Wednesday, March 31, 2010

* Despair



















Berkeley junior dies in N.Y.


By The Yale Daily News

Published Wednesday, March 31, 2010


Updated, 11:31 a.m. Berkeley College junior Cameron Dabaghi, an East Asian studies major from Austin, Texas, took his life in New York City on Tuesday, Yale College Dean Mary Miller said in an e-mail to the College community Wednesday morning.
Rescue workers found Dabaghi on 34th Street after he jumped from the observation deck of the Empire State Building around 6:15 p.m. on Tuesday, according to the New York Police Department.
"We are all deeply distressed by this news," Miller wrote in her e-mail to the College.
Dabaghi's sister, Andrene Dabaghi '12, is...



Posts in chronological order

.

NB
Post # 42 says "By Paul Keane" in the header but was not written by me.


#1 By Walden 10:03a.m. on March 31, 2010

Or you can also call Walden from 8pm-8am every night.
203-432-TALK.

#2 By Michigan 10:36a.m. on March 31, 2010

My thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends.

#3 By By California 11:08a.m. on March 31, 2010

Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends also.

#4 By FailBoat 11:17a.m. on March 31, 2010

RIP Cam. My prayers are with your family and friends.

#5 By Sam Jackson + Yale PKU 11:35a.m. on March 31, 2010

Cameron, you will be missed by us all. I can't believe this tragic event has come to pass - it is like a terrible april fools joke. We will carry memories of you always.

#6 By Yale '13 11:37a.m. on March 31, 2010

I hope he has found peace in Heaven. My prayers are with his sister, family, and friends.

#7 By '12 12:31p.m. on March 31, 2010

I'm deeply sorry Andrene, family, and friends.

#8 By Concerned '08 12:37p.m. on March 31, 2010

What the hell is going on at Yale this year?
Also, no matter how confused or distraught or whatever you must be to kill yourself, it is not okay to do it in a manner in which you are very likely to land on someone else.

#9 By 2012 12:39p.m. on March 31, 2010

This year is so so sad. I don't believe anyone died my freshman year, and now we see this year... :( RIP.

#10 By Mexico 12:47p.m. on March 31, 2010

My prayers go out to Cameron's friends and family. Thank God he didn't injure anyone during this terrible event!

#11 By ROFLCOPTER 12:58p.m. on March 31, 2010

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want; He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters; He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for His name's sake.
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil; for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

#12 By le_aviateur021 1:21p.m. on March 31, 2010

This is truly horrible. My prayers will go out to his family. I am so very sorry.

#13 By ? 1:44p.m. on March 31, 2010

I thought reporting methods of suicide is generally a journalistic no-no.
All my love and support to his family and friends, and all my hope that those in mental anguish will reach out to someone rather than choosing to die.

#14 By Sincere Concern 1:50p.m. on March 31, 2010

My sincere condolences to his family and to the Yale community.

It is a delicate matter to broach and I apologize if I am overstepping by doing so here, but this and the earlier untimely undergraduate death at Yale make me worry that the campus itself may be dealing with PTSD from the weeks-long horror of Ms Li's murder first marking period.

Had I not experienced the symptoms of PTSD myself after being present on a campus where students were murdered, I would not be so bold as to offer this as a possibility for considerationn at this time.

As a male, I know how tough it was for me to acknowledge that I was experiencing anxiety and panic attacks, especially since I thought the murders had nothing to do with me.

Such neat logic and compartmentalization are not how the human mind and PTSD work, however. I did not know that at the time and suffered greatly.

I would encourage anyone who is experiencing very dark feelings about life, to consider the possibility that these feelings have nothing to do with your own strength or weakness of character, but are rather a manifestation of Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome.

They can be significantly diminished with professional assistance; I assure you of this from personal experience.

What Yale has experienced this year was a trauma. What is happening now at Yale may be post-trauma-stress.

Very sincerely,
Paul Keane
M.Div.'80

#15 By Jarring 1:54p.m. on March 31, 2010

Off the Empire State you say? Are you serious? This is like from a horror movie! This has to be the most jarring news this year!

#16 By please please please 2:01p.m. on March 31, 2010

This is going to be an extremely difficult time for us as a community and as individuals. If you are sad and need someone to talk to, don't hesitate to turn to your friends or your college master. Despite DUH's uselessness and irresponsibility, there are places you can go for help at Yale.
You are not, and never will be, alone.

#17 By Anonymous 2:21p.m. on March 31, 2010

I only met Cameron a few times, but he seemed like a really nice guy. I'm sorry to hear of this news.

#18 By TC 2:36p.m. on March 31, 2010

Rest in peace, Cameron.

#19 By Yale Parent 2:46p.m. on March 31, 2010

I saw this on the evening news yesterday. It is tragic that this young man took his life. My thoughts are with his family.

#20 By Yale '01 3:11p.m. on March 31, 2010

Such a tragic loss. To anyone who might read this and is contemplating suicide or having suicidal urges, please know that you don't have to suffer. Yale provides psychiatric counseling services to students. Take advantage of the opportunity to talk with a professional about your problems and anxieties. It does get better.

#21 By Y'14 3:29p.m. on March 31, 2010

I am really sorry to hear about Cameron and wish the best for his family and friends.

#22 By Anonymous 3:31p.m. on March 31, 2010

RIP Cameron. My thoughts are with your family and friends. Stay strong Yale, this has been a really difficult year.

#23 By Yale'12 4:11p.m. on March 31, 2010

I feel very sorry for you even if I don't know you. It is immensely tragic that you should decide to take your life. This could have been avoided in so many ways if anyone had sensed something wrong going on, and how sad that this should happen. You have let go of this world, leaving us to grieve.

#24 By y'10 4:21p.m. on March 31, 2010

Paul Keane, there are many things I would like to say to you, but I'll suffice by saying that yes, you are absolutely overstepping. Show some respect.
Cameron, may you be at peace now. My prayers go to his family and friends; I didn't know him, but I can only imagine that this is a heartbreaking time for those who did.



