The newest alumni fellow on the Yale Corporation is entrepreneur Roland W. Betts '68.

Betts, who was elected by his fellow Yale graduates in a nationwide balloting, is creator and principal owner of Chelsea Piers, L.P., which developed and operates the Chelsea Piers Sports and Entertainment Complex in New York City. He is also founder and president of Silver Screen Management, Inc., which has produced and financed over 75 films with the Walt Disney Company, including "Beauty and the Beast," "Pretty Woman," "The Little Mermaid" and "Three Men and a Baby."

Enterprise Center transforming business ideas into realities

Budding entrepreneurs from Yale and beyond are turning their ideas for new products, services and businesses into commercial realities with the help of the newly established Enterprise Center.

Located at 433 Temple St., adjacent to Yale's Office of New Haven and State Affairs, the not-for-profit center boasts a staff of experts who can provide individuals, start-up companies and small businesses with such consulting services as strategic business planning, market research, financial structuring, capital source development and management assistance. The center's activities are "specifically targeted to promote economic growth in Greater New Haven," according to Bruce Alexander, vice president and director of the Yale Office of New Haven and State Affairs.

The Enterprise Center is a partnership between Yale, United Illuminating Company and New Haven Savings Bank. For more information, call 432-7546 or visit the center's website at http://enterprisecenter.som.yale.edu/enterprisecenter.

Kronman reappointed as Law School dean

On July 1, Anthony T. Kronman began his second five-year term as dean of the Law School.

A graduate of the Law School, where he has been a faculty member since 1978, Kronman also holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from Yale. When he was appointed dean in 1994, he was the first person in that post to hold a doctorate in another field. His areas of specialty include contracts, commercial law, bankruptcy, jurisprudence and social theory, and professional responsibility.

In announcing Kronman's reappointment, President Richard C. Levin noted that the Dean is "an exemplary spokesman for legal education and the legal profession" as well as "an exemplary citizen of the University."

Facility to enhance strength in environmental sciences

Construction is underway on a new facility designed to position Yale in the new millennium as a leader in the study of environmental sciences.

The state-of-the-art Environmental Sciences Facility (ESF) will house research and teaching laboratories in the earth and environmental sciences, as well as a climate-controlled area for the storage and preservation of 11 million specimens in the collections of the Peabody Museum of Natural History. The ESF will be twice the size of Bingham Laboratory, which will be torn down to make way for the new building, and will be connected to the Peabody Museum on all three floors.

At the May 12 groundbreaking ceremony for the ESF, President Richard C. Levin said that construction of the facility is "only one step in a major initiative to make the earth and environmental sciences at Yale preeminent, just as it is only one step in a comprehensive program of modernizing and upgrading all our laboratory facilities here on Science Hill."

Eight faculty named to endowed posts

The following appointments to endowed professorships were announced this summer:

F. Peter Boer as the John J. Lee Adjunct Professor of Chemical Engineering; Jorge Galán as the Lucille P. Markey Professor of Microbiology; William N. Goetzmann as the Edwin J. Beinecke Professor of Finance and Management Studies; Ami Klin as the Harris Associate Professor of Child Psychiatry; Richard Lytle as the William Leffingwell Professor of Painting; Valerie Maholmes as the Harris Assistant Professor of Child Psychiatry; David Pease as the Street Professor of Painting; and Benjamin Polak as the Henry Kohn Associate Professor of Economics.

Yale's Internet home page has been revamped

Gone is the row of old books that once greeted visitors to the University's home page at "www.yale.edu."

That Internet address now brings visitors to a redesigned and reorganized Yale "front door" featuring random images of the Yale campus. The new website was redesigned by a team headed by John Gambell, university printer and senior critic in graphic design at the School of Art.

Yale's new home page, launched June 1, is just the first phase in the development of the site, which will be improved and updated regularly, according to Gambell.

Quality of child care affects school performance, says study

Children enrolled in higher-quality day care programs do better in their early school years than those in low-quality care, according to a study conducted by researchers from Yale and three other universities.

The research showed that children in higher-quality child care scored higher on measures of both cognitive skills (such as math and language abilities) and social skills (interactions with their peers, problem behaviors), and that high-quality care continues to positively predict children's performance well into the children's school years, according to the study.

"There is one clear and compelling implication from this study: Americans must find a way to provide high-quality child care for all children needing care prior to school entry," said School of Medicine researcher Sharon Lynn Kagan.

Beinecke acquires papers of noted theater director

Theater director and educator Mary Hunter Wolf -- who collaborated with such theater icons as Tennessee Williams, Jerome Robbins and Thornton Wilder -- has donated her papers to the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

In addition to Hunter Wolf's correspondence with such luminaries, the archive includes scripts, reviews, scrapbooks, musical scores and manuscripts documenting both her work as a director in New York City and as a pioneering teacher in arts education in Connecticut.

Academy of Arts taps three Yale faculty

There were three Yale faculty members among the 180 new members voted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

They are: Stephen R. Anderson, professor of linguistics and cognitive science, an expert on the cognitive science of language; John Geanakoplos, the James Tobin Professor of Economics and director of the Cowles Foundation for Economics, a specialist in the general equilibrium theory in economics; and Roberto González-Echevarría, Sterling Professor of Hispanic and Comparative Literature, an expert in Spanish literature of the Golden Age and Latin American literature.

Boredom with board games prompts Green to invent new one

OCTI, a new game of strategy invented by political scientist Donald Green, gained some instant devotees among gaming enthusiasts when it hit the market this summer.

