Archive: Tue Feb 2012

  1. FENCING | Mixed results for Elis at Ivies

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    At the Yale-hosted Ivy League Championship this weekend, the women’s fencing team showed vast improvement over last year’s championship by taking fifth place and defeating Brown and Cornell.

    The No. 10 men’s team, which took second place last year, struggled this weekend and slipped to fifth place. The women’s team overall had a 2–4 record for the weekend and the men’s team went 1–4. Foilist James Broughton ’15 and epeeist Peter Cohen ’14 won second team All-Ivy honors for their strong performances.

    On the first day, the women’s team took on Brown, Harvard and Cornell, and ended the day with a 2–1 record. Against Brown, the Bulldogs narrowly escaped defeat with a score of 14–13. Foil and epee prevailed with a 6–3 win, whereas saber endured a 2–7 loss.

    “Brown was a strong team to fence, but I am happy that we especially showed strength in foil,” said foilist Jillian Liu ’12. However, in the next round, the Bulldogs had to swallow a crushing 21–6 defeat against the Crimson (foil 6–3, epee 7–2 and saber 8–1). In the last match of the day, the team rebounded by smashing Cornell 16–11 (foil and epee 6–3, and saber 4–5).

    On the other side of Coxe Cage, the men’s team fenced against Brown and Harvard and took one win and one loss, putting them in third on the first day. The men opened their first match against Brown and won big, posting a 17–10 win. All three weapons scored wins: saber 5–4, epee and foil both 6–3.

    “Brown was decent, and it is definitely a good start for us,” said saberist Nathaniel Benzimra ’13. “We played really well overall.”

    Unfortunately, the goddess of victory did not smile upon the Elis in a clash against the No.3 Crimson. “The Game” of the Ivies drew approximately 40 Yale supporters, including the suitemates of saberist Adam Fields ’12, many of whom showed up for the contest with blue Y’s painted on their bodies.

    The team dominated in epee with a score of 6–3 but showed ineffectiveness in foil and saber, losing 4–5 and 2-7, respectively, en route to a 15–12 loss overall.

    On the second day of the championship, both teams faced Princeton, Penn and Columbia but failed to come up with a single win. The women’s side gave in to the Tigers 25-2, Quakers 20-7, and Lions 22-5.

    Despite these losses, team captain Robyn Shaffer ’13 said she was satisfied with her team’s performance.

    “We are really proud of our results this year,” she said. “We set our goal for the weekend to beat Cornell and Brown, and we accomplished that goal. It is an improvement from last year, so we can tangibly see that we’ve made progress, which is a great feeling.” Shaffer added that fencing is as much a mental sport as a physical one, and after a loss it is best to “put aside negative thoughts and start preparing for the next bout.”

    Head coach Henry Harutunian said the team put dignity in the games and it was quite impressive for the women to beat Brown and Cornell, which are heavily composed of recruits, whereas the Elis have only two foilist recruits: Lauren Miller’15 and Katharine Pitt’12.

    The men’s side lost 18-9 against No.2 Princeton although it secured a 6-3 victory in foil. The team also submitted to No.7 Penn 16-11, but the Bulldogs did defeat the Quakers in foil 5-4. In the last match against the Lions, the men lost 18-9 despite taking epee with a 5-4 victory.

    “We are actually disappointed at our result, but the team tried its best,” said the men’s team manager Jose Martinez ’12.

    Martinez said he was particularly proud of Broughton because he is a freshman who performed well in a high-pressure situation.

    The Elis will compete in the United States Collegiate Squad Championships on Feb. 26 at NYU in New York.

  2. GYMNASTICS | Yale achieves highest score yet

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    It keeps getting better and better for the gymnastics team.

    Yale scored 190.4 points in its home meet on Saturday, which marks its highest score of the season. It was good enough to beat Springfield College (185.625) and Rhode Island University (170.7), but not to defeat Bridgeport (193.075). The Elis had strong individual performances fueling its end result. Tara Feld ’13 placed second in the all-around competition, and Morgan Traina ’15 took third.

    “I think it’s great that we’re continuing to get better at each meet,” Traina said in an email to the News, “and I know that we can do even more in the meets to come.”

    Since the team is focused on its goal of winning the Ivy League Championship, the loss to Bridgeport is not as significant as the team’s improved score, team captain Mia Yabut ’12 said.

    “At this point we’re just thinking about our [team’s] individual performance,” said Yabut.

    Feld added that Bridgeport’s level of competition only helped the Bulldogs compete at their highest level.

