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The Yale Alumni Magazine is owned and operated by Yale Alumni Publications, Inc., a nonprofit corporation independent of Yale University. The content of the magazine and its website is the responsibility of the editors and does not necessarily reflect the views of Yale or its officers. |
School Notes School of Architecture Architecture professor to work with FES program Recently appointed professor Michelle Addington brings a unique combination of expertise to the new joint degree program with the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. She specializes in two areas: energy, environment, and sustainability; and advanced technologies and smart materials. She defines smart materials as “those that directly undergo a transformation in one of their properties or transform energy in relation to their environment.” For example, thermochromatic materials are one color at a given temperature and another color at a different temperature. But unlike many other architects who are interested in smart materials, she says, “I choose them not because of what they look like but because of what they can do—make discrete, local, and direct modifications to the immediate environment.” Addington has a courtesy joint appointment at FES. The joint degree program is beginning with just a handful of students, but she’s enthusiastic about the program’s potential. “What's super about working with FES is that we recognize there’s a certain amount of science and knowledge that doesn’t belong to architecture, and so instead of bringing a green overlay [to it], we’re trying to respect the field and depend upon another discipline’s knowledge.” Building project embraces new challenges The First-Year Building Project, which began four decades ago to give hands-on design experience to architecture students, will offer two new challenges this year for the students designing a home for a low-income family. One is that this year’s design includes an attached rental apartment for the first time; the second is that the home has to meet the standards of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The ground floor, where the owner will live, is designed to be barrier-free. The project’s new development partner, Common Ground, describes itself as the “nation's largest not-for-profit developer of supportive housing” and has prioritized disabled female veterans for this type of two-family housing. The new homeowner is a disabled female Iraq War vet. “We’re hoping that this project and the ones we anticipate in the future,” says Dean Robert A. M. Stern, “will develop new templates for urban infill housing for veterans and take into consideration in creative ways the needs of disabled and elderly people. From the point of view of pedagogy, it’s very important to our students to be introduced to this field of architecture." The home is being built on Kossuth Street in New Haven’s Hill neighborhood and is scheduled for completion this fall. All moved in, for now The School of Architecture has moved into temporary quarters around the corner in the new Sculpture Building on Howe Street. “It’s working out beautifully,” Dean Stern says. “It will be home to the [Art School's] sculpture department once we go back into our building, but we are enjoying the space. Our own building renovation is going full-tilt and we expect to be back in by next summer.”
School of Art Sculpture building open, but not for art students The new School of Art Sculpture Building, which has been constructed between Park, Edgewood, and Howe streets, opened its doors in late July, but sculpture faculty and students will still have to wait at least a year before they can take advantage of the space. The new structure is currently housing the School of Architecture while the Paul Rudolph-designed A&A Building undergoes complete renovation. Meanwhile, the sculpture program remains at Hammond Hall across campus. Sculpture faculty exhibit in United States and abroad With the sculpture department staying put in Hammond Hall, primary sculpture faculty have had time to prepare for exhibitions of their work. Lecturer Daphne Fitzpatrick will have a solo show at Bellwether in New York City from October 11 to November 10. Associate professor Joe Scanlan has two exhibitions on view this fall in Europe, one at the Kunstammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen in Dusseldorf, Germany, and another at the Institut d'Art Contemporain in Villeurbanne, France. And Professor Jessica Stockholder '85MFA, director of studies in sculpture, is showing her work this fall in Los Angeles and Vienna, Austria, and is working on an outdoor piece for Madison Square Park in New York City.
