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"An independent bookstore has a civic function. Younger students are looking for a lot of their information online, but older generations are still wedded to the book as a principal source of information and new ideas. For us, to go into a bookstore and unexpectedly find a new story is crucial."
-- Katherine Trumpener, the Emily Sanford Professor of Comparative Literature and English, "Swimming Against the Tide; Books Didn't Get the Memo that Said Independent Book Retailing Was Dead,"
Connecticut Business News Journal, April 16, 2007.
§
"Being part of a group makes you unlikely to harm others that you consider part of that group. Once you cross the boundary to someone that is not a member of your group, you tend to see them as less human, less good, less trustworthy -- and you see them as less like individual humans. It gives you the possibility, or propensity, or ability to be more harmful to them. ... Being excluded and putting somebody in this kind of pain can create the capacity for tragic events."
-- John Dovidio, professor of psychology, "Staying Apart, Falling Apart; Experts Say Feelings of Exclusion Can Heighten Risks," Daily News (NY), April 19, 2007.
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"There have been a lot of surveys done in colleges that show that somewhere between 20% and 65% of students at colleges have suicidal ideation at some point or other. Interestingly, though, the suicide rate of people in college is about half that of the general population in terms of matched age controls. And I think what schools try to do is develop university health programs that try to make that readily accessible, and that's because schools have recognized that this is a significant issue for college students."
-- Dr. Howard Zonana, professor of psychiatry and adjunct clinical professor of law, "Mental Health, the Law and Predicting Violence," "Talk of the Nation," National Public Radio, April 18, 2007.
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"[Don] Imus has the influence of the airwaves and that influence is ratified by the powerful political and media figures who appear on his show. That is why we have to pay more attention to this than to regular racist comments."
-- Elizabeth Alexander, professor of African-American studies and of English, on the controversy over the radio host's derogatory joke about the Rutger's women's basketball team, "Imus Fallout In D.C.," Hartford Courant, April 11, 2007.
§
"I doubt you'll find an anthropologist of my generation who regards [New Age author Carlos] Castaneda as anything but a clever con man. It was a hoax, and surely Don Juan never existed as anything like the figure of his books. Perhaps to many it is an amusing footnote to the gullibility of naive scholars, although to me it remains a disturbing and unforgivable breach of ethics."
-- William W. Kelly, the Sumitomo Professor of Japanese Studies and chair of the Department of Anthropology, about the best-selling 1970s author who claimed to have consciousness-raising experiences under the tutelage of a Native American guide, "The Dark Legacy of Carlos Castaneda," Salon.com, April 12, 2007.
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"Climate change is very unfair. The bulk of the impact will fall on the low-latitude countries -- which are also the poorest. Most of the [big CO2 emitters] will be hardly touched. Those that will suffer have hardly anything to do with the emissions. We need to consider doing things that will help them to adapt, for example assisting them out of climate-sensitive sectors such as agriculture. And I suspect that you could get the traditional development agencies like the World Bank involved. Frankly, it's for the good of the whole world."
-- Robert O. Mendelsohn, the Edwin Weyerhaeuser Davis Professor of Forest Policy, "A Moderate Heretic," Newsweek International, April 16, 2007.
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"I have always thought of literature as dealing with extreme situations. It wasn't just a sense of duty that motivated me [to switch from a focus on Romantic era poets to Jewish studies]. Rather, because it is a part of the human condition, the Holocaust is what the humanities should be studying. While it was a change in my direction, I felt no discontinuity."
-- Geoffrey Hartman, Sterling Professor Emeritus of English and Comparative Literature, "Fortunoff Archive Preserves Holocaust Testimonies," Jewish Journal of Greater L.A., April 12, 2007.
§
"History will also note that while primary blame lies with the White House, in October 2002 overwhelming, bipartisan majorities in the House and Senate voted to authorize this war. That there is a growing consensus in both parties that the war was a mistake does not free the United States from its responsibility for creating the power vacuum in Iraq. Withdrawal in the face of a nearly certain humanitarian catastrophe would leave a black mark on America's reputation and diminish its role in the world for generations."
-- Stuart Gottlieb, lecturer in international affairs and political science, in his article, "Will Iraq Be the Next Rwanda?" Washington Post, April 15, 2007.
§
"The IRS already has all the information it needs to fill out the complete forms for millions of wage income taxpayers who don't itemize their deductions. Of course, we wouldn't force anyone to use the IRS' pre-completed form. They could revise it, or they could just throw it away and start from scratch. But as many as 50 million Americans wouldn't need to change a thing. And there are 50 million more where the IRS could make a darn good start. The Feds even know enough to complete your state form for you while they're at it. ... Of course, the tax preparation industry stands to lose a bundle, and that's why it's fighting the idea."
-- Ian Ayres, the William K. Townsend Professor of Law, "For Many, Forms Could Be a Lot Less Taxing," Marketplace.org, April 16, 2007.
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"Cuban ballplayers are desperate to get out of Cuba. The passage of time is much more poignant for ballplayers."
-- Roberto González Echevarría, Sterling Professor of Hispanic and Comparative Literature, "The Cuban Game," Fortune, April 16, 2007.
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"We need to be honest as a society about how we let people decide who they are. I have no problem with the fact that (Barack Obama) decided to be African American ... the honesty of it shows how complex this issue is in society. Blackness is a slippery kind of thing. ... It depends on where you are, how you speak and what group is judging you."