#25 By '00 Yalie (who works in mental health policy) 4:25p.m. on March 31, 2010


Hopefully a YDNer or other admin is monitoring this comment thread---please, PLEASE review the journalistic guidelines for reporting suicides, *especially* in a college campus setting. While I know this news is at the forefront of many Yalies' minds right now, this article is breaking many of the universal rules, which were developed to prevent additional suicide deaths.

Please be a part of the solution, and help prevent a cluster from developing at Yale by adhering to the AFSP's media rules on reporting suicides.

(Here are some basic rules developed by the Annenberg Public Policy Center: www.sprc.org/library/sreporting.pdf)

#26 By Y'12 4:29p.m. on March 31, 2010

I am so so so sorry for this loss. Cam was a funny, nice, and sweet guy. My thoughts are with Andrene and her family.
RIP Cam

#27 By Anonymous 4:40p.m. on March 31, 2010

"... Cameron Dabaghi, 21, from Austin, Texas, jumped from the 86th floor observation deck Tuesday during evening rush hour. His note said he was sorry and he would be jumping from either the George Washington Bridge over the Hudson River in upper Manhattan, or the Empire State building, police said.
There were seven other people on the observation deck at the same time, and one person tried to talk to the jumper as he climbed over the barrier, but was unsuccessful..."

(from the Houston Chronicle

#28 By @#24 5:08p.m. on March 31, 2010

I rarely enjoy PK's posts, but I actually think that this time he is right. The Le murder was a trauma, and has affected us all. As will this tragedy.

My love and support to all, especially those who knew and loved this handsome and kind-looking young man.

#29 By Yale '11 5:11p.m. on March 31, 2010

I'd like to thank Paul Keane for what he said -- it's important to recognize that many students on campus may be feeling confused and conflicted in the aftermath of many events from this year without recognizing why they are feeling that way. I certainly have felt affected by all of it, and I didn't personally know any of the students who have died. Though perhaps PTSD is a strong term, Mr. Keane is simply pointing out that, having lost a number of students this year already, we must take care of everyone who is still here. There are many campus resources, from Health Services to peer-to-peer counseling programs to residential college deans and simply friends and family.

Rest in peace, Cameron. My heart goes out to your friends, family, and everyone else whose life you touched.

#30 By SY12 5:28p.m. on March 31, 2010

This just proves that they really need to fix the counseling system at Yale. It takes months for depressed kids to get an appointment. I would go as far to say that they need to fire at least five new psychiatrists or psychologists.

#31 By @ Paul Keane 5:35p.m. on March 31, 2010

Her name was Annie Le. At least get that part correct, please.



#32 By ugh 5:40p.m. on March 31, 2010

Yo, Paul Keane, her name was Annie Le, not Annie Li.

Spare us your windbaggery and mass diagnosis and just let us grieve.

#33 By fw 5:42p.m. on March 31, 2010

How was that dis-respectful?

#34 By TC '11 5:46p.m. on March 31, 2010

RIP Cameron.

#35 By Something is fishy 5:51p.m. on March 31, 2010

Honestly, I think the authorities should make sure that this is not a homicide. A Yale student committing suicide from the Empire State Building? There are so many ways to die, but this way?

#36 By y'12 5:53p.m. on March 31, 2010

Rest in peace, Cameron. My heart goes out to his family and friends. I wish something could have been done to prevent this.

Yale needs to put more of an effort into reaching out to students who may be depressed or hurting. From personal experience, I tried to get an appointment at Mental Health and had to wait two months after my initial appointment for a follow-up. That is unacceptable, and for many students, too late.

#37 By y'09 5:56p.m. on March 31, 2010

I did not know Cameron extremely well (through some Berkeley C Hoops games and some shared flights back to Texas) but he was a great guy. He was always polite and respectful, and had a great sense of humor. This is a real tragedy.

My thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends, and I hope that he rests in peace now.

#38 By Apology 6:04p.m. on March 31, 2010

I am willing to accept the criticism of overstepping if my overstepping causes one student to seek help rather than surrender to despair.

No one knows what is in another's heart, and disrespectfulness is not in my heart here.

Old people trying to interpret the world to young people is unwelcome.

I apologize.

Paul Keane

#39 By Mom 6:18p.m. on March 31, 2010

Stay strong Yale kids!

#40 By Aaron N. Garcia 6:24p.m. on March 31, 2010

My wife & I were married at The Empire State Building & took our wedding photos on the 86th floor observatory deck back on 2/14/10. We were one of 14 couples chosen to get married there. It is so strange to think that the 86th floor brings up so many happy memories for so many people but for this young man, it was the last place he'd ever see. I want to express my condolences to this young man's family & my prayers go out to them.

#41 By yalie 7:05p.m. on March 31, 2010

Deepest sympathies to all those affected by this tragedy.

#42 By Paul Keane 7:31p.m. on March 31, 2010

Paul sounds like he's looking for compensation. Why else would he go into such detail?
Paul .. this is about CAMERON. Love you Cam

#43 By anon 8:07p.m. on March 31, 2010

Nothing that Mr. Keane said was in any way disrespectful. He may be off base with his thoughts on what led Mr. Dabaghi to end his life, but his suggestion that PTSD might be involved and his admonition to those who might be suffering similar to get help do not constitute disrespect.

#44 By yalie 8:18p.m. on March 31, 2010

suppose he had landed ona baby carriage -- it's one thing to be egomaniacal enough not to cre what happens to your family in the wake of such a selfish act, but to do a potentially homicidal thing like jumping off a city building really is unspeakable -- is this how Yale is educating its students nowadays?

#45 By Y'11 9:00p.m. on March 31, 2010

Rest in peace, Cameron. You certainly left a good mark on this campus during your time here, and you will be missed.

#46 By yalie 10:18p.m. on March 31, 2010

Terrible that someone feels no other way out of their misery. May his family and friends have the strength to get through this. However jumping off the empire state building there was a chance that he may have ended an innocent, happy person's life, luckily nothing happened otherwise we would be discussing another aspect of this tragedy.