Green, director of the Institution for Social and Policy Studies, created the new game out of his frustration with traditional board games such as chess and checkers. Players use octagonal game pieces fitted with pegs to maneuver around the board; the winner is the first to invade an opponent's "home" square.

Because of the number of strategic options available, says Green, a human playing OCTI can potentially outsmart even the smartest computer.

Bloom honored with arts academy's Gold Medal

The American Academy of Arts and Letters has awarded its prestigious Gold Medal for Belles Lettres and Criticism to Harold I. Bloom, Sterling Professor of Humanities.

The award is given every six years to honor the distinguished career of a literary critic.

Bloom is a specialist in English and American poetry, with particular interest in Romanticism in poetry. The author of 23 books, he has been widely quoted in the media about controversial issues in literature and academia. He holds a Ph.D. from Yale and has been a faculty member since 1955.

Alumni scholar-athletes inducted into new hall of fame

There were four Yale alumni among the first 20 individuals inducted into the first-ever International Scholar-Athlete Hall of Fame.

Located at the University of Rhode Island, the hall honors those who have achieved distinction in sports and academics, and have made contributions to society.

The Yale inductees are: former U.S. presidents George Bush (B.A. 1948), who captained the Yale baseball team, and Gerald Ford (LL.B. 1941), who coached football at Yale; former Supreme Court Justice Byron White (LL.B. 1946), who played professional football before attending the Yale Law School; and renowned physician Dr. Kwaku Ohene-Frempong (B.S. 1970 and M.D. 1975), a champion hurdler and soccer player.

Peabody mummy may be murder victim

A recent x-ray examination suggests that a blow to the back of the head with a blunt instrument was the likely cause of death of a mummy at the Peabody Museum of Natural History.

The mummy was studied by forensic anthropologists from Quinnipiac College after being removed from its sealed display case during the restoration of the Peabody's "Daily Life in Egypt" exhibit. The scientists determined that the mummy, which was given to the museum in 1938, was 2,300 years old, dating back to the Ptolemic Period, and was likely from the area around Thebes. They also discovered a depression fracture with remains of brain material at the base of the mummy's skull which showed no sign of healing, suggesting it was the cause of death.

The mummy, whose identity remains a mystery, as well as its refurbished sarcophagus and cartonnage (death mask), are now back on display at the Peabody Museum.

NIH grant supports research on spinal cord injuries

Research at the School of Medicine to determine how cells from the nose might help repair damaged cells in the spine has received a $4.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health.

Charles Greer, professor of neurosurgery and neurobiology and director of the Spinal Cord Research Program, is heading the project to determine whether the regenerative powers of cells in the nose, when injected into a damaged spine, will spur regrowth of the nerve cells there.

Project X rolls out

The long-anticipated campus-wide implementation of Project X, Yale's initiative to overhaul its financial and human resources information systems, took place on July 1, as planned.

On-line tools and other user support services were introduced prior to the roll-out date to help ease the transition from the University's old UFMIS system to the new Oracle administrative systems (see the Project X website at www.yale.edu/pjx for more details). Meanwhile, training still continues on a few still-to-be-implemented systems.

In a letter to the Yale community in the June 21-July 19 issue of the Yale Bulletin & Calendar, Provost Alison Richard and Vice President for Finance and Administration Joseph P. Mullinix wrote that: "The ultimate goal of Project X is to introduce major enhancements in information management and business processes that will serve as a robust platform for the growth and innovation critical to advancing the University's academic mission."

They also thanked the "tremendous efforts" of the many members of the community who worked on Project X, noting, "The devotion of so many talented individuals to a common goal is truly in keeping with the collaborative spirit of Yale."

Other appointments

Other appointments announced this summer included the following:

Julie Behm Carter, a local attorney who specializes in health care law, came to Yale this summer as an associate general counsel. Carter, formerly with the New Haven law firm of Wiggin & Dana, will work at the General Counsel's Office primarily in the areas of health care law and compliance.

Paul Kahn, the Nicholas deB. Katzenbach Professor of Law, was appointed director of the Law School's Orville H. Schell, Jr. Center for International Human Rights; while James Silk, director of the Robert F. Kennedy memorial center for Human Rights, was named executive director of the center. Both earned their J.D. degrees from Yale -- Kahn in 1980 and Silk in 1989. Kahn also earned M.A., M.Phil. and Ph.D. degrees from Yale in1974, 1975 and 1977, respectively.

Former music librarian Harold Samuel dies

A memorial service was held this summer for Harold E. Samuel, 75, former music librarian and professor emeritus (adjunct) of music, who died on April 20 at his home in Hamden.

Professor Samuel, who came to Yale in 1971, played a key role in the University's acquisition of historically significant collections in music research, including materials owned by Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya, John Hammond, Benny Goodman, and Vladimir and Wanda Toscanini Horowitz. He also campaigned for 23 years for the creation of a new building to house the University's outstanding music collections -- a dream that was realized after his retirement with the construction of the Irving S. Gilmore Music Library.

T H I SW E E K ' SS T O R I E S

Yale greets 'superb' crop of freshmen

Outreach to students is key goal of new assistant deans

Discovery of skeleton from ancient ape provides insights into the origins of humans

Scientists get close-up look at interior of ribosomes

Endowed Professorships

Bosnians share traumatic war experiences with Yale chaplain

Development Office reorganizes Major Gifts division

FOCUS program gives students a close-up view of city

Exhibit features abstract photographs of the natural world world

School of Architecture exhibits explore 'cutting edge' arts

While You Were Away ...

In the News

Journalists will get in-depth look at law as Knight Fellows

Concert celebrates new year at the School of Music

Memorial service to be held for Julia Rusinek

Seven faculty members receive ASCAP awards

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