Yale College Scholar in American Indian studies to lead Native American Cultural Center Yale’s first director of the Native American Cultural Center is Shelly C. Lowe, who has been the facilitator of the American Indian Studies Program at the University of Arizona for the past six years. In that role she served as academic adviser for the undergraduate students in this program, and coordinated many aspects of admissions, financial aid, curriculum development, special event planning, and alumni relations. Lowe has published research on the use of campus services by Native American students and is a member of the research team conducting the Gathering of Voices Project sponsored by the National Institute of Native Leaders in Higher Education. She serves on the board of directors of the National Museum of the American Indian and was vice president of the National Indian Education Association. Lowe is completing her doctorate at the University of Arizona’s Center for the Study of Higher Education. Her program of study emphasizes American Indian college-student development and achievement. She received her undergraduate education in sociology and American Indian studies at the University of Arizona as well as a master’s degree in American Indian studies and a graduate certificate in college teaching. Three colleges welcome new deans Daniel Tauss '94 returns to Yale as dean of Branford College. He earned a BA in religious studies at Yale, where he was a member of Branford College and served as a freshman counselor for the Class of 1997. He acquired an MA in Asian studies and comparative philosophy at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and an MPhil in Chinese history at the University of Cambridge, and he is currently a doctoral candidate in politics and international relations at the University of Southern California. Tauss brings extensive experience to his new role as dean, having directed a residential college of 700 students, coordinated a faculty-in-residence program, and taught courses in philosophy, political science, and international relations. He has also been involved in training students to be college resident advisors. His leisure pursuits have at various times included snorkeling, scuba diving, and sailing. Joining Calhoun College as its dean is Leslie Woodard, who earned a BA in literature and writing at Columbia University and an MA in creative writing at New York University. Woodard has published a number of articles and short stories in magazines and has had her work anthologized in Streetlights: Tales of the Urban Black Experience and in Men We Cherish: African American Women Praise the Men in Their Lives. Her short story collection, The Silver Crescent, was published last year, and she is currently at work on a novel that is loosely drawn from her decade-long experience as a professional dancer with the Dance Theater of Harlem. As director of undergraduate creative writing at Columbia, Woodard has shepherded student groups and activities, advised students on academic and personal matters, and counseled faculty on issues related to syllabus development and student advising. She has taught introductory courses on poetry, prose poetry, drama, and fiction, as well as intermediate and advanced fiction workshops. Woodard is an avid dressage rider, and is also a devotee of film, classical and jazz music, and opera. The new dean of Morse College is Joel Silverman, who earned a BA in English from Cornell University, and his MA and PhD, both in American studies, from the University of Texas-Austin. Silverman’s research interests include rhetoric and its relation to a variety of issues and topics, including socio-cultural reform; masculinity; biography and autobiography; and the law. Currently an instructor of writing in Yale College and in the School of Management, Silverman has taught non-native graduate students in Yale’s English Language Institute and adult professionals in the New Dimensions Program at Albertus Magnus College. A native of Connecticut, Silverman has studied at the University of Seville and worked in Madrid as a translator. He has eaten fried rattlesnake in Austin, Texas, and played jazz with Dave Brubeck in Wilton, Connecticut. A huge fan of music and movies, and of good writing of all kinds, he is currently working on a biography of Morris Ernst, the civil-liberties attorney who successfully defended James Joyce’s Ulysses against obscenity charges. Joining Silverman in Morse is his wife Alba Estenoz, a native of Spain (and pastry chef at Zinc and Chow restaurants on Chapel Street), and their son, Noah, a first-grader.