#47 By Annonimous 10:23p.m. on March 31, 2010

My memories of Yale Univeristy and life in general in New Haven are of a very powerful and vigorous(?), community. I guess the stress suffered bysome of the students is a hard thing to deal with. I wish that everybody at Yale lives a full and happy life, then, and after graduation.

#48 By Yale parent 10:25p.m. on March 31, 2010

This news is most, most distressing. Things are never so bad that this step has to be taken. If you are depressed, especially if you have suicidal thoughts, please step back, and get some help. It WILL get better.

RIP Cameron. My thoughts and prayers are with his sister and family.

#49 By H'13 10:56p.m. on March 31, 2010

My thoughts and prayers go out to Cameron, his family, and the Yale community. May he rest in peace.

#50 By mc 08 3:22a.m. on April 1, 2010


i'll always remember you cam. all the memories. rip.

#51 By y'12 4:40a.m. on April 1, 2010

I'm so saddened that Cameron had to take his life, but I know that he is in a better place. What a way to go, buddy. RIP. You will be remembered.



#52 By yale '11 6:11a.m. on April 1, 2010


I'm so sorry to hear this tragic news. I hope Andrene and her family can find some comfort in the coming months. Rest in Peace.

#53 By Cam's friend @ PKU 8:49a.m. on April 1, 2010

I cannot believe the tragedy when received the email forwarded the news.
It's terrible.
The Cameron I knew was so positive and nice.
May God be with him.

#54 By Yale '71 9:11a.m. on April 1, 2010

Shad, we are all walking with you, every miserable, melancholy step of the way. To lose a child--under any circumstances-- is pain beyond comprehension.
Vaya con Dios.

#55 By Just another mom 10:08a.m. on April 1, 2010

RIP, Kid.

So sad! I cannot help to wonder what was he thinking when he was in the train by himself, on the elevator to the observing deck…He seemed having a lot of friends. Was there nothing worthy to live for? My heart aches. I feel the pain of his parents. What a polite young man, even an apology for his action, but so not want to live. To all young people, your parents care and love you. You might disappoint them sometimes in life but they do love you not matter what. Please do take care yourself and ask for help if you need it. Life is long; prepare yourself for bumps ahead, lower your expectations may help!

#56 By @ yalie 12:09p.m. on April 1, 2010

@ yalie (and I hope you aren't actually one of us) -- are you seriously judging this university's education quality on the way in which a student committed SUICIDE? is that where your mind goes when you hear about a young man's death? what an incredibly rude, ignorant, and callous statement. please, leave us alone to grieve the loss of one of our own and THINK before you speak!

#57 By @56 2:00p.m. on April 1, 2010

It is important not to idealize what happened here. We must grieve and show respect, but we must not condone or forget the especially dangerous circumstances of this action. Both in terms of the grief that every suicide brings to many of us that go on, and in terms of the highly public nature of this act which may inspire further suicides (such imitation is well documented). We all remember and love the memory of such a great person, but we must also consider the consequences and try to prevent further action.

#58 By 2010 4:02p.m. on April 1, 2010


While this death is tragic, I was shocked to see the YDN dedicate almost the entire front page and the entire second page (as well as another full page further in the issue) to the story. This seems irresponsible, and goes against reporting ethics. The YDN should be careful.

#59 By Alabaster9 4:57p.m. on April 1, 2010

He was the best of us all.

#60 By Donald 5:27p.m. on April 1, 2010

He put other people's lives in danger when he performed that little stunt. That's an unforgivable act. I may have sympathy for his family, but I have no sympathy for him.

#61 By I Love New Haven 5:58p.m. on April 1, 2010

I grow up in the city where Yale is..It is New Haven, Ct. It is a beautiful city...I have friends and family there. I am very sad to hear this new, it breaks my heart that the family has to deal with their son not being here anymore. Prayers' and best Wishes' to the Family, and the City of New Haven. I love you!! ;-)

#62 By ws 7:05p.m. on April 1, 2010

As an alum (BK), I want to extend my condolences to Cameron's friends and family. Intelligent people are often depressed. We think too much, ruminating on every little detail about our lives. I've suffered from depression my whole life, let me assure the Yale students who are going through their own trauma that it DOES get better. With age comes perspective and the same problems don't seem that big. More importantly, you find happiness in the small. I still suffer from depression just like when I was a student on campus 20 years ago but now I have a wife and child to live for. If you're feeling down, please find someone to talk to. It really does get better, I promise you.

#63 By Yale Mom 7:14p.m. on April 1, 2010

The horror of such an event---it is every parents' nightmare. The horror for those who knew the young man--suite mates, classmates---looking back for clues--could something have been done?, was something missed---?. I work in mental health and see suicidal patients and as others have said---the decison to reach out and attempt to get help can literally be a life saver. I have seen it happen many times.

The means of this young man's death is so disturbing---he was absolutely determined to die---I am so sorry for all who loved him, those who were his friends and for all Yale students who are faced with trying to understanding choosing death over life. You Yale students have had more than your share of facing death this school year. Words seem so empty to express the shock and sadness of this event.

#64 By Another Mom 7:26p.m. on April 1, 2010


Cameron, I hope you have found peace and contement. I wish your family peace and understanding. I work on 34th street directly across from the Empire State Building and left my office within minutes of the traggedy. My heart sank when I heard and I closed my eyes immediately. All I could think of was how much emotional pain this person had to be in to want to leave this world this way. I couldn't stop thinking about it all night. I thought about his family and the loss they would soon feel, and the people that he talked to,the ones that he saw on a daily basis, maybe worked with and had small talk with and yet no one knew his pain. I read later that evening that he was only 21 and I cried. I have a 22 year old. My heart feels so very heavy for this young man and his family. I've learned from this. We may not always know what someone is feeling. They may not say it, they may not show it. We owe it to family, to friends and even to strangers, to be kind and considerate because we never truly know what is in their hearts or the burden of pain they are carrying regardless of what is painted on their face. Rest in Peace Cameron.

#65 By @ By Donald 1:35a.m. on April 2, 2010


And Cam wouldn't have wanted your sympathy either because this tragedy was merely a "little stunt" to you. Have a heart. Seriously.