    Vault was a strong start for the Elis. Yale’s two twisting vaults delivered the highest scores for the Bulldogs. Feld, who competed a Yurchenko full, scored a 9.725, and Traina, who competed a Yurckenko tuck full, scored a 9.500. Feld’s score placed her fourth in the event, a solid start to another solid meet for her.

    Bars was a dynamic event for the Bulldogs.

    “Bars was the best I’ve ever seen,” said Yabut, who, as a senior, has seen Yale compete for four years. The Elis stuck dismount after dismount. Traina stuck her double back tuck, Nicole Tay ’14 stuck her double layout, and Lindsay Andsager ’13 stuck her double tuck dismount. Each salute was met by a smile from the judge, who awarded the Bulldogs the points they deserved. Yale took first, second and third place on bars with Andsager (9.850), Tay (9.775) and Traina (9.750). The total team score on bars was 48.650, which surpassed the team’s goal of scoring 48 on each event.

    The Bulldogs’ next event was beam. Beam is the smallest gymnastics apparatus, but it has caused the biggest problems for Yale this season. This meet was no exception. The team was forced to count two falls in its team score, plummeting its team score on beam to 46.625 and making it the Elis’ lowest-scoring event of the day.

    “I think part of the issue is a lack of confidence on some of the routines,” Feld said. “We need to focus on confidence as a team in general,” she added. As a result, Yabut said the team is expected to work on beam during this week of practice.

    Yale’s floor routines had a couple of mistakes, but they were much better than last week’s routines as the team scored a respectable 47.850 points. Feld topped the charts. Her sky-high tumbling placed her in second with a score of 9.775. Feld’s finish earned her second place in the all-around with a score of 38.500, edging out teammates Traina (38.475) and Joyce Li ’15 (37.600), who finished third and fourth. The only competitor to beat the trio was Bridgeport’s Monica Mesalles, who competed in the 2004 Olympics for Spain.

    Next Saturday the team has its last meet before Ivy League Championships, against Southern Connecticut State University. Its goal is to hit 24 out of 24 routines next week, Yabut said.

  3. M. LACROSSE | Strong showing for Bulldogs

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    On Sunday, the Elis kicked off spring play with a preseason scrimmage against Siena at Reese Stadium. Although it was a scrimmage and no official score was tallied, captain Michael Pratt ’12 and head coach Andy Shay both said Yale outshot Siena.

    Despite the freezing weather, a crowd of approximately 40 supporters from both the Bulldogs and Saints sides showed no signs of discomfort as they cheered on their teams.

    Over the course of the scrimmage, Pratt, Shane Thornton ’15, Michael Lipin ’13, Gregory Mahony ’12, Matt Miller ’12, Conrad Oberbeck ’15, Matt Gibson ’12, Ryan McCarthy ’14 and Benjamin Gifford ’12 secured at least one goal apiece.

    “Siena was definitely a strong team,” Pratt said. “They played in the NCAA last season, won the MAAC (Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference), and, importantly, a good goalie returned. However, I am really happy that we did well overall. We played especially good offense by controlling the ball in an offensive set.”

    Shay was satisfied by his team’s performance, saying it responded well to the difficult conditions. Pratt added that Cole Yeager ’13 did particularly well in faceoff.

    Miller, a midfielder for the Bulldogs, said the team had good ball movement.

    Heading into the scrimmage, the greatest uncertainty for the team was who would start in goal. But this area of concern did not seem to matter much in Sunday’s match. Jack Meyer ’14, one of the three goalies for the squad, played two quarters, and Peter Spaulding ’13 and Eric Natale ’15 split the other half of the game. The starting spot is still up in the air as the three grapple for the chance to earn fill the gaping hole left by the 2011 All-New England first team goalkeeper Johnathan Falcone ’11.

    “All three goalies played well, but we are no further along in our decision because there were not a lot of shots taken in the scrimmages,” Shay said.

    There were several unofficial practice matches in the fall, but this match was the first test against live college opponents for Yale’s freshmen.

    “I was proud of Harry Kucharczyk ’15 since although he was originally recruited as a midfielder, he was able to contribute to the team’s smooth match by excelling in the defense,” Pratt said. “Thornton and Oberbeck obviously did really well by scoring goals. None of them showed nerves in their first match.”

    The Elis will compete in two more scrimmages next weekend, one against Tufts and the other against Quinnipiac.