Divinity School Berkeley Divinity alumna is first female bishop in Connecticut's Episcopal diocese In a June 30 ceremony at Woolsey Hall, Laura J. Ahrens '91MDiv was consecrated as a suffragan bishop by Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, the first woman to head the Episcopal Church in America. Ahrens, a graduate of Berkeley Divinity School, the Episcopal Church affiliate of Yale Divinity School, has promised to dedicate herself to “a ministry of listening, listening to all persons, seeking both unity and the excitement of our diversity.” Under the Yale/Berkeley collaboration, Berkeley students earn a degree from Yale Divinity School and a diploma in Anglican studies from Berkeley. Joseph H. Britton, dean of Berkeley Divinity School, called the Yale/Berkeley collaboration an “extraordinary environment for theological education.” Britton was recently reappointed to a second five-year term as dean. Scholarship honors retiring pastor The First Congregational Church of Darien, Connecticut, has established a scholarship at the Divinity School in recognition of Ronald Evans '70BD and his wife, Janet, as well as generations of other YDS graduates who have provided leadership to the congregation. Evans stepped down as senior pastor this spring, after 22 years in the Darien pulpit. The scholarship will be awarded annually with a preference for students preparing to serve in parish ministry. Biblical scholar remembered Brevard S. Childs '66MAH, Sterling Professor Emeritus of Divinity and one of the most influential Old Testament scholars of the twentieth century, died June 23 in New Haven at the age of 83. As an Old Testament professor at YDS from 1958 to 1999, Childs shaped several generations of students and helped define new approaches to post-war biblical scholarship. With at least eight of his books in print in three languages and a manuscript for a new book completed shortly before his death, Childs was a prolific author who did not shrink from joining the academic debates of his day. “As a colleague dedicated to the highest ideals of rigorous scholarship and engaged theological reflection on Scripture, he will be long remembered and revered at Yale Divinity School,” noted Dean Harold Attridge. New but old organ graces Marquand Chapel Marquand Chapel was a busy place during summer 2007, despite the lack of students on campus. Workers installed a new crown jewel in the chapel balcony: one of the few, and one of the largest, meantone organs in North America. The Institute of Sacred Music’s new organ arrived in pieces on June 6, and the crew from the Taylor and Boody organ shop in Staunton, Virginia, was in New Haven all summer installing and voicing the instrument. The meantone system of tuning keyboard instruments, which enables instruments to play in five or six closely related keys rather than in one key only, was prevalent from about 1500 through the eighteenth century during the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic periods. The organ will be inaugurated October 5-6 during a weekend of musical events that kicks off “Fanfare!,” a yearlong celebration of the organ's installation.
School of Drama Recognition for technical design professor In August President Rick Levin named Bronislaw “Ben” Sammler the Henry McCormick Professor (Adjunct) of Technical Design and Production. Sammler has been on the Yale faculty for over 35 years, mentoring hundreds of technical theater majors towards successful careers. Currently he chairs the drama school’s technical design and production department and edits Technical Brief, a how-to guide for theater technical professionals. Last November the New England Theatre Conference (NETC) presented Sammler with the Leonidas A. Nickole Theatre Educator Award—the first time the NETC has so honored a theatrical design and production educator. Yale Cabaret celebrates 40th anniversary season Yale Cabaret, the legendary basement theater run by Yale School of Drama students, marks its 40th season of creating daring theater during 2007-2008. To celebrate this milestone, Yale Cabaret will present two special events as a prelude to the season: “An Evening of Cabaret,” featuring musical and burlesque acts, on September 21- 22, and a “Festival of New Work,” September 26-29. Also new this season is “The Afterparty,” a late-night Friday showcase of local bands and performance artists, which begins October 5. Founded in 1968, Yale Cabaret began as a late-night coffee house and private performance space for Yale School of Drama faculty and guest artists. The Cabaret was eventually handed over to the students as a public laboratory for their personal projects in experimental theater. Unique to Yale Cabaret is that every year, a new leadership team has the exciting job of creating a new artistic vision—which is why no two seasons are alike. At the helm this year are co-artistic directors Becca Wolff '09MFA and Erik Pearson '09MFA, who are in the directing program, and managing director Jacob Padron '08MFA, who is pursuing a degree in theater management. Works by YSD alumnus on stage Theater companies from New York to London are producing plays by Tarell Alvin McCraney '07MFA in the coming months. The New York Public Theatre will present McCraney’s The Brothers Size, directed by classmate Tea Alagic '07MFA, this fall; it will travel to the Studio Theatre in Washington, D.C., in January. A different staging of the play is scheduled for November at the Young Vic in London. In February, McCraney’s In the Red and Brown Water will be produced by Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre.