#66 By A mom in Colorado 12:08p.m. on April 2, 2010

What a tragic way to escape what must have been an emotionally overwhelming moment. I am so sad that there was no one in that last moment for him to reach out to and hold on to.
Obviously this young man must have been struggling for a long time - but it was that moment, that one fatal moment, that he couldn't cope with any longer. He must have had other similar moments but there must have been something that kept him going.
If he could only have thought about what his life might be like 40, 50, 60 years from now.
The elderly people I work with - in their 80s and 90s - have always helped me see that now matter how bad things are right now, in this moment, there's so much life ahead and so much can change. It gives hope.
I so wish he could have found hope.
This is an awful way for everyone and anyone to grab at a chance for peace.

#67 By Thanks to the therapist who saved my life 12:28p.m. on April 2, 2010

I am very sorry for Cameron's family and friends.
I too know the depths of despair and what it was like to believe that suicide was the only way to find happiness and peace of mind.
I didn't understand in my young 20s, that my life, all 22 years of it,
did not represent my entire future.

I am very grateful to the paramedics who didn't give up, the doctors who had trained for years and years and knew what to do and most especially I am grateful, 30 years later, to the two therapists who saw someone they did not want to lose and who held on to me at the cost of many sleepless nights and many many many phone calls and visits.

My life has changed so much now and I can't understand how I ever reached a point of wanting to END my life.
This one and only life is so meaningful for me.
I have found so much beauty and happiness.
I am still friends with everyone involved in saving my life that night.

Please please please, if you are suicidal reach out to someone. There is always someone who can save you from yourself when you aren't able to hold on one more moment.
It's so hard to find a good therapist, I know that, but don't throw away your life. Throw out the therapist you don't click with and try another one, try a friend, try a teacher, try a neighbor, just keep trying until you find that one person who can hold onto you.

If you are someone being reached out to - hold onto them for life. 30 years from now you might get to see them sledding down a hillside with their children, or playing violin with a symphony orchestra.




#68 By Just not right 12:56a.m. on April 5, 2010

I can't believe that only a few short days have passed and already this campus is acting like it never happened. This may just be how people are coping, but it's driving me crazy.


#69 By Your honesty is courageous 6:11a.m. on April 5, 2010

At the risk of incurring more critcism,
I want to speak to Poster #68.

It is an absolutely necessary part of human nature to turn away from death. Robert Frost's poem "Out! Out!", about a boy who cuts his hand of in a saw accident, ends with these lines about the family and onlookers:

"And they, since they were not the one dead, turned to their affairs."

The mind cannot stay in the dark inertia long.



It is a different matter, I believe, when the death is spectacularly public like the Kent State killings or Mr. Dabaghi's leap from the Empire State Building.




One seeks understanding from the anonymous community affected by it: the nation (in the case of Kent State) and the campus in the case of Yale.



What happened after the Kent State shootings, which I did not recognize, was that NO ONE wanted to talk about it, even my own parents, because it shattered a national fantasy: All is well in America.

I suspect the same will happen with Yale because the event shatters a campus fantasy: All is well at Yale.

Beginning the day after the shootings, the subject was a conversation killer.

The result for myself and many others, was that feelings of grief and anger were repressed because no one helped with the normal "social processings" of grieving.

I chose politics to expiate* my feelings (organizing a movement to achieve a federal grand jury investigation of the shootings) and when those politics were over in 1973, the repressed feelings emerged as anxiety and panic attacks.

I would urge you not to diminish the honesty of the feelings you express in Post # 68.

Go with them NOW, not later, and seek someone with whom to process them, someone who does not need to
"turn to their affairs" but can stay with you in the darkness until it turns to light.

Paul Keane



* "Survivor's guilt" is one of the irrational feelings associated with those caught up in unexpected acts of violence. The need for expiation (atonement) is one of its irrational consequences.



#70 By @ #68 11:21a.m. on April 5, 2010

I really, really agree with you. I think we get so caught up in work and stress here that it's always easiest -- but not best -- to turn in from things that hurt us. And we've lost so many this year that deaths have lost their gravity.

I wish that it was easier to talk about this, though -- because I have a lot to say, and I want to listen.



#71 By Anna 10:00p.m. on April 5, 2010


Perhaps this can be an opportunity to reach out to those who have similar feelings to this young man- and don't think there is any other way out. I am in no way a professional in this matter, but have posted a link below in case someone out there would like to read more about mental health to reach out to a friend, family member, or to just learn more for themselves:

http://www.nmha.org/

It would also be great if professionals from Yale, New Haven, and other communities could post additional information and let everyone know what local resources are out there for those who are reading this.


#72 By Book 10:50p.m. on April 5, 2010

A short book which has saved many from despair: Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl.

PK


#73 By y11 2:03a.m. on April 7, 2010

still missing you cam, every day




Tuesday, March 30, 2010

* Yale Tse-tung : Bux et Veritas in Tiananmen Square












































Yale Tse-tung : ACADEMIC SELL-OUT OR BUY-OUT ?






Tse-ung, the last name of a famous Chinese leader, literally means " to beneficense the East."

Well, that may very well be what Yale thinks it's doing with its Yale/China campus and courses.


But listen up: Yale may be dancing with the very devil Google just dumped at the Junior Prom.

How can Academic Freedom exist in Yale courses in China if those same courses' students cannot use modern search engines to address the Tiananmen Square uprising?


That would be like Yale academic courses existing in Ohio whose students could not use Google to address the Kent State killings.

(That ALMOST happened before Google existed: the Ohio state legislature threatened to shut Kent State University permanently if there was any more student unrest there after the May 4, 1970 murders of four Kent State students by Ohio National Guardsmen who broke up a peaceful demonstration protected as freedom of expression by the First Amendment .)

What kind of Yale professors are going to agree to teach under such constraints and to give assignments which must avoid using the Google search engine since Google refuses to purge Tiananmen Square as a topic from its search repertoire?