    Pratt said Quinnipiac is usually a tough team to play in the preseason since its players are adept at running some exotic offenses and rides.The Elis will begin preparing some countermeasures to parry such maneuvers in this week’s practices.

    The Elis are scheduled to face Division III No. 5 Tufts at 5 p.m. and Quinnipiac at 7 p.m., both at Reese Stadium. The team will play the season’s official first match on Feb. 25 against St. John’s.

  4. W. TENNIS | Elis dominate on road trip

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    The women’s tennis team is continuing its success against nationally top-ranked teams.

    During a road trip this past weekend to Fayetteville, Ark., the No. 25 Yale women’s tennis team (3–1, 0–0 Ivy) defeated No. 31 Oklahoma 6–1 on Saturday and No. 32 Arkansas 5–2 on Sunday.

    Team member Vicky Brook ’12 said that the wins on the road were a good way to solidify Yale’s status as a highly-ranked team.

    “I think because we were ranked a little higher and because we had such a successful start that there was a target on our backs,” Brook said. “They really wanted to beat us, but we did a good job of showing them how strong of a team we are both physically and mentally.”

    Against Oklahoma on Saturday, Yale swept the three doubles matches. Hanna Yu ’15 and Brook defeated Oklahoma’s Marie-Pier Huet and Whitney Ritchie 8–4 at No. 1. Elizabeth Epstein ’13 and Annie Sullivan ’14 won 8–1 at No. 2, and Stephanie Kent ’12 and Blair Seideman ’14 won 8–4 at No. 3. (Seideman is a staff photographer for the News.)

    Epstein said she knew the team was capable of a win but did not expect to win by such a large margin.

    In the singles round the team won every match except for the No. 2 spot, with Seideman falling to Oklahoma’s Ritchie in straight sets 6–3, 6–1. Both freshmen were given the opportunity to play and came out victorious after struggling a little at first. Yu won at No. 2, 6–4, 6–4 and Amber Li ’15 won at No. 6, 7–6, 6–4.

    “We were in a bit of a hole on Sunday in the singles matches,” Brook said. “Three of the girls on our team were able to dig their heels in and find a way to win, which we are all really proud of.”

    On Sunday against Arkansas Yale had a repeat performance for doubles. All three spots came out on top, starting with the No. 2 pair of Epstein and Sullivan with an 8–3 victory. Brook and Yu came out with an 8–5 win at No. 1, along with the victory at No. 3, with Seideman and Kent winning 8–3. Singles was equally as successful, with all but two players out of six winning their matches.

    Coach Danielle McNamara attributed much of the team’s success over the weekend to the support the teammates showed each other both on and off the court.

    “It was a real team effort and everyone contributed in some way — even the cheering on the side helped those still on court,” McNamara said. “Yesterday’s match in particular was rather intense. It’s a competitive conference, and I think that the hostile fan environment was handled well. It was a really tough place to play.”

    Yale will host Ivy foes and other rivals at the ECAC women’s tennis championships next weekend. Brook said that Yale will be looking to prolong its winning streak.

    Correction: Feb. 19

    A previous version of this article stated that Vicky Brook ’12 is the captain of the women’s tennis team. In fact, Stephanie Kent ’12 is the team’s captain.

  5. Obama’s contraceptives compromise creates controversy

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    The debate about whether President Barack Obama’s recent compromise on health care policy is an affront to religious freedom has sparked conversation in the Elm City.

    The compromise, announced on Friday, allows employees of Catholic institutions to obtain free contraceptives from insurance companies if the institution opts out of purchasing insurance that includes these services. This marks a change from Obama’s stance in January, when he mandated that all employers pay for insurance covering birth control and other reproductive services, including some objectionable to the Catholic church. Left-leaning organizations in New Haven have applauded the availability of free contraceptives, with some questioning the necessity of the compromise. But local religious organizations said they still oppose the policy, and consider the mandate a direct assault on their religious freedom.

    Though employees of Catholic institutions, such as schools, charities and hospitals, can now apply directly to the insurance companies for birth control coverage, he said, the fiscal burden may fall on the Catholic institutions as they still have to pay the premium and the coverage, said Jonah Pollock, associate pastor at the Church of St. Mary on Hillhouse Avenue. If insurance companies raise the price of insurance to accommodate the new mandate, he added, the cost structure will be unchanged.

    “The compromise is a step in the right direction, but there are a lot of issues that remain unresolved,” Pollock said, adding that the church does not believe that either Catholic institutions or private employers who oppose birth control should be obligated to fund it.