School of Forestry & Environmental Studies Program to encourage “green” industry in developing countries A Yale research team is introducing a program that will encourage the adoption of environmentally friendly industrial activity in developing countries. The program will examine the flow of energy, materials, and water through industry and the natural environment. The first studies are being conducted in China and India, whose rapidly industrializing economies are putting a strain on natural resources. The program’s ultimate goal is to encourage ecologically sustainable industrial production that is fueled by firms that share resources and waste. “Industrial ecology is especially critical for developing countries, where large, poor populations are urbanizing rapidly and depleting key resources,” said Marian Chertow, director of the program for the Yale Center for Industrial Ecology. “Resource productivity and eco-efficient industry are urgently needed to address these challenges to sustainable development.” The Chinese government has already created 16 eco-industrial park projects that are intended to serve as prototypes for ecologically sustainable production. China has been seeking a new industrialization model that will reconcile rapid economic growth and environmental degradation; the proposed Circular Economy Promotion Law would require an evaluation of the environmental friendliness of products before they enter the market. In India, the Yale team will work with regional planners and the nonprofit Resource Optimization Initiative in Bangalore to identify the flow of resources through local economies and what is being used and wasted. Besides Professor Chertow, Matthew Eckelman of the Yale School of Engineering will run the India/South Asia Program, and Shi Han of F&ES is leading the team’s efforts in China. Eco-rating system created for land development Yale researchers have created a rating system to encourage ecologically sound land development. The Land and Natural Development (LAND) Code (published by John Wiley & Sons) provides architects, engineers, landscape architects, developers, and city officials with a science-based rating system that awards either a silver, gold, or platinum designation based on how well a parcel of land is developed in harmony with the natural environment. “The goal in creating the LAND code has been to delineate a clear and practical pathway for developing sites in harmony with natural processes,” said Gaboury Benoit, a co-author of the book and professor of environmental chemistry at the environment school. “Land will inevitably be developed, and this book shows how that can be done with the least environmental harm.” The book includes easy-to-read chapters on water, soil, air, energy, living resources, and materials, and contains examples of projects that have been sustainably developed (meaning that an ecosystem maintains a defined or desired state of ecological integrity over time). Retaining ecological integrity does not necessarily mean leaving nature alone, according to co-author Diana Balmori, a landscape architect and lecturer in landscape and urban history at Yale. “Sometimes the best results can be achieved with intensively engineered methods,” she said. “Nevertheless, we try to recommend ways that natural processes can be partly retained or re-created by the use of engineered structures and practices that emulate the natural processes they supplant. We believe that environmental sustainability furthers human sustainability by creating systems that contribute to people’s comfort, enjoyment, and health.”
Graduate School of Arts & Sciences Wilbur Cross medals honor outstanding alumni The Graduate School Alumni Association will award the Wilbur Cross Medal—the Graduate School’s highest honor—on October 9 to five distinguished alumni of the school. The medal recognizes achievements in scholarship, teaching, academic administration, and public service. This year's Wilbur Cross medalists are: Carol T. Christ '70PhD (English), president, Smith College; Paul Friedrich '57PhD (anthropology), professor of social thought, anthropology, and linguistics, University of Chicago; Yoriko Kawaguchi '72MPhil (economics), senator in the House of Councillors (Japan), former foreign minister of Japan; Anne Walters Robertson '84PhD (music), the Claire Dux Swift Distinguished Service Professor in Music, University of Chicago; and John Suppe '69PhD (geology and geophysics), Blair Professor of Geology, Princeton University. Each department will host a lunch for graduate students and faculty, followed by a lecture or informal conversation with the medalist. Honorees will be feted at a formal dinner in the library court of the Yale Center for British Art. The Wilbur Cross Medal is named for Wilbur Lucius Cross, who was dean of the Graduate School from 1916 to 1930. He was a scholar of distinction who wrote definitive works on English literature, revived and edited the Yale Review, and, following retirement from Yale, served as governor of Connecticut for four terms. Immersion in English for incoming Chinese students Speaking English is a challenge for many international students when they first arrive at Yale. To enhance English language skills for those coming from China—the largest cohort of international students—the Graduate School piloted an intensive one-month immersion program in Beijing this past summer. Participants pledged to speak only English for the duration of the program. Developed through a year-long collaboration between the Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU) faculty