Yale is heading down a dubious path here. And dare I say it may be more for money than for truth?

Bux et Veritas.

Beneficense the Blue.







ITS delays switch to Gmail
By David Tidmarsh
Staff Reporter

The Yale Daily News
Published Tuesday, March 30, 2010
The changeover to Google as Yale’s e-mail provider has been put on hold.
Information Technology Services has decided to postpone the University’s move from the Horde Webmail service to Google Apps for Education, a suite of communication and collaboration tools for universities, pending a University-wide review process to seek input from faculty and students. After a series of meetings with faculty and administrators in February, ITS officials decided to put the move on hold, Deputy Provost for Science and Technology Steven Girvin said.
“There were enough concerns expressed by...

#1 By Anon. 3:29a.m. on March 30, 2010


Horde is an embarrassment. It is far older and less functional that email systems at other universities, proof that it's not just the architecture at Yale that looks medieval. I don't know who on the faculty raised these objections, but it makes me think they should stick to research and teaching and stay away from IT policy.

#2 By EH 3:59a.m. on March 30, 2010

Debate is a nicety and is generally good in these types of things, but this is a simple decision that many universities like Brown have already wisely made. Let's not be stupid: maintaing Horde over Gmail costs Yale more for worse service.

All three listed reasons are stupid:

1) problems with “cloud computing" -- everything is moving to the cloud, even bank databases and financial institutions. It is cheaper due to economies of scale and it is more effective and reliable because of 24/7 effective support.
2) technological risks and downsides--the security risks are not nothing, but I'd rather entrust my information to Google's web security team than Yale's. Plus, Google has a business to keep: they're not going to sell of my information or let it leak.
3) and ideological issues--like what? Conservatives like privatization/outsourcing and liberals like change/progress. Both camps should be on board.

This is silly. Get rid of Horde.... NOW! I don't have 10 minutes to have my web email access load each time.

#3 By Censorship/Scholarship 5:09a.m. on March 30, 2010

The postponement of the word "Chinese" in this article until the final two sentences screams volumes here.

Sensitivity or self-censorship?

Yale's involvement with a country which obstructs academic freedom needs front and center analysis by a journal with as distinguished a record for courageous reporting as the YDN has had over the century plus of its own history.

Google may be telling Yale what Yale already knows but is too financially involved to admit:

Censorship and Scholarship do not a marriage make.

Paul Keane, M.Div.'80
M.A., M.Ed.

The Anti-Yale

* My Grandmother, the Ghetto, and Yale: 260-360 State Street















The 1940's New Haven Green with Yale on the right, the ghetto on the left and the harbor in the background.









360 State Street, 2010



















Alice Nugent Ward, age 28




















Age 58,

in her
Rebekah gown,
New Haven




















Age 88 ,

with her daughter,
in Chevy Chase.
















Yale and the New Haven Green













The drug store
corner entrance
below my
grandmother's
ghetto
apartment at
Elm and State Streets
(264 State Street)



MY GRANDMOTHER


My Grandmother never drove a car and never smoked a cigarette. She never owned a checkbook and never borrowed money.

My Grandmother was poor.

My Grandmother was proud.


She lived in a third-floor walk-up with no hot water, two blocks from the palaces of Yale University at Elm and State Streets, clearly a ghetto apartment. Today, one block away at 360 State Street, a luxury apartment building sits, thirty stories high.

Its apartments rent for nearly $2000 a month. My Grandmother paid $40.00 a month (plus utilities) for her three-room walk-up. It had no storm windows: Not warm in the winter.

My Grandmother was a Lady, with a capital L.

She always carried a pocketbook.

She paid all her bills on time, in person, having walked to her destination in that wonderful walking city, New Haven: the Telephone Company; The Electric Company; The Water Company; The Edward Malley Company.

She always wore white gloves and a hat on such business.

She always paid her bills in cash, concealed in an envelope for politeness, handed to a clerk with her hand extended in her inevitable white gloves which reached four inches above the wrist.

I only heard my Grandmother swear once ("Damn!") in my entire life. Most of the time her greatest exaperation was expressed by "Fiddlesticks" or "Fiddledeedee."

Once or twice a year my Grandmother would drink a Rob Roy or a Manhattan, at Christmas or Thanksgiving
.

She never drank alone.

She refused to take Welfare even though she was eligible for it. She belonged to the Methodist Church on the New Haven Green and tithed herself from her modest earnings.


She worked at the New Haven Clock Company until she was 65, arriving and departing by trolley or bus.

When she retired, she lived on $60.00 a month Social Security and
$20.00 a week she made as an afternoon receptionist for the Doctors' Building at what is now the location of the Shubert Theatre.

When her landlord raised the rent in 1958 to $50.00 a month she had to move to an efficiency apartment at 100 Howe Street for $38.00 a month.

She retired again at age 72 and came to live with us in Mt. Carmel.

After a year there she moved to live with her other daughter (my mother's widowed sister) in a three-room apartment in Chevy Chase Maryland, where she died at 89, surrounded by grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
















Half a Century on:

260 - 360 State Street










Few units filled at 360 State
By Amir Sharif
Staff Reporter
The Yale Daily News
Published Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Looking down Chapel Street, it’s difficult to miss the 34-story tower soaring above its neighboring five-story red bricks. Though the building, named after its address at 360 State St., may appear plain and unassuming, it sticks out like a cowlick in both its size and its long list of superlatives.
Last week, the building joined the ranks of the nation’s most environmentally friendly developments, becoming the third building in Connecticut to be certified LEED Platinum. The $180 million project — designed and developed by Connecticut-based Becker+Becker, co-founded by Bruce Becker ARC...

#1 By Not my style 4:42a.m. on March 30, 2010

I have an apartment in a wonderful residential nab close to downtown and pay a LOT less. IMO, the developers should try to appeal to the sort of people who have already shown interest - consultants and pied-a-terre dwellers. But for people that live in New Haven, I think there's a much smaller market for that kind of apartment.