    Planned Parenthood of Southern New England sent out a press release on Feb. 10 taking the opposite stance. The press release applauded Obama for supporting affordable contraceptives. Birth control prevents unintended pregnancies and improves health outcomes for women and their families, among other health benefits, Judy Tabar, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Southern New England, said in the release.

    Access to these services has become an economic problem for women, Tabar said in the press release, and “[just] this last year, nearly one out of four women has put off a gynecological exam or birth control visit to save money.”

    Liberal organizations on campus said they object to claims that the new policy hinders religious freedom.

    “Religious freedom doesn’t mean that religion has the power to exercise complete control over people,” said Jess Belding ’13, a member of the Yale Political Union’s Party of the Left.

    Mandating that people use birth control would be an affront to religious freedom, she said, but taking birth control access away from people only denies them a necessary health service. She added that while the church disagrees with birth control, using contraception helps in preventing abortion, a higher priority for the church.

    But Pollock said the use of birth control is still “morally objectionable” in the eyes of the church, even though abortion is considered worse than birth control in the Catholic faith.

    Zak Newman ’13, president of the Yale Democrats, said he does not believe it was necessary for Obama to compromise at all.

    “It seems that the President unnecessarily bowed to pressure from the right wing on this issue, but the compromise does not ultimately impact the services offered to individuals,” he said in a Sunday night email to the News.

    Not even the majority of Catholics oppose birth control, he added, citing a statistic stating that 53 percent of Catholics support funding for birth control while just 44 percent oppose it. According to Planned Parenthood’s press release, 99 percent of women, including 98 percent of Catholic women, use birth control at some point in their lives.

    According to a Feb. 13 Washington Post article, a poll of 1,100 registered voters conducted by Fox News from Feb. 6 to Feb. 9 reported that 61 percent said employer health plans should be required to cover birth control, while 34 percent said they should not.

  6. NGUYEN: Matchmaking on Valentine’s Day

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    A year ago, my girlfriend and I drove to the base of Stone Mountain in Georgia. We spent two hours hiking up the three-mile trail to the mountain’s peak. At the top, we set up a picnic and shared a meal as we watched the sun set. In the fall, we would head in different directions. She would stay in Georgia; I would not.

    College brought opportunities to meet new people. We agreed that a long-distance relationship would not be in our best interests, but that at the end of that summer we would still be close friends and still have countless memories, and if we were truly meant to be, it would work itself out.

    Since coming to Yale, I have had a few dates, but there is no one at the moment I could say is ma petite amie or mi novia.

    For those of us who will not be giving or receiving love letters, kisses or singing Valentines today, Valentine’s Day could seem like Single Awareness Day. But being single isn’t as bad as my favorite movie genre might have you believe. The name Valentine comes from the Latin valens, which means “worthy, strong, powerful.” People who are single exhibit those traits every day.

    I realize that being single has given me more time to explore new hobbies and develop old ones. Since my last relationship, I have picked up a few new hobbies like learning card tricks, experimenting with chiromancy and even joining a dance group. When I do find that special someone, I will know new activities for us to enjoy together.

    When you are single, you discover what makes you happy. You are free to meet new people and date freely if you wish. In your spare time, do you want to have movie nights with friends, take random trips to New York or even indulge in “The Hunger Games”? If you can’t be happy about yourself, can you really expect to be happy in a relationship?

    While my grandmother would say it is way too early to think about marriage or my love life, I must admit that, sometimes, I do wish I had someone special to spend a Friday night watching “50 First Dates” with, someone to read the little love notes I leave under her pillow or someone who I could tell about my day, goals and worries. Of course, I have my friends, but it’s just not the same.

    For those who are still hoping to find love or someone close at Yale, realize that even if you have not found a close friend, hope is not lost.

    Two weeks ago, I was still frantically searching for screw dates for three of my friends. After hours of failed phone calls and text messages, I turned to Facebook. With a simple post, I was blasted, in just under an hour, with about 40 offers, each describing roommates’, suitemates’ or even the poster’s personalities, pastimes and preferences.

    I created a Google Doc and sent it out to the whole freshman class. I would help others in my position find screw dates. When I closed the application two days later, I had over 140 requests.

    Five of my friends and I read through each response, and we were amazed at how diverse everyone’s interests were. But even more amazing was the number of people with similar interests who did not even know each other. We paired them together.

    We put the poster who wrote, “I am a girl taking two physics classes, looking for someone who loves math and science,” with the “Guy taking multiple 300-level math courses. Looking for person who likes to talk about math and science.” The one who said, “My suitemate loves dance and theater” went to screw with “My roommate is a dancer.”