and Yale’s English Language Institute, sessions focused on oral English proficiency and featured a high level of personalized training: no more than five students were assigned to each instructor. Written comprehension and composition were also taught. Twenty-five students from the People’s Republic of China registered for the program, which was fully funded by the Graduate School, including housing and meals. Weekend events introduced the students to Yale alumni and students living in or visiting Beijing. “We hope that these social events allow the students to learn more about American culture and graduate education. Of course, they also provide the students an excellent opportunity to practice their English with future peers and faculty,” said Associate Dean Richard Sleight, who helped organize the program. Alumnus receives National Medal of Science Gordon Bower '56PhD (psychology), the Albert Ray Lang Professor of Psychology, Emeritus, at Stanford University, was named one of seven recipients of the National Medal of Science. Bower, 74, is a cognitive psychologist specializing in experimental studies of human memory, language comprehension, emotion, and behavior modification. He retired in 2005 following a 46-year career at Stanford and is considered one of the nation’s leading experimental psychologists and learning theorists. In 2002, he was ranked one of the 100 most eminent psychologists of the twentieth century in a study published by the Review of General Psychology. Established by Congress in 1959 and administered by the National Science Foundation, the National Medal of Science is the nation’s highest scientific honor. Bower was cited “for his unparalleled contributions to cognitive and mathematical psychology, for his lucid analyses of remembering and reasoning, and for his important service to psychology and to American science.”
Law School Indiana Jones production films at Law School Yale Law School got a taste of show biz when a crew from Paramount Pictures arrived to shoot several scenes for Steven Spielberg’s new Indiana Jones movie, set in 1957 and starring Harrison Ford. The script called for a “small but important” scene in a dean's office and nearby corridor, and Yale Law School had the look film scouts were going for. Set dressers converted the faculty dining room into a dean’s office, and in the Dean’s Row seminar corridor, crew members painted walls, replaced doors, and changed lighting fixtures. After a number of schedule changes, filming went off without a hitch on June 29. Dean Harold Hongju Koh said, “We are tickled that Steven Spielberg chose to film a 'small but important' scene of his classic series at our small but important law school. Certainly, having them here made for a fun few summer days for the members of our community.” For more, see “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Ivory.” Foundation grant will support work of China Law Center Since its inception in 1999, the China Law Center has focused on designing and carrying out in-depth cooperative projects between U.S. and Chinese experts on key issues of Chinese law and policy reform. Now a $10 million grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, among the largest foundation grants ever made to a Yale Law School program, will provide general support to the center over five years. “We hope to continue to find ways to contribute to China’s reform process and to a better understanding of China in the United States,” said Professor Paul Gewirtz '70JD, the center’s founder and director. Dean Harold Hongju Koh added that the grant “affirms the center’s key role in the life of an increasingly global Yale Law School.” Class of 2007 offsets graduation travel with carbon-neutral commencement The YLS Class of 2007 has much to be proud of, including the “carbon-neutral” commencement it orchestrated with the help of 11 student organizations. After calculating the greenhouse gas emissions that would be generated by commencement guests traveling to New Haven, the student groups approached WindCurrent, a Maryland-based company that helps offset electricity usage with clean, renewable wind power. WindCurrent agreed to donate 400,000 pounds of carbon offsets, which translated to about 280,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity. Law School launches law and media program Yale Law School will train the next generation’s leading legal journalists and media lawyers with the help of a newly created Knight Law and Media Scholars Program. The program, funded partly by a $2.5 million challenge grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, builds on the Law School’s leadership in law and media. It will include law and media courses, research fellowships, summer internships, career counseling, a speaker series, and a student organization focused on law and media. It will also feature an annual training program for midcareer journalists. “This new program will build upon our remarkable history of producing leading legal journalists, First Amendment lawyers, and media entrepreneurs uniquely able to explore the common intellectual space where the law and media intersect,” said Dean Harold Hongju Koh. (For more, see “Light & Verity.”) The school aims to create a total $5 million endowment to keep the program going in perpetuity. Joining the Knight Foundation as co-investor is Steven Brill '75JD, founder of Court TV and The American Lawyer magazine. He has pledged to support the Law School’s program in addition to his support of an undergraduate journalism program.