#2 By State and Elm 5:34a.m. on March 30, 2010


360 State Street is within a few doorways of my grandmother's third floor walk-up ghetto apartment at Elm and State Streets, a walk-up without electricity mind you (now a vacant lot) which she lived in till the age of 70 in 1960. I believe her rent was $40.00 (that's forty) a month and she had to move when they raised it to $50.00, a price she could not afford on $60.00 a month Social Security and a half-time job as a receptionist at the Medical Building (now the Shubert Theater)for $20 a week.

Paul Keane
The Anti-Yale

#3 By Not THAT poor ! 5:57a.m. on March 30, 2010

CORRECTION: My grandmother's State and Elm Street third-floor walk-up was not without "electricity" in 1960, it was without "hot water". We weren't THAT poor---but close.

PK
The Anti-Yale

Monday, March 29, 2010

* No Student Union at Yale? Chapel Street !














The Airport-Terminal
sized Kent State

University
Student Union Building
built after
the 1970 Killings.





























New Haven
(The Walking City):
Chapel Street is
Yale's Student Union












Good, clean fun
on Old Campus
Chaplain’s Office

hosts safe space

By Sam Greenberg
Staff Reporter

The Yale Daily News

Published Monday, March 29, 2010

Friday and Saturday nights on Old Campus just got a little more wholesome.
With the launch of a new event called Global Grounds, the Chaplain’s Office is working to create an opportunity every Friday and Saturday night for students to hang out and meet new people in a social environment that is not focused on drinking. The Office tried out the new program this past Friday and Saturday, setting up the Dwight Hall common room with tables, art supplies, board games, coffee and snacks. While organizers said the weekend’s test run was successful, they added that they hope to see students...

#1 By Omission or Commission? 5:15a.m. on March 29, 2010

What an excellent idea.

It never occurred to me until this moment (despite a lifetime in and around and back and forth and to and from Yale), that YALE DOES NOT HAVE A STUDENT UNION.

What an interesting omission, and omisssion (or commission) it must be since Yale is not oblivious to what's going on at other schools.

After the Kent State killings in 1970 that university built a new Student Union (replacing the 1950's snack-bar version) the size of a modern airport terminal!

PK

#2 By Yale 08 8:54a.m. on March 29, 2010

Isn't Sharon Kugler a Catholic?

The Catholic Sun

Wherever the Catholic sun doth shine,
There’s always laughter and good red wine.
At least I’ve always found it so.
Benedicamus Domino!

~Hillaire Belloc

#3 By Yale mom 11:19a.m. on March 29, 2010

BRAVO and thank you!! Hopefully the masters of the residence colleges are talking this up to students. What about initiating a competition to see which college can muster the highest attendance percentage?

#4 By yalemom 11:20a.m. on March 29, 2010

This is the BEST idea I have seen yet!

Thank you Chaplain’s Office, you might actually be saving lives and building wholesome relationships.

#5 By ES10 11:54a.m. on March 29, 2010

Really excited for this. They have cookies and baklava! and an open-mic! and scrabble!

#6 By TC 00 2:32p.m. on March 29, 2010

Checkers, art supplies and snacks? REALLY? I am SHOCKED that students aren't falling all over themselves to revert to their 12-year old selves instead of creating (and erasing!) memories at crazy parties. Certainly when I think of my Bright College Years, I look back on all the times I played Chutes & Ladders while stone cold sober.

#7 By Goldie '08 3:40p.m. on March 29, 2010

This won't be taken seriously, and it is made in jest, but I believe the point is somewhat valid:

Smoking pot is a fun activity for friends to partake in as an alternative to alcohol!

#8 By Auntie PK 3:49p.m. on March 29, 2010

There has never been a need for a "student union": One's college (PK: a.k.a. a student's more or less permanent dormitory or even alma mater) provides endless variations on the theme, limited only by the energy and imagination of its residents. Any student (or graduate) of Yale College knows that the common room, the dining hall, the buttery (PK: a "buttery" is where Yalies go for camaraderie, food, and fun), etc., fill (and more) the purpose of a "student union."

This is not to criticize Old Campus (PK: Old Campus is where a Yalie lives during freshman year before progressing to his or her "college"), efforts by the Chaplain's Office to provide some centralized entertainment are... fine (although they will be made superfluous should Levin get his way and dismantle the Old Campus system, but that initiative is outside the scope of this comment).

The Chaplain's effort does, perhaps, reflect poorly on freshman, as they seem to need some external motivator to "withstand" the evils and allures of drugs, drinks, & sex (well, drugs & drinks, anyway) that clearly pervade the campus mind (well, the Chaplain's, anyway).

That said: I myself *love* cookies and Scrabble(tm)!

[Note to future English teachers: the phrase "1950's snack bar" should be correctly written "1950s snack bar" or even "1950s' snack bar," but let us not stand on peder..., er, pedantry or points...]

#9 By Yale 09 4:00p.m. on March 29, 2010

Great idea. Wish something like this had come sooner

#10 By Y12 5:37p.m. on March 29, 2010

Great! If people go to that, I WILL get into a secret society.

Certainly not the chess champion.



#11 By Skeine 7:44p.m. on March 29, 2010


This is a great initiative by the Chaplain's Office. Even if the Yale administration turns a blind eye to alcohol use (and abuse) by freshmen, it doesn't mean that every freshman chooses to engage in this kind of illegal behavior. Moreover, because drinking culture is so pervasive, it can be difficult to find people who want to have fun without alcohol. It's absurd that at Yale, a school that celebrates the diversity of opinions, any student should feel pressure to drink in order 'truly' experience his or her 'Bright College Years.'


#12 By From Ralph Waldo Emerson's Hobgobblin and PK 8:00p.m. on March 29, 2010
Taken from UsingEnglish.com

English Language Poll

Poll: Do you use an apostrophe in plural dates?

1970's
1970s




Votes: 1279
Comments: 12
Added: September 2003


Caleb Talati - 29th May 2007 19:57
In the "Penguin Guide to Punctuation"(1997), I read that the apostrophe is not needed for forming the dates of plurals in British English. However, according to the author, it is needed in American English. I find it easy writing both "1970s" and "1970's".