    While the pairings my friends and I made are not in any way soul matches, we realize that there are plenty of Yalies out there who would be instant friends if they ever knew the other existed.

    So to the Yalies who post on YaleFML looking for a hookup, a boyfriend or even a close friend, please know that there are people out there who feel the same way, and even if you do not find what you are looking for here, you have the rest of your life to look. Today, show that you are worthy, strong and powerful.

    Davis Nguyen is a freshman in Berkeley College. Contact him at davis.nguyen@yale.edu.

  7. O’ROURKE: Sex in space

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    Pity the columnist forced to publish on Valentine’s Day. My loyal readers don’t usually expect insightful commentary on love and related matters; after all, my true love is science policy, which is generally a lousy turn-on. Perhaps a compromise exists: sex in space. In fact, human spaceflight is on a collision course with virtually every flashpoint of modern sexual politics.

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    Early astronauts were straight-laced representatives of civilized America. They attended church regularly with their happy wives and children and otherwise embodied the Right Stuff, at least as far as the public knew. Starting with Project Mercury and continuing through the space shuttle program, missions were tightly choreographed affairs with popular perception as prized as any technical goal. But the marketing of the astronaut as paladin cannot last.

    When people are working in space for years — or shorter stays just for fun — they will want to have sex. So far, with their missions in mind, astronauts have resisted the urge. With longer missions being planned, however, Congress must eventually appropriate taxpayer dollars for NASA to accommodate sexuality. But the first people to have sex in space will likely pay their own way.

    Robert Bigelow, who owns the Budget Suites of America hotel chain, founded Bigelow Aerospace in 1998 to feed the emerging demand for expandable spacecraft and space stations. Their current production mode can to host up to six people in spacious luxury with better protection from radiation and micrometeorites than the International Space Station. Prototype spacecraft have been orbiting Earth since 2006, and Bigelow hopes to begin charging rent as soon as 2016.

    Most of Bigelow’s clients will be researchers and national space agencies, but tourists will eventually flock to space. Soon, people will be doing the sorts of things they do in Bigelow’s budget hotels. Something about altitude is an aphrodisiac, and an inflated space habitat is more comfortable and exotic than, say, an airliner lavatory.

    People might shrug off the canoodling of playboy space tourists, but everyone will scrutinize the amorous adventures of astronauts on the federal payroll. For long-duration space missions, sex cannot simply be treated with a wink and a nod; it must be either nonexistent or dealt with openly, beginning with the initial spacecraft designs. Either alternative requires unpleasant decisions.

    While astronauts are able to abstain from sex during six-month jaunts to the space station, the thought of withdrawing from this basic human activity for years is unbearable. NASA could invest in drugs that would prevent debilitating levels of arousal. After all, some birth control and antidepressant medications suppress libido. However, dosing people with enough chemicals to suppress an urge as fundamental as hunger reads like a dystopian novel. We might as well launch robots with human faces.

    But what if we sought to facilitate sex instead of preventing it? Sex is straightforward on Earth, at least physically, but satisfying earthly urges in space requires specialized hardware. Newton’s third law of motion says that if you exert a force on a person, then the person will exert an equal and opposite force on you — isn’t physics fun? Now, Earth’s gravity normally resists this reactionary force. Space is not as kind, leaving two options: have lame sex or strap yourself in something like a two-person Snuggie.

    The need for sex is thus a design requirement calling for the attention of engineers and mission planners. Bringing even a strap — not to mention a multi-year supply of contraceptives — to space requires building storage and inventing specialized procedures. Ironically, astronauts would need to be very professional about managing the need for sexual release without compromising interpersonal relations and common trust. Imagine training for that!

    On a more serious note, medical necessities for women on long-duration spaceflights are straight out of Rick Santorum’s nightmares. Many female astronauts rely on various forms of contraception to avoid disrupting training and to suppress menstruation in space. For voyages on which returning quickly to Earth is impossible, astronauts must have the capacity to perform medical abortions.

    Pregnancies in space would be unacceptably hazardous. Everything from an ectopic pregnancy to many common complications could be fatal. Conception would still be unwise in a spacecraft equipped with modern obstetrics and neonatal facilities because preliminary research indicates that microgravity increases the risks of birth defects. Human spaceflight would require enshrining abortion in federal policy with federal funding for the first time.