School of Management Top finance academic joins faculty Andrew Metrick '89, '89MA, an associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, has been named professor of finance at SOM and will begin his new position on January 1, 2008. Metrick joined the faculty at Wharton in 1999; before that he spent five years teaching economics at Harvard University. He has been honored with more than a dozen teaching awards and distinctions, including two years (2003 and 2007) as the highest-rated professor in the Wharton MBA program. In 1998, he received the highest teaching honor at Harvard College, and in 2005 he received the highest teaching honor at the University of Pennsylvania. Metrick is considered a rising star in finance. In his most recent research, he created a method that makes it easier for venture capitalists to calculate realistic valuations of start-ups, high-growth companies, and IPOs. The model is outlined in his book Venture Capital and the Finance of Innovation (John Wiley & Sons, 2006). Dean Joel M. Podolny commented, “Andrew is an exceptional scholar, with important, creative contributions in a number of areas of finance. I am delighted that he is joining our distinguished finance faculty.” Two professors to be New York Times columnists The New York Times named Bob Shiller, Stanley B. Resor Professor of Economics, and Judith Chevalier '89, William S. Beinecke Professor of Finance and Economics, as rotating columnists for The Economic View. The column runs on Sundays in the business section and covers a variety of economic subjects. The two will be part of an eight-economist group that will write the column. New faculty in varied disciplines New assistant professors bring to SOM their expertise in organizational behavior, accounting, economics, and marketing. Daylian Cain, assistant professor of organizational behavior, joins Yale from Harvard University’s economics department, where he was the Russell Sage Fellow of Behavioral Economics. He holds master’s degrees in philosophy, ethics, and organizational behavior, and received a PhD in organizational behavior from Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business. Merle Ederhof, assistant professor of accounting, is from the doctoral program in accounting at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Her research focuses on managerial accounting issues, executive compensation, incentive contracts, and corporate governance. Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak, assistant professor of economics, taught development economics at the University of Colorado-Boulder. He has also held positions at the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. He received an MA and PhD in economics from the University of Maryland-College Park. Oliver Rutz, assistant professor of marketing, joins Yale from the doctoral program in marketing at the UCLA Anderson School of Management, where he also received his MBA. His current research focuses on Internet advertising and search engine marketing.
School of Medicine Transplant program transformed Yale’s section of Organ Transplantation and Immunology recently received a transplant of its own. Sukru Emre, former director of the adult and pediatric liver transplant programs at Mount Sinai Medical Center, in New York, was named section chief. Emre’s appointment was made as Yale makes a $12.5 million investment in its transplant section. His mission is to revive a largely inactive liver transplant program while strengthening Yale’s kidney and pancreatic transplant sections. A native of Turkey and a world-renowned transplant surgeon, Emre is recognized for his innovative solutions to clinical problems. He has dealt successfully with the shortage of organ donors though split liver transplants, in which sections of a single liver are used for two patients. Emre’s long-term goal is to increase the number of liver transplants at Yale from four or five a year to between 80 and 100; double the number of kidney transplants to 150; and bring the number of pancreatic transplants up to 20. The clock is ticking on Lyme Disease Medical school researchers have identified a chink in the lifecycle of the tick-borne bacterium that causes Lyme disease, suggesting a way to stop ticks from carrying the disease. Ticks pick up the bacterium as larvae when they suck blood from mice. As the tick bites the mouse, it injects a protein that suppresses the mouse’s immune response. Erol Fikrig, professor of medicine, epidemiology, and microbial pathogenesis, and colleagues discovered that the bacterium, B. burgdorferi, uses this protein to move from mouse to tick. When the researchers blocked the protein, either by preventing ticks from producing it or by inducing the mice to block it, the bacterium couldn’t survive. The findings, published in the inaugural issue of Cell Host & Microbe, in July, could help prevent infections in humans by targeting the bacterium at this early stage in its lifecycle. For more on this story, see “Findings.” From