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Mystery Lingers Over Slaying of Student
February 1999

As fall classes ended in early December, the Yale community was shocked to learn of the murder of Davenport College senior Suzanne Jovin in New Haven’s East Rock neighborhood. Jovin died on the night of December 4, shortly after having been discovered suffering from stab wounds near the corner of Edgehill and East Rock roads, an area of expensive homes favored by Yale faculty and administrators.

Jovin had last been seen on campus, nearly two miles away, less than an hour before she was found. She had spent the evening at a pizza party for a group called Best Buddies, which enlists students to work with retarded adults.

The killing shook a University and a city that have experienced a dramatic drop in crime since 1991, when the shooting death of Christian Prince, a Yale sophomore, heightened the perception that New Haven was unsafe. But unlike the Prince murder, this incident does not appear to have been a random street crime. Police have revealed little about the investigation, but they have said they believe Jovin knew her killer.

In early January, the University canceled two spring courses that were to be given by Jovin’s senior essay adviser, James Van de Velde, when New Haven Police revealed that he was among the suspects in the case. Van de Velde, a lecturer in the political science department, said he saw Jovin the afternoon of her death, when she dropped off a draft of her essay, but that he had nothing to do with the crime. Acting director of public affairs Tom Conroy said that the classes were canceled because Van de Velde’s presence in the classroom while being investigated would be “a major distraction” for students and “impair their educational experience.” “We want to underscore that we are presuming him to be innocent,” said University secretary and vice president Linda Koch Lorimer.

Jovin, 21, was born to American parents in Goettingen, Germany, where she was raised. A political science major, she had planned to study international diplomacy in graduate school. She was active in a number of student organizations, but devoted much of her time to Best Buddies, serving as director of the Yale chapter.

Students, teachers, and administrators stunned by the crime gathered with Jovin’s family and friends for a candlelight vigil on Cross Campus on December 9. The observance was followed the next day by a memorial service in Battell Chapel.

Rival Presidents Share An Oxford Embrace

Harvard president Neil Rudenstine and Yale President Richard Levin may have been wearing different colors on opposite sides of Harvard Stadium on November 22, but two days later they were sporting identical robes as recipients of honors from Oxford University. In a special joint ceremony, Oxford awarded honorary Doctor of Civil Law degrees to Levin and Rudenstine.

The Oxford campus is familiar to both presidents: Levin earned a B. Litt. degree in philosophy and politics from the university in 1971, and Rudenstine studied literature there as a Rhodes Scholar from 1957 to 1959. The new degrees were awarded to recognize each man’s contribution to education and to celebrate the historic ties between Oxford and American universities.

“As Oxford has always enjoyed a friendly rivalry with Cambridge, so has Harvard with Yale,” said Oxford Public Orator Jasper Griffin at the ceremony. “Today, however, there is no trace of that, but only perfect harmony.”

Police Union Accepts Contract

New Haven’s mayor, John DeStefano Jr., might want to consider a career in Middle East diplomacy if he ever decides to leave City Hall. In November, the mayor brokered his second settlement between Yale and its labor unions. In 1996 it was locals 34 and 35; this fall, DeStefano mediated negotiations with the Yale Police Benevolent Association, which had been at odds with the University since its contract expired. The settlement, which awards six-year contracts retroactive to July 1, 1996, to 55 members, was reached on November 25 and ratified by the union’s members a week later.

A number of disagreements had stood in the way of a contract over the past two years; the most recent was over long-term disability benefits. The union wanted enhanced disability benefits for injuries suffered on or off duty, while the University wanted to award such benefits in cases where an officer was injured “in the line of duty.” The final compromise excludes off-duty injuries but includes those suffered while on duty, whether in the line of duty or not.

“The agreement is an excellent one for Yale and its officers,” said President Levin. YPBA president Carlos Perez said the union was “pleased with the outcome of the negotiations.”

Still Paying After All These Years

In 1972, when inflation was driving up the cost of college tuition and federal loans weren’t available, President Kingman Brewster announced a “frankly experimental” deferred-tuition plan to help students pay for their Yale education. But now, some of the 3,602 students who signed up for the Tuition Postponement Option (TPO) find themselves still saddled with debts far bigger than the amount they borrowed a quarter century ago, and an alumni group that calls itself TPO Blues believes it’s time the experiment was declared a failure.

Offered between 1972 and 1978, TPO was a loan program that required students, after graduation, to pay four-tenths of one percent of their income until their loan was retired. A special feature of the plan was that borrowers were grouped by class into “repayment groups"; when the group’s obligation was met, all the individual loans would be retired. At the time, the University predicted that this would happen in 20 to 25 years, which would mean most of the borrowers would be released from their obligations about now.

But it hasn’t turned out that way. A letter from TPO Blues to President Levin tells of students who borrowed as little as $2,000 in 1974 but are still $27,000 away from paying off their loans, evidently because payments have not been covering the annual interest. The borrowers face another ten years of payments before the program shuts down because of a 35-year default clause.

Founded last summer by Sabin Russell ’74 and Juan Leon ’74, TPO Blues sent the letter to Levin—accompanied by 60 signatures—in November. They asked for a committee to look into “a solution that would allow us to retire these obligations fairly.”

Arthur Gallagher, who administers the program in the financial aid office, says a committee has been formed to recommend a course of action. “We hope to have something concluded within the next few months,” says Gallagher.