    Only in space does the messiness of human interaction meet humorless engineering and keen public attention. Matters that are normally dealt with in private are judged by the public and voted on by Congress. Although these policies would only directly affect the lucky few who travel the cosmos, a frank discussion of these issues would benefit us all.

    Joseph O’Rourke is a senior in Silliman College. His column runs on alternate Tuesdays. Contact him at joseph.orourke@yale.edu.

  8. Dating should be revived, doctor orders

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    “Dating doctor” Kerry Cronin encouraged students to turn to dating — rather than hookups — as a source of intimacy and fulfillment at a Monday talk in St. Thomas More Chapel.

    Cronin, a professor of philosophy at Boston College and widely known there as the “dating doctor,” outlined problems with the prevalent college hookup culture in front of about 30 students. Cronin said that students tend to use hookups, which she defined as physical or sexual interaction without intended emotional attachment, as a substitute for intimate relationships. But Cronin argued that the practices of dating and relationships hold greater long-term benefits to students than the hookup.

    “What the hookup culture teaches us is disconnect, and not attachment and learning who we really are,” Cronin said.

    Cronin said the hookup culture is grounded in student anxiety over graduating without sexual experiences.

    Students use hookups to attain the emotional “intensity” of relationships without the intimacy and potential awkwardness of dating. But she said random hookups tend to be unfulfilling and do not help students feel more desirable in the long run.

    “It promises a feeling of desirability which it doesn’t deliver on,” Cronin said. “What we crave is real intimacy, but it’s too scary and dangerous and awkward. What [we] substitute it with is intensity.”

    Only about 40 percent of students participate in the college hookup culture, Cronin said. These students often gain social status and recognition from their hookup activities, which Cronin said is partly what makes the culture attractive.

    Though Cronin said the meaning of “hooking up” is often unclear when used in conversation, she claimed that students on college campuses have a “hookup script” ­— implicit understandings and expectations about how to behave in a hookup situation. Not all hookups are the same, Cronin said, as she elaborated on different types of hookups such as the “friend hookup,” the “mistake hookup” and the “revenge hookup.”

    While the reasons behind hookups vary, Cronin said the defining characteristic of all hookups is a lack of intimacy. Students have told her that all hookups follow similar rules, she added, such as that hookup partners should drink equally, know where their shoes are, tell stories of their hookups the next day and remain emotionally detached.

    In an effort to combat this culture, Cronin said she has students in one of her philosophy classes at Boston College ask someone on a date for an assignment. Students today struggle with the concept of dating, Cronin said, calling it a lost social skill. She relayed humorous anecdotes about her students’ dating attempts, describing how one panicked male student ended a date with a high-five when he could not figure out what to do.

    While Cronin admitted that many dating customs are now old-fashioned, she said college students should still pursue relationships despite the risk of embarrassment. Cronin said the communication involved in dating is the “antidote” to the hookup culture, and helps students both with self-esteem and with figuring out their personal desires.

    Jeff Marrs ’13 said he was glad to hear issues of sexual climate and dating discussed, noting that these problems are frequently overlooked.

    Grace Hirshorn ’15 said she was struck by Cronin’s emphasis on the courage it takes to ask someone on a date.

    “The act of courage is ‘I just want to get to know you better,’” Hirshorn said. “Hopefully many people will take the time to find that courage.”

    The event was organized by St. Thomas More as part of Sex Week 2012.

  9. Frank talks Israel, LGBTQ rights

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    United States Rep. Barney Frank, Democrat of Massachusetts, came to Yale Monday to address U.S. policy toward Israel and the state of American politics in front of about 200 people.

    During the talk, sponsored by Yale Hillel and the Yale College Democrats, Frank, who is Jewish, argued that Democrats have compelling reasons to support Israel given the Jewish state’s liberal values. Following his address, the openly gay congressman answered questions about LGBTQ rights, the 2012 elections, his impending retirement and his July marriage to partner James Ready.

    Although he said he disagrees with some aspects of Israel’s government policies — he wishes Israel were “more restrictive” when choosing to build new settlements — Frank said he is a strong supporter of the country.

    “Based on the values I have as a man of the left, Israel is by a very large margin the best country in its part of the world,” Frank said. “I am troubled when I see people who claim to share the values of the left join in Israel-bashing.”

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    He cited Israel’s commitment to gender equality and freedom of religion as two reasons the nation should have more in common with the American left than the right. He also addressed the issue of gay rights, contrasting LGBTQ citizens’ open service in the Israel Defense Force with the United States’ “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, which was repealed last year.