the hospital wards to the halls of Congress John Barrasso, an orthopedic surgeon who received his medical degree from Georgetown in 1978 and did his residency at Yale medical school, is the new Republican U.S. senator from Wyoming. He was named in June to replace the late Sen. Craig Thomas. Barrasso, 54, was previously a rodeo physician for the Professional Rodeo Cowboy’s Association and a volunteer team physician for Casper College as well as several local high schools. He also served as chief of staff of the Wyoming Medical Center, as president of the National Association of Physician Broadcasters, and as a member of the American Medical Association Council of Ethics and Judicial Affairs. Barrasso, who was twice elected to the Wyoming state senate, believes in “limited government, lower taxes, less spending, traditional values, local control, and a strong defense.” His priorities as a U.S. senator include supporting rural health care, promoting energy independence and the agriculture industry, and abolishing the so-called death tax. Rested doctors make for healthier patients When medical residents work fewer hours, fewer patients are transferred to intensive care and there aren’t as many medication mishaps, according to a Yale School of Medicine study in the Annals of Internal Medicine. The study also found that when residents work shorter shifts, more patients are discharged to their homes or rehabilitation centers rather than to nursing homes. (See Noted, July/August.) In 2003, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education implemented regulations limiting residents to 80 hours a week. The rules were intended to reduce errors caused by fatigue, but there was concern that transferring patient care more often could increase errors. Dr. Leora Horwitz, postdoctoral fellow in internal medicine, and colleagues looked at data for patients discharged one year before and one year after these work-hour regulations were instituted. “We found no evidence of adverse unintended consequences after the institution of work-hour regulation,” said Horwitz. Besides reducing residents' fatigue, she said, the positive result could be due to the increased clinical involvement of more senior physicians to compensate for the turnover of residents.
School of Music How to get to Carnegie Hall A series of five concerts in Carnegie Hall this season will illustrate Yale’s great musical legacy, showcase our renowned faculty artists, and bring to the nation’s most fabled concert hall young performers of unusual promise who have come to study at Yale. The first concert, on October 1 in Carnegie’s Zankel Hall, will feature the Tokyo String Quartet, in residence at Yale since 1976, and the Alianza Quartet, a post-graduate ensemble that the Tokyo Quartet has been mentoring for the past several years. The program includes the Alianza performing the Brahms piano quintet with another esteemed member of the Yale faculty, pianist Claude Frank. On October 29 in Weill Recital Hall, the school will present an evening of songs by Charles Ives, Class of 1898. Programs for February and March have not yet been announced, but the season will conclude with a concert by the Philharmonia Orchestra of Yale in Stern auditorium, featuring pianist Boris Berman in a Prokofiev piano concerto. Honoring a Yale great Professor Emeritus Keith Wilson, known to three generations of Yale College and School of Music alumni as the director of bands, clarinet professor, director of the Norfolk Summer School of Music, associate dean of the School of Music, conductor, and arranger, was honored at ClarinetFest 2007, the convention of the International Clarinet Association, in Vancouver, British Columbia. The July 6 tribute was organized by two of Wilson’s former School of Music clarinet students, Bonnie Campbell '87MusM, on the faculty of Chicago’s Merit School of Music, and Francois Houle '87MusM, one of Canada’s leading clarinetists. Several of Wilson’s students and colleagues, all fine performers, were on hand to pay tribute to his artistry and inspiring teaching: Derek Bermel '89, composer and clarinetist; Roger Cole '82MusAD, professor at the University of Idaho; Gene Collerd '73, '74MusM, professor at the University of Illinois, Chicago; Eric Mandat '81MusM, professor at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale; and Richard Stoltzman '67MusM, renowned soloist and chamber musician. Greetings from Yale came from a more recent clarinet alumnus, Deputy Dean Thomas G. Masse, '92ArtA. Joining the alumni group was David Shifrin, who became clarinet professor at Yale on Wilson’s retirement in 1987. After nearly two hours of tributes and great clarinet playing, the entire group played the premiere of “Lobgesang” (Song of Praise), written for the occasion by Professor of Music Joan Panetti '74MusAD. Unfortunately, Keith Wilson could not attend the event due to a brief illness. However, the organizers made a high-definition video of the event, which he was able to enjoy later in the month.