#13 By Walking City: Yale's Student Union 12:26a.m. on March 30, 2010


New Haven is a good, old-fashioned "walking city" and Chapel Street is Yale's Student Union.

PK

#14 By Auntie PK 1:52a.m. on March 30, 2010

I unsurprised that you are unaware what Yale recommends:
http://www.yale.edu/bass/1tools.html#StyleManual

Big boys play with the MLA (you can look that up, can't you?) and the Chicago Manual of Style...

#15 By Emma Woodhouse 10:38a.m. on March 30, 2010

At least Yale is acknowledging that the drinking in Old Campus is out of control. But will chess and cookies without music draw the students who are apt to drink? Haven't experienced it, but the chaplain's effort sounds a bit too tame. In spite of the college system, a student union with bowling, pool, snack bars etc. would be a plus at Yale.

#16 By Yale 11 2:28p.m. on March 30, 2010

Anyone who mentions a Student Union is clueless about the social greatness of Yale.

The residential colleges are tremendously safe and students LOVE the communities in those walls.

Yale boasts the best undergraduate experience and some of the happiest students because of this system.

A student union is a relic from another era of education. We don't have any need for something like that.



#17 By Fortress Mentality 133 on March 30, 2010

The residential colleges, whatever their social benefit (or "social greatness") to the insiders, are an architectural snub to the outsiders (townies), facing INWARD as they do with their gothic buttoxes extended outward, protected by modern portcullises, fortresses of privilege, excluding the civilians on the sidewalks
from even the illusion of participation in the Yale experience.

The elitist smugness of this architecture seems to escape the University, which throws a few "social outreach" scraps to the townspeople now and then ( a soup kitchen here; a concert there ) and has even decided to replicate the model in its two new Gothic Palace colleges, contiguous with the section of New Haven off Prospect Street which oozes poverty.

Crime creeps ever closer to the University year by year, and dumfounded, the University is clueless as to why the impoverished who live on its borders might possibly be angry, envious and driven.

My, my, my.


This fortress mentality speaks loud and clear in all that Yale represents in New Haven.

Paul Keane
The Anti-Yale

* Pissing-off Townies : Why Yale is Resented


















































THE
RAW
INTERFACE
OF TOWN
AND GOWN





Here's a novel idea which would make Yale and its campus less of an object of resentment among townspeople and therefore less of a target for crime:

Train every employee in the Yale Human Resources Department (AKA Personnel Department) to approach every job applicant (from the lowly broom sweeper to directorship positions ) with THIS ATTITUDE:

Maybe we can't give you a job but we can make this application process one of the most positive and encouraging experiences of your life so that you will think of Yale as a actual nourishing mother (alma mater) whether you attended here or not.

Unfortunately, my experience, and the experiences of those I have known for the last 45-years of my adulthood, as both a native of New Haven/Mt. Carmel and a graduate of the Divinity School, has been exactly the opposite. And job-applicants are a highly vulnerable lot, both to good and bad stimuli.

Here---THE INTERFACE OF TOWN AND GOWN AT ITS RAWEST ---is where to make a difference.

And instead, applicants are treated poorly.

Let's leave it at that. (You can read my post below for more peppery language.)

Here's a second idea which would make Yale police-work easier and the campus safer:

Create a massive Apprenticeship Program at Yale for underprivileged youth, defeating the faux nihilism which kids who see no future adopt as a pose, a nihilism which definitely makes Yale and New Haven less safe.

C'mon Yale.


You got the bucks and the brains to do this.

If you can organize football games for 50,000 people, you can create an apprenticeship program for a few thousand teen-agers----and turn despair into determination in the process.








News' View:
Commitment
to community
policing

By The Yale Daily News


Published Monday, March 29, 2010

We know him mostly by the e-mail messages he sends. They’re always “consistent with federal reporting requirements,” and they rarely tell of anything happy: a robbery on Mansfield Street, an assault on Orange, an employee in possession of firearms in a Yale parking lot. But, like so much of the work Yale Police Department Chief James Perrotti has done during his 25 years as a YPD officer and 12 as chief, they help keep members of the Yale community safe.When he retires at the end of June, Perrotti will leave behind big shoes to fill. Still, the announcement he made last week gives us...

#1 By Sink Snooty Yale 5:39a.m. on March 29, 2010

"Safer" campus?

The notoriously pompous, snooty Yale Personnel Department and its impenetrable, elitist application paperwork (now digit-work I suppose), should be ABANDONED and a public Human Resources COMMUNITY OUTREACH Department instituted which features an APPENTICESHIP PROGRAM AT YALE FOR DISADVANTAGED YOUTH.

The Yale Personnel Department has done more damage to community relations in my 45 years as a community member than any other arm of the University.

Paul D. Keane
M.Div. '80





PS:
Yale's Personnel Department is AKA "Human Resources"

#2 By Perotti 11:04a.m. on March 29, 2010

Perotti was truly a king of kings. May we be safe once his ever watchful eye takes a well deserved rest.

#3 By Guys... 1:07p.m. on March 29, 2010

Square the circle. Perrotti's cut crime every year for 12 years, but your only transparency complaint is we don't know how much money he's making?

Sunday, March 28, 2010

* Value
















Swiss
Family
Robinson
(Keane),
1985






Twenty-five years ago I suddenly was transported 3000 miles from New Haven.

My parents, ages 71 and 73, at the time, had gone on vacation to Bend, Oregon from Mt. Carmel, Connecticut and my 73-year-old mother wound up in an Intensive Care Unit in Sacred Heart Hospital in Eugene, Oregon, fully conscious, on life-support machinery for 118 days, leaving my father stranded in a motel for those four months, not knowing a soul in the town.






















My parents' 50th Wedding Anniversary portrait, 1984, the year before their fateful trip to Oregon.





I sold everything I had, quit my job as an apartment superintendent two blocks from the Yale gym, found a house-sitter for my parents' house, and moved to Oregon in the second month of the ordeal.

I had $1000 total, to my name, not knowing how long I might have to stay there.