    Frank also described Israel as a premier example of democracy, arguing that it contradicts the notion that democracy is only possible for states that are unthreatened.

    “The high court in Israel has a better record of protecting civil liberties than the United States,” Frank said. “Israel stands out as a stunning refutation to the idea that democracy is only for the secure.”

    The congressman also defended President Barack Obama’s handling of relations with Israel, describing Obama as a “very good friend” of the country, citing the administration’s diplomatic handling of the Palestinian request for statehood at the United Nations as an example of how the president has fought on Israel’s behalf. Frank stressed that criticism of Israel from Obama and the left comes out of a “friendly” responsibility for the country’s well-being.

    “Frank made a strong case in support of our ally — one that ought to resonate with Democrats and Republicans Alike,” Dems President Zak Newman ’13 said. “Alliance and friendship does not disallow disagreement and constructive conversation, and Democrats understand that.”

    Elizabeth Henry ’14, a member of the Yale Political Union’s Tory Party, said she thought Frank gave one of the more conservative talks the Dems have ever sponsored.

    “So many liberal Yalies think that as liberals they should automatically support Palestine and that Israel is the human rights violator,” Henry said. “Frank eloquently shot down those beliefs — pointing out that Israel is the nation that is the most respecting of human rights in the entire Middle East and that liberals should stand up for Israel.”

    After his address, Frank, who co-sponsored the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, was asked why, three years after the financial crisis, nobody has been prosecuted for illegal actionsthat led to it. Frank explained that, at the time, much of what was done was not illegal and thus could not be prosecuted, much like how monopolies went unregulated in the 19th century until the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890.

    Frank, one of the most outspoken advocates for gay rights in Congress, said he never thought he would see gay marriage legalized in the United States when he first ran for state office 40 years ago. Then, he said, the U.S. Supreme Court dismissed a gay marriage case as a unsubstantiated challenge — a far cry from the current state of gay rights in the country, with the state of Washington this week becoming the seventh to allow gays to marry.

    Last month, after his district was redrawn, Frank announced that he would not seek re-election this year after serving in Congress for 32 years. Nearly 71 years old, and facing one of the most polarized political climates in the nation’s history, he said he was tired of reading about the financial sector and did not want to work to meet new constituents.

    “Campaigning sucks,” Frank said. “I’m going to be married in July. I want a life.”

    Frank said he plans to lecture, write and give television commentary after he retires, adding that he and partner Ready will split their time between Maine and Massachusetts, where the two have homes.

    In 2010, Frank was voted the “funniest,” “brainiest” and the “workhorse” member of Congress in a survey of Capitol Hill staffers published by the Washingtonian.

  10. Laundry bins come to residential colleges

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    A new Yale College Council initiative aims to keep students’ freshly washed laundry off the floor.

    The program, which was piloted in Silliman College this semester, will install cubbies, plastic bins and whiteboards in every residential college by next fall in an attempt to keep laundry rooms better organized, YCC President Brandon Levin ’13 said in an email. Many students interviewed expressed frustration that clothes are often strewn across college laundry rooms, and they said they supported a system for managing clothes left in machines.

    “This program was created to formalize and make easy the transfer of clothes,” Levin said, explaining that clothes left in machines can get lost or dirty when other students remove them to make room for new loads.

    With the new system, students can place abandoned clothes in a basket and use the whiteboard to indicate from which machine they came, he said.

    YCC Treasurer Archit Sheth-Shah ’13 said the system, which was originally proposed in October, is modeled after the one that Princeton uses. The YCC first brought photos of the Princeton laundry system to Yale Facilities last fall, Sheth-Shah said, and after receiving positive reviews from the pilot in Silliman this semester, YCC members presented the idea to individual college masters. He added that Yale Facilities is financing the initiative.

    “All the colleges have signed onto this system, and now it’s just the process of having the bins installed during breaks because that’s the most convenient time,” YCC Vice President Omar Njie ’13 said. Njie added that the program has received some criticism that the bins are too small, but Levin said Silliman will soon get larger bins, as will the rest of the colleges when they are outfitted.

    All 16 students interviewed, including five in Silliman, said they supported the initiative. Monica Ague ’14, a Silliman resident, said the new system allows students “more leeway” in when they need to pick up their clothing, and will also reduce the confusion that causes clothes to fall on the floor or mix with other people’s clothes, she added.

    “Having your clothes fall on the floor or sit in soap spills on the washing machines when you were 10 minutes late to pick them up was really, really annoying,” Ague said.

