Kane believes the nondisclosure agreement is “antidemocratic” because it stifles conversation. The University, however, issued a statement in its defense.

“As with any sensitive employment situation that involves personal information and private negotiations, individuals, corporations and institutions like Yale agree to sign agreements binding both parties to confidentiality regarding the terms of the agreement and specifics of the negotiations to the benefit of all parties involved,” read a previous statement shared by University spokesman Tom Conroy. “Nothing in these agreements hinders their First Amendment right to free speech.”

While the nondisclosure agreement restricts his ability to speak on the events of the past five months, Menafee can talk about anything precedent or subsequent to the controversy — and that he did. Still, he was hesitant at first.

When I requested to speak with him, Menafee wanted to meet downtown rather than on campus. Sitting across from me at the corner table of the Starbucks on Chapel and Church, he looked nervous. Every couple minutes, he scanned the street as if on lookout. He craned his neck to peer out the window at his back, too.

—

Menafee grew up in New Haven with a single mother. Every three to five years, April Menafee moved the family to a new apartment in search of “a better quality of life for [her children],” he said. A home health aid and factory worker, April ran a strict household and held her children to high standards. It is to her that Menafee attributes his sharp sense of right and wrong.

“When I did right, she rewarded me,” he recalled. “When I did wrong, she reprimanded me. She was a strict, no-nonsense type lady. But at the same time she was a very loving and nurturing woman. So I had that balance.”

April Menafee administered justice with a heavy hand. When a second-grade teacher called to inform her that Corey had been misbehaving in class, she came into school, pulled her son’s pants down and spanked him in front of the class. He chuckled as he recounted the “traumatic” incident: “I fell in line after that.” Nevertheless, Menafee emphasized that his mother always gave him her love and support, despite her bouts of severity. By her example, she showed him how to live a “righteous” life. Mitchell described their mother in the same terms. Again and again, both he and his brother reiterated that they live “righteously” for her.

Menafee told me that the best times of his life were his high school and college years, although he didn’t appreciate it at the time. A lifelong football fan, Menafee played four years on the James Hillhouse High School varsity team. After playing receiver his freshman year, he became an undersized offensive lineman, standing 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighing just 140 pounds.

“I used to love that,” he reminisced. “I don’t know. I guess it’s like a microcosm of my life. I was undersized, wasn’t expected to do much, but I was able to block. I was able to block effectively and earn the respect of my teammates.”

In 1997, Menafee matriculated at Virginia Union University, a small historically black university in Richmond. At VUU, the football team’s 5 a.m. jogs were enough to deter him from trying to play at the collegiate level. Instead, Menafee devoted himself to journalism, serving as the sports editor for the school newspaper, the VUU Informer, and interning for the university’s sports information director. He also reported on the football team for the local radio station.

After graduating from VUU with a degree in mass communications, Menafee returned home to pursue a career in journalism and to care for his mother, who had diabetes and had gone blind when he was a sophomore in high school. In New Haven, though, he struggled to make inroads into the local news scene. All of the mainstream news sources he approached turned him away.

“You know, once I started hearing ‘no, no, no, no, no,’ I kind of lost interest in the field and became more focused on just securing employment,” he said. “I went down to WTNH [a local New Haven TV station] and couldn’t even get through the front door. Those revolving doors, they’re actually locked. You can’t just go in there.”

Both Menafee and Kane ascribed his difficulties to a lack of connections. Without “a network of contacts who could help him get to the next place,” she said, he had little chance to break into the insulated guild of Connecticut journalism.

Menafee wrote a few articles for the West Haven Voice, a weekly publication, but eventually abandoned his hopes of becoming a journalist to work for Pitney Bowes Management Services, where he scanned paper insurance files into a computer database. After a brief stint in New York City, he returned to New Haven and took a job as a weekend pot washer in Yale’s Commons Dining Hall. Although Menafee appreciates his job at Yale, Kane said she believes that “his abilities are a lot more than what he’s doing at the moment.” In fact, Menafee’s journalistic acumen became apparent as soon as I introduced myself: when I broached the idea of writing this story, he immediately asked what my angle would be.

But when I asked Mitchell if he thought his brother regretted not becoming a journalist, he shook his head without hesitation.

“I don’t think Corey lives his life that way,” he said. “I don’t think he does regrets.”

—

To most people, Corey Menafee would seem to have ample reason to dwell in the past. In 2003, his mother passed away two weeks before her 45th birthday. He described her death as “one of the biggest things traumatically that happened to me in my life” and as “a game changer.” A freshman in high school at the time, Mitchell became dependent on his older brother in his mother’s absence. Both brothers told me that Corey became like a father to Mitchell from that point on.

“It was an emotional time inwardly, but I didn’t express that,” Corey said. “I kept my game face on.”

In 2009, while speeding away from a fight with his wife, whom he had married the year prior, Menafee lost control of his car and crashed into a tree. He came away from the wreck with a fractured right hip, dislocated left hip and shattered pelvis. Nonetheless, he stressed that the situation could have been worse.