England Beckons For Five Elis

Five Yale College graduates will travel to England next year as recipients of the prestigious Rhodes and Marshall Scholarships. Senior Siobhan K. Peiffer and 1998 graduate Cary A. Franklin are among the 32 winners of the Rhodes Scholarship, which supports up to three years of study at Oxford University. (Yale law student Jeffrey Manns, who received his undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia, was also awarded a Rhodes.) The three seniors to win Marshall Scholarships, which also support study in the United Kingdom, are Andrew B. Cohen, Jillian M. Cutler, and Anisha S. Dasgupta.

A Center for Art by the Byte

The symbolism was lost on no one last fall when the University’s printing and graphic services department moved its equipment out of 149 York Street and was replaced by the Digital Media Center for the Arts, a new facility that will coordinate the exploration of new technologies for the presentation and creation of art. The schools of Art, Drama, Architecture, and Music will use the Center to experiment with the creation of video and other images on digital equipment, while the Art Gallery and the Center for British Art will use its equipment as part of their ongoing project to digitize their slide collections.

Director Carol Scully, who teaches a course called “Digital Video Synthesis,” says she hopes to encourage collaboration among the art schools. “There is a growing realization that the traditional art forms—architecture, graphic design, music, painting, photography, sculpture, and drama—will be complemented by the common language of the computer,” says Scully.

The center includes a large computer classroom, a smaller computer studio, a video studio, and four audio-visual editing suites. “We want the Center to be a place for the exchange of the latest ideas,” says Scully. “This is the place where the R&D will go on.”

New Findings on Inca Metallurgy

Two Yale investigators have shown that metallurgy began in the New World more than 1,000 years earlier than previously thought.

In a paper published November 6 in the journal Science, anthropologist Richard L. Burger, director of the Peabody Museum of Natural History, and Robert B. Gordon, professor of geology and geophysics, describe their analysis of thin pieces of copper and gold foil that were excavated from a site in Peru called Mina Perdida.

The central Andes, says Burger, have been called the “hearth of metalworking” in the New World, and there is abundant evidence that some 2,500 years ago Inca metalsmiths were producing delicate foils to adorn both religious objects and the costumes of the society’s elite. But at that point the technology was already fairly mature, and researchers have been at a loss to explain its origins.

Burger and Gordon, a specialist in archaeometallurgy who examined the 3,500-year-old Mina Perdida foils with a scanning electron microscope, discovered that the material showed signs of both heating and hammering, techniques which are important precursors of smelting and making alloys. “What the foils were used for remains a mystery,” says Burger. “But it’s now clear that technological development in the New World was occurring at a much earlier date than was previously recognized, and it followed a long period of experimentation similar to that found in the Old World.”

City Earns Double Plaudits

New Haven has tried its share of nicknames, from “the Elm City” to “the Paris of the '80s.” Now the city can add “High-Tech Hub” and “All-America City” to the list.

A recent report by an economic consulting firm ranks the New Haven area second in the nation-behind San Jose, California-in its percentage of workers (21.6 percent) who are employed in high-tech jobs. The combination of telecommunications companies, pharmaceutical companies, and Yale-related biotechnology firms helped the area earn its ranking. Patrick Howie, who directed the study, says New Haven’s high-tech diversity is notable. “Typically, when people think of high-tech, they think of computers and semiconductors,” says Howie.

The second title was bestowed by vice president Al Gore on December 15 at a White House ceremony. New Haven was one of ten cities honored as “All America Cities” in an annual program run by the National Civic League … The city’s application emphasized efforts to clean up blighted neighborhoods, the successful effort to bring a supermarket downtown, and a volunteer program that teams Yale students with local youth.

After a Year Off, the BAC is Back

One year after it closed for $5 million worth of renovation work, the Center for British Art reopened last month with a trio of shows designed to bring back anyone who had come to regard the Center as out of sight, out of mind. Concurrent exhibitions by three marquee-name British artists-Henry Moore, Lucian Freud, and Francis Bacon-will showcase the BAC’s newly remodeled galleries through March 21.

BAC Director Patrick McCaughey says the museum had two goals in mind when it reorganized the gallery spaces. “First of all, we wanted to display more works than ever before, and in a more thematic and surprising manner,” says McCaughey. Second, we wanted to liberate Louis Kahn’s wonderful building and show it in a new light.”

Funded by Paul Mellon '29 and designed by the late architect Louis Kahn, the building has enjoyed wide acclaim since it was completed in 1977. Among other things, it is noted for the 56 finely tuned skylights that form the building’s roof, allowing a controlled amount of daylight into the enclosed atria and top-floor galleries. But after 20 New England winters, the skylights had begun to leak, requiring a major renovation project. While the building was closed, wall coverings and carpets in the galleries and administrative offices were also replaced.

Saybrook Master Charged Again

Former Saybrook College master Antonio Lasaga, who in mid-November was charged with possession of child pornography (“Light & Verity,” Dec. ), now faces charges that he molested a 13-year-old boy. Appearing in New Haven Superior Court on January 5, Lasaga pleaded not guilty to two counts each of first-degree sexual assault, risk of injury to a minor, and promoting a minor in an obscene performance.

Prosecutors say that FBI agents found video tapes of two alleged encounters when they searched Lasaga’s office and the Saybrook master’s house on November 6. Materials found in that search are also the basis for the separate federal child pornography charges. The investigation of Lasaga, a professor of geology and geophysics, began when a graduate student in his department observed that someone using Lasaga’s computer password was downloading child pornography from the Internet.

Lasaga resigned as master and took a leave of absence from his teaching duties just before news of the investigation was made public. He was arrested two weeks later on the federal charges, then released on bail on the condition that he have no contact with minor children. On December 9, he was arrested again and placed under home confinement when federal officials charged that he had repeatedly driven past the home of a boy later identified as the alleged victim in the assault charges.  

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