School of Nursing YSN mourns loss of nursing trailblazer Rhetaugh Dumas '61MSN, the first woman, first African American, and first nurse to be formally appointed deputy director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), passed away on July 22 at the Houston Hospice. Dumas was director of nursing at Yale–New Haven Hospital from 1967 to 1972. She also was among the earliest researchers to use randomized experimental design to study clinical problems in patient care. In 1996, Dumas was appointed by President Clinton to the National Bioethics Advisory Commission. A native of Natchez, Mississippi, Dumas also served as chief of psychiatric nursing education at the NIMH in Rockville, Maryland. She held the posts of professor, dean, and vice provost at the University of Michigan School of Nursing, achieving emerita status in 1997. She was a member of the Institute of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences, and was a charter fellow in the American Academy of Nursing, serving as president from 1987 to 1989. In addition, Dumas served as president of the National League of Nursing, which is the standard-setting and accrediting body for nursing education. Nurse leader returns to Yale to lead YSN board Yale University School of Nursing has named Angela McBride '64MSN to head its three-year old External Advisory Board, which provides counsel to the dean in matters relating to YSN's strategic plan. McBride is dean emerita of the University of Indiana School of Nursing. “Angela brings an exceptional combination of leadership, understanding, and sense of mission to this board,” commented Margaret Grey, dean and Annie Goodrich Professor at YSN. “I know that the school will benefit greatly from her wisdom and energy.” During her tenure as dean, McBride served as senior vice president for academic affairs-nursing within Clarian Health Partners, the largest hospital network in Indiana and the third largest in the United States. Currently, she is a member of the Clarian board, and chairs the board’s Committee on Quality and Patient Care. She is known for her contributions to women’s health, particularly the psychology of parenthood, and to psychiatric-mental health nursing. In keeping with her multidisciplinary interests, she is an adjunct professor in the departments of psychology, psychiatry, women’s studies, and philanthropic studies on nursing's core campus of Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis (IUPUI). She has received honorary doctorates from several universities, and awards for professional distinction from a number of academic institutions, including the Distinguished Alumna Award from YSN in 1978. In 1995, she received the “Outstanding Contributions to Nursing and Health Psychology” award from the American Psychological Association’s Division 38 on Health Psychology. That same year, she was elected to membership in the Institute of Medicine. YSN professor researching “home” benefits for elderly YSN assistant professor Sheila Molony was recently awarded the John A. Hartford Foundation Claire M. Fagin Fellowship to conduct research in gerontological mental-health nursing. Interviews with nursing-facility residents reveal a wide range of residential satisfaction and social engagement, but a universal theme expressed by residents is, “It isn’t home. “ Indeed, at least two studies have characterized the experience of nursing-home dwelling as becoming homeless. Residents have reported experiences of constraint, dehumanization, boredom, helplessness, loneliness, and intrusive beneficence. Nursing scholarship has contributed to improved quality of care in nursing homes by addressing issues such as fall-risk reduction, restraint reduction, individualized dining, individualized bathing, and interventions to address behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia. Nursing and interdisciplinary interventions may increase the capacity for residents to thrive in these settings—but first we need better understanding of the intimate relationship between person and environment. As part of Molony's fellowship, she will be conducting a longitudinal mixed-methods study exploring “at-homeness” for residents of a traditional skilled nursing facility and for residents of innovative new “Small Houses,” which are modeled after the Green Houses in Tupelo, Mississippi. Molony will be exploring the relationship between “at-homeness” and physical, mental, psychological, and social health variables. In a separate study, she will be testing the feasibility of a care-planning intervention based upon individualized assessments of memories, meanings, and experiences of home.
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Note to Readers The Yale Alumni Magazine carries this supplement in every issue for news from Yale’s graduate and professional schools and Yale College. This supplement is underwritten by the university and is not produced by the magazine staff but provided by the schools. |
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