With his pelvis stabilized by a configuration of plates and screws, Menafee began learning to walk again. A year into his rehabilitation, however, the screws became infected and required replacement. He had to restart the entire process. At the same time, he and his wife were separating.

“It was a total adjustment,” he said. “I just stayed with my brother at the time and then eventually went back to work like I always do. That’s funny. I never really thought about it like that. I never really thought about it like that, but yeah. I went back to work like I always do and kept moving.”

In total, the rehabilitation process lasted 20 weeks. Menafee still walks with a limp. The first two times we spoke about his life before Yale, he never mentioned the crash. Only when I asked Mitchell about the limp did I hear about the accident. When I raised the question with Corey, he said he had “forgotten all about that.”

Menafee told me that he tries to live according to the following credo, which he “composed in his head.”

“Life is constantly changing,” he said. “Five minutes ago, something’s different from right now. Strong people can adapt to the change. They can make the necessary adjustment they need to and keep moving. Weak people remain devastated forever about whatever just occurred that changed something dramatically in their life. They can’t overcome it. They become dependent on drugs, alcohol, whatever. They can’t make it in society. I’ll just finish that by saying I am not a weak person.”

—

Following the window smashing incident, presented with the choice either to resign or be fired, Menafee chose the former. Although his resignation agreement contains no quid pro quo, Kane said Yale assured her client verbally that he would not be prosecuted if he stepped down. But after his resig-
nation, the University did not initially recommend that the state drop criminal charges against Menafee. Kane claimed that Yale reneged on its offer. The University, however, denied agreeing to any quid pro quo.

Menafee showed up to court without a computer, a lawyer or any awareness of the media attention focused on his case. Having heard about the situation from a friend involved in New Haven activism, Kane met Menafee at the public defender’s office to offer her services pro bono, and he accepted. David Yaffe-Bellany ’19, a staff reporter for the News who covered the event for the New Haven Independent, was struck by the chaos outside the courthouse.

“It was like a media circus,” Yaffe-Bellany recalled. “When we walked out, it was like something that you’d see on TV news with a huge crowd of reporters like pointing cameras and microphones at this guy as he walks out of court and then down the steps.”

After much community activism on Menafee’s behalf and a series of negotiations between Kane and Yale representatives, the University recommended that the state not prosecute Menafee. Although the state dropped criminal charges, Kane thinks the University “really tried to make an example of him.”

Kane was not the only one critical of Yale. In court, Judge Philip A. Scarpellino spoke harshly of the University’s efforts to recover the 27 pieces of broken glass collected outside Calhoun College.

“Yale can wait for their glass,” Scarpellino told the crowded courtroom, “and hopefully won’t put it back together.”

If Yale was vilified, then Menafee was lionized. He was the keynote speaker at the Change the Name Rally. Numerous “Smash Racism” signs alluded to the shattering of the window. Edgar Sandoval — the man wearing the Corey Menafee costume at the rally — called Menafee’s actions “inspiring.” While Sandoval said he doesn’t plan to take such drastic measures as Menafee did, he will “try to follow his steps to make change.”

At the Morse-Stiles dining hall, though, Corey Menafee is an ordinary employee. Gwen Lockman, one of his coworkers at Morse-Stiles, said the window incident doesn’t come up at work. She added that Menafee is “a respectful kid,” “a good worker” and “just a good-hearted person.”

For Menafee, becoming a public figure has meant making adjustments. Mitchell told me that he and his brother are not “attention seekers” — they “just deal with the world as it comes to [them].” That’s how Corey has managed the scrutiny he has faced in the wake of the window incident.

“It’s a slight adjustment you have to make,” Menafee said. “You have to be mindful of how you conduct yourself in public because you never know who’s watching you or who’s listening to you, and people recognize you now, so you just have to be mindful of that. You have to speak in a way that’s not offensive to people because you don’t want to push people away from you.”

Menafee never expected to become the face of a movement. Before he broke the window, he had never participated in any sort of activism. Even now, he doesn’t consider himself an activist. He admits that his actions give “momentum to a movement.” But that, he said, was never his intention.

Whatever his intent, though, Menafee became an agent of our nation’s reckoning with a history of racism, his brother said.

“He’s a celebrity around here,” Mitchell said. He paused. “I’m just happy that he was able to get his job back.”

—

Hailed by a chorus of cheers, Corey Menafee limps through the crowd, which parts around him as he approaches the steps of Woodbridge Hall. He wears a beanie on his head and a parka over his black and blue dining hall uniform. Matos introduces him, and another demonstrator hands him a megaphone. “Thank you,” she tells him, for “opening our eyes.” At first, he can’t get the megaphone to work and, after fumbling with it for a bit, calls in assistance. Even when he begins to speak, it looks like he has never used a megaphone before.

“Thank you all for coming today for this purpose of demonstrating our discontent with the name Calhoun — John Calhoun — College,” he said. “We are here because we no longer want the name Calhoun casting a shadow on our University, the University we’ve all come to know and to love, and we are here because we want the powers that be to hear us