-- Jonathan Holloway, professor of history, of African-American studies and of American studies, "Shades of Black," St. Petersburg Times, April 15, 2007.
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"I think that for the debate today, the middle class is as much a symbol as it is a concrete definition. And I think the symbol is people who are not rich, who have to work hard, usually both parents are working. They probably have children, that's sort of the image that we have, is the hard working middle class family with kids making $60,000 to $80,000 a year, and feeling really strained economically. ... We know that the cost of health care over [the last 25 years] has quadrupled or gotten even bigger than that. We know that the cost of housing has gone way up. We know that the cost of college tuition has gone through the roof. The fact is that being in the middle class means spending a lot more money than it used to. But people don't have a whole lot more money to spend than they used to."
-- Jacob Hacker, professor of political science, "Profile: Squeezed; The Middle Class Is Struggling Financially," "Sunday Morning," CBS News, April 15, 2007.
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"[Anthropologist Stephen Mithen's] argument, essentially, is that music predates language, and that singing actually helped early humans survive by giving them a means to communicate and emphasize with each other. I'm not an anthropologist, so I can't say if he's got the science right, but as a musician, it is certainly compelling. Singing and listening to others sing does seem to move us in a very deep and fundamental way; we're hardwired to make and receive music. Without it, a part of us is empty. I suppose what anyone looks for in a musical performance is a desire on the part of the performers to communicate, to say something, and to make a connection with the people who are there to listen."
-- Jeffrey Douma, adjunct assistant professor of music, "A Return to His Artistic Roots," Marshal Independent (MN), April 11, 2007.
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"This new wave of informed consent legislation and litigation is dangerous precisely because it misleads. Its anti-abortion premises and purposes are dressed up in the language of the pro-choice claim -- as restrictions designed to protect women's welfare and women's freedom."
-- Reva Siegel, the Nicholas deB Katzenbach Professor of Law, about South Dakota legislation requiring that women undergoing an abortion be informed that it will terminate the life of a living being with whom the woman has an existing relationship that is protected by law, "Consenting Adults; The Next Frontier in the Legal Battle Over Abortion Is Whether Women Need Protection from Themselves," The American Prospect, April 13, 2007.
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"With Connecticut preparing to join California, New Jersey and roughly 20 other states in what is now being called the 'super-duper Tuesday' presidential primary, America seems inexorably headed toward a national primary -- not because anyone necessarily wants one, but because states are rushing madly to be the 'first' to select the next presidential nominee. The predictable result of this race to the front will be that candidates will no longer wage local campaigns -- no more getting to know the individual voters in Iowa and New Hampshire -- and will be pressured to mount a national campaign from day one. Even worse, with more states pushing their primaries to the first week of February, the nominee for each party will effectively be chosen when people are only beginning to pay attention to presidential politics."
-- Chad Flanders, student at the Law School, in his article, "Defusing Primary Primacy," The Hartford Courant, April 13, 2007.
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"The focus should be on prevention [of accidental poisonings of children], not
a passive approach like 'Oh, it just
happened.'"
-- Dr. Carl Baum, associate professor of pediatric emergency medicine, "Everyday Poisons Lurk in All Homes: Experts Say Emphasis Should Be on Prevention," New Haven Register, April 15, 2007.
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"Do you have any kids in college? If so, your thoughts Monday may have run something like mine. In your imagination, you put your child in one of those Virginia Tech classrooms. Then you willed that child to escape. You thought about her: she's gutsy -- she'd never cower in a corner or allow herself to be stood in line to accept execution -- right? At some point, the gunman would have stopped to reload. 'Quick! Rush him!' You're coaching the child, trying to speak into her brain. 'Go for the windows! Don't accept death! Act!' I first started running these scenarios in my head after Columbine. I bet I'm not alone. My kids, like your kids, got on the bus every morning, enfolded into a world they presumed was safe. ... How many parents in this cruel week are sitting with these thoughts, aching for the ones who lost their babies to some insane piece of happenstance -- and at the same time trying to trick ourselves out of this horrible vulnerability -- not my child? Couldn't happen. When the awful truth is, it could. It can."
-- Susanna Rodell, student at the Law School, in her article, "Keeping Them Safe, If Only in Your Mind," Hartford Courant, April 18, 2007.
T H I S
W E E K ' SS T O R I E S
Center's initiative to promote understanding of Middle East
New policies offer academic relief to Ph.D. students who are new parents
Despite challenges, accessibility improving in Yale buildings
'Growing and Learning Together'
Immunology comes of age at the School of Medicine
The nation needs more 'conversation,' says television anchor
SOM HONORS
State Hispanic organization recognizes the school for . . .
First-year students win an online contest involving the simulation . . .
Yale Rep ends season with East Coast premiere of 'The Unmentionables'
Art exhibit explores the question: 'What Is a Line?'
Smoking status a 'red flag' for alcohol misuse, study finds
Study reveals abnormal patterns of facial recognition . . .
Student-made machines will vie in 'Yale Robot Wars' competition
Display explores historical process of globalization
Panel to discuss the early shapers of globalization
Show sketches the lives of residential college namesakes
Divinity School event to examine issues of 'Faith and Citizenship'
Brain networks strengthened by closing ion channels, study finds
Attention deficits found in teen smokers who were exposed to . . .
A2K2 conference will focus on access to knowledge issues
Films and readings will offer insights into views on aging in India and Japan
Center's inaugural conference will explore ways that social . . .
Event showcases medical students' original research
New system eliminates wait time for bus riders
Campus Notes
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