    Leah Campbell ’15, who also lives in Silliman, said she lost “a lot of socks” from people moving her clothes out of washing machines. Having a system with bins leads to a better “atmosphere” in the laundry room, she said, adding that now there is “never any awkwardness about moving other people’s clothes.”

    Still, a few students complained that Yale has a shortage of working laundry machines, which the new system does not address. Others noted that some students have used the whiteboards for purposes other than laundry assignments, such as posting personal ads and other “funny comments.”

    The laundry machines began accepting credit and debit cards last fall.

  11. SCHWARTZ: Freedom in the modern state

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    The political brouhaha over a government mandate for coverage of contraception continues. On Friday, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops rejected President Obama’s compromise proposal, arguing that pregnancy is not a disease and that those with moral or religious objections to various forms of birth control should not be compelled to sacrifice their principles.

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    The administration counters that contraception is a vital element of medical care that patients have a right to expect from their health care providers. Furthermore, they insist that religious coercion is not at issue here. After all, religious organizations may still practice however they please; only religious organizations that wish to receive government funding to perform public charitable work must play by the government’s rules.

    Underlying the conflict is a deeper question: What does freedom mean in the context of the modern welfare state? This may seem like a silly question. Whenever libertarian crazies like Ron Paul or Grover Norquist ascend their soapboxes to preach that big government is a gargantuan beast that crowds out our liberties with its sheer size, I roll my eyes. What does size of government have to do with personal freedom? Good governments protect liberties; bad governments violate them. Size doesn’t factor in. I never understood how anyone could object to money for social welfare programs, schools and medical care.

    Recent events have demonstrated precisely where the problem lies. The modern welfare state has created a new zero-sum game between public values and personal freedoms. A government that played no role in health care could remain neutral with regard to contraception. But when taxpayer dollars are a central source of support for the nation’s health care and the government uses the power of its purse to maintain basic standards and protect consumers, the state cannot help but take a stand. It must either fund these groups or deliberately reject them.

    There is something twisted about a state that collects taxes from Catholics and shuts down Catholic hospitals because they practice medicine in accordance with the dictates of Catholicism. Surely governments need not employ Christian Scientist doctors who refuse to practice medicine altogether, but to gut hospitals that provide state-of-the-art care and simply do not provide contraceptives seems absurd. In displaying inflexibility on the peripheral aspects of a job rather than focusing on the substantive core, the state unjustifiably violates the liberty and conscience of providers. At the same time, if government fails to mandate coverage for birth control, a service the vast majority of the American public sees as a necessary feature of health care, it fails to protect consumers.

    Nor is this a unique occurrence. In Illinois, Massachusetts and elsewhere, Catholic adoption agencies have shut down rather than cave to the government’s demand that they tacitly endorse same-sex marriages and child-rearing. In England last year, a high court decision that found Jewish day schools in violation of nondiscrimination regulations (the schools define Jewishness traditionally, by lineage and formal conversion rather than faith and practice) threatens to destroy an entire community’s school system.

    For libertarians, the solution to this catch-22 is as simple as it is fanciful: scale back the size of government to 18th-century levels. If governments don’t fund adoption agencies, health care or education at all, then they have far less regulatory power. Ta-da — no more problem!

    But most of us realize this sort of far-sweeping solution is both untenable and undesirable. Government-created programs are entrenched in citizens’ expectations and corporate strategies, and no one has the political capital to work against this widespread public support. But even if we could shift these expectations, would we want to? State safety nets protect those who are most vulnerable, and the patchwork of private charities that operate in the absence of government lack the resources and the organizational reach to offer comparable services.

    In the face of this conflict, most people have simply given up. They have resigned themselves to the necessity of government arbitrarily drawing a line where religious freedom must give way to public interest. But throwing up our hands ultimately betrays limited thinking and a woeful political laziness.

    We need not choose between women’s easy access to contraception and religious freedom of genuine believers. The real solution lies in government working to supplement existing programs, allowing citizens access to the services they need while institutions continue to offer only the services they can faithfully provide.

    We need not compel Catholic charities to do as we wish; we simply must ensure that alternative options exist. Let new programs provide contraception, and let the Catholic hospitals get on with the good work that fills 99 percent of the public’s health care expectations. Government should view its role as filling in gaps, not engineering changes in believers’ practice.

    Yishai Schwartz is a junior in Branford College. His column runs on Tuesdays. Contact him at yishai.schwartz@yale.edu.