless the State Department lifted its advisory on travel to Mexico. So when the advisory was lifted on May 15, funding for programs in Mexico was automatically reinstated, Dean of International Experience Jane Edwards said.

    Still, Yale cannot revive its Bulldogs and study abroad programs in Monterrey, both of which were canceled at the request of the local host university, Tecnológico de Monterrey. Edwards said the 19 participants in the Bulldogs and study abroad programs have found alternative summer options.

    “We worked with all the students who were going on our programs, and as far as I know, everyone now knows what it is that they’re doing,” she said. “This decision is about students who were waiting to see what would happen.”

  5. More limitations on travel to Mexico

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    Students will likely not be able to use University funds for summer work or travel in Mexico due to an outbreak of swine flu, University Provost Peter Salovey announced Friday. The U.S. State Department issued a standing travel advisory last week urging U.S. citizens to avoid non-essential travel to Mexico, and the University is adhering to those guidelines, Salovey said.

    In the unlikely event that the advisory is lifted, undergraduates would be able to use University funds for travel.

    It was not immediately clear Friday how many students the decision will affect. Only undergraduates are subject to the restrictions, Salovey’s e-mail said, while graduate and professional school students are urged to use “good judgment” in deciding whether to travel to Mexico this summer.

    This announcement follows the University’s Tuesday decision to cancel its Bulldogs in Mexico program this summer, and a summer session held at the

    university Tecnologico de Monterrey.

  6. More suspense in Koh confirmation saga

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    The Senate Committee on Foreign Relations has delayed its vote on Yale Law School Dean Harold Hongju Koh’s nomination as legal adviser to the Department of State, a spokesman for the committee said Tuesday.

    The committee was originally scheduled to vote on Koh’s nomination Tuesday afternoon. The vote has now been postponed until next week’s business meeting, the spokesman said.  He said he was unable to give a reason on why the committee postponed the vote.

  7. Yes, more Koh speculation

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    No sooner did U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter announce his plans to retire from the nation’s highest court at the end of the term next month than did speculation on his replacement sweep Washington. Both Yale and Harvard make appearances on the short list published by The Washington Post today.

    The Post named Harold Hongju Koh, the Yale Law School dean who was nominated earlier this spring to be the legal advisor to the State Department, but cautioned that since that nomination has come under fire by conservatives who oppose his views on international influence on U.S. law, a Supreem Court bid would be similarly embattled. Meanwhile, Elena Kagan, the former dean of Harvard Law School who was confirmed as solicitor general in March, was already considered a top choice for Obama’s first Supreme Court nomination when the President picked her for solicitor general.

    Also on the list was Judge Sonia Sotomayor LAW ’79 of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, who would be the first Hispanic on the Court and who sided with the city of New Haven in the firefighter’s discrimination case now facing the Supreme Court.

  9. Thirteen seniors win Fulbrights

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    Thirteen Yale seniors have been offered Fulbright Scholarships this year, the Office of Fellowship Programs announced today.

    The Fulbright is the largest American program of its kind offering opportunities to study, research and teach abroad.  At this time last year, 11 Yalies had been awarded Fulbright Scholarships.

    This year’s winners will travel to 10 different countries. Decisions from Egypt, Syria and Macau are still pending, said Director of Fellowship Programs Linda DeLaurentis.

    Full list of winners after the jump.

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  10. Koh hearing date set for next week

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    After weeks of suspense — and considerable vitriol from the blogosphere — the date has been set: outgoing Law School Dean Harold Hongju Koh will appear in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday for his confirmation hearing.

    Since the White House announced in late March that Koh would been nominated to the position of legal adviser to the Department of State, conservative bloggers have fiercely criticized the nomination. In particular, the debate has centered around a report — the accuracy of which is being contested — that the Koh made comments in favor of the use of Shariah law in U.S. courts at a 2007 dinner for Yale alumni.

    Most recently, Kenneth Starr — whose report on the Monica Lewinsky scandal paved the way for the impeachment of President Bill Clinton LAW ’73 — announced his support for Koh at a speech at the Yale Law School, arguing that the Senate should defer to the president’s nominations.

    The Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, with Sen. John Kerry ’66 presiding, will hold a hearing on Koh’s nomination at 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

  11. The Harold Hongju Koh Field Guide

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    As just another sign that we’re not the only ones interested in Law School Dean Harold Hongju Koh’s quest to win confirmation as legal adviser to the State Department, The New York Times’s Opinionator blog posted an entry entitled “The Fight over the Harold Koh Nomination: A Field Guide” this afternoon.

    For readers looking to get up-to-speed on the Koh saga, the field guide is indeed a comprehensive overview of the back-and-forth surrounding Koh’s nomination.  It even includes the unexpected endorsement that Koh received from former Solicitor General Kenneth Star last week, as our Derek Tam revealed on Monday.