I rented a University of Oregon "dorm" room vacated for the summer in a motel across from the hospital, bought a second-hand bike for $40.00 and ate in an all-you-can-eat
Chinese fast-food place for $3.50 a day, also across from the hospital.

I lived on a budget of $7.00 a day.



















Here I am one block behind Sacred Heart Hospital in Eugene, holding one of the last bricks from the recently demolished "Animal House", the actual building used in the movie of the same name. To keep busy, I interviewed everyone in town associated with the movie. (Yes, a real horse actually walked through the President's office at the University : I interviewed the secretary.)




One item I bought for the "dorm" was a plastic cup from the University of Oregon Bookstore, also near the hospital. It had an emblem for the football team mascot on it: the Ducks.

It may have cost 99 cents.

I ran out of money two months later.

I was about to lose my "dorm" room when I accepted a night watchman's job at Washington Abbey, a plush retirement home something like Kendal today,in exchange for an unfurnished efficiency apartment in the Abbey and one-meal a day in the dining hall with the residents, who treated me like their shared, universal grandchild, a blessing, given my circumstances.
























Here I am attending a costume party in the dining hall for the residents of Washington Abbey in Eugene.





The only requirement was that I sign a one-year contract, even though (especially since, actually) they knew about my mother's precarious situation.

I signed.

My mother died three days later.

Honor bound, I was stranded in Eugene for a year.

A quarter century later I still have that yellow plastic, Oregon Ducks cup.

The Ducks emblem is about worn off it.

I use it every day.

I wouldn't trade it for $10,000.




















Barbara Ward Keane, the mother of my childhood memories.

* When Lilacs Last in the Soulyard Bloomed
















WINTER


























SPRING

























SUMMER





















AUTUMN













A Thoreau Raking of the Soul

It's an early spring up here in the Greens.

A windstorm pruned thousands of brittle branchlettes, scattering them all over the dooryard (we don't have 'lawns' up here).


The plow ripped up sod which needed to be re-set and raked back.

Soon the pampas grass and last year's garden stalks will need cutting.

Removing the deadwood :

It needs to be done not only in dooryards but in soulyards too.


Soon Walt's dooryard will lilac and Henry's pond will ripple.

And my hillside?

It will start the seasons in search of the sun all over again.








* Posting Ethics: Pseudonauts Ought Not.








































Anonymity is the Spiritual Foundation" of Every Twelve-Step Program.




Alcoholics Anonymous
Narcotics Anonymous
Overeaters Anonymous
Smokers Anonymous
Sexaholics Anonymous


Posters Pseudonymous
is an unacknowledged movement ( as opposed to a "program") which is proliferating on blogs around the world.

It certainly does not claim to have a "spiritual foundation".

Posters add comments to blogs or news articles without being required to give their actual name, often adopting several pseudonyms rather than keeping a consistent persona under a single moniker. In many cases it is one step-up from a graffiti wall.

About two years ago, I engaged in this pseudonymity as a poster on the Yale Daily News and thought nothing of it until the beginning of the current school year at Yale.

At that time, a controvery broke out about the Yale Press's decision to censor cartoons of Muhammed in a book it published on the controversy of those very same iconclastic cartoons of Muhammed.

Those cartoons, previously published in the Danish press, had resulted in worldwide protests by Muslims and several violent deaths, some of them murders and assassinations.

At that time, I saw an ugliness and hate speech in many of the Yale Daily News anonymous posters which I considered dangerous and cowardly (if not downright unethical) and I decided that I did NOT want to be a part of that dynamic.

Since the only thing I can really chnge is myself, I did.

If I had anything to say in the future I would say it with my actual legal name (Paul Keane) and my blog title, The Anti-Yale.

I have been posting under my name and The Anti-Yale ever since.

Does this make me better than the pseudonauts?

No.

But it does make me stop hiding behind a facade, from being pseudo-naughty, if you will-----and in the case of some of the Danish-cartoon-controversy posters, pseudo-evil.

It makes me OWN my own words and thoughts, navigate openly in the waters of my own ideas with my penants flying proudly, not flee from them behind a digital camouflage, skulking the waters in fear and deception.






Saturday, March 27, 2010

* "War with the World"
























My Grandmother, Alice Nugent Ward, in her Rebekah gown. She lived in a third floor walk-up with no hot water at Elm and State Streets, two blocks from Yale and the New Haven Green, until 1960.















PK (right) and brother Chris, left, circa 1948.



















Orson Welles, 1938, creating a national panic wih his radio broadcast, "War of the Worlds" in which millions of listeners believed earth was being invaded by beings from outer space.














Columbia University, Harlem























Charles Dickens











"This Peter Keane and his war with the world."





I guess I started this blog last September, seven months ago --- long enough to make a baby (at least, this baby, since I was two months premature).

Somewhere along the line a Yale poster referred to me and The Anti-Yale as
"This Peter Keane and his war with the world". I think I replied: "Not the world, just elitiism, racism and sexism," ignoring the incorrect name.

Well, the Yale poster's hyperbole actually has some truth to it. It is rather tiring to have so many discontents weighing me down or irritating me up, all the time.

However, "all the time" is really inaccurate also.

It is only when they are triggered that they weigh on me; and, for some reason, the Yale Daily News seems to be a fist full of fingers on my trigger:


Perhaps because I was a born in New Haven;
perhaps because I went to the divinity school;
perhaps because I see the jewel of Yale held in a setting of decay and decadence and urban crime.

Harlem's Columbia couldn't be any worse.

And these sidewalks-- New Haven and Yale -- were the sidewalks my five year old feet trod at my grandmother's hand.

Today, sixty years later, Yale and New Haven seem a bit more like Dickens's London----- (privilege in a cesspool) ------ than they do like the dream of my childhood under the spell of my grandmother's silver white tresses which she wore regally, like Nature's crown, without a penny to her name.

Anyway, this is Paul Keane, not Peter Keane, signing off.

My "war" is tiring enough without expanding it to the world, so I'll just leave it on the pages of the Daily News.


If there.

Later.

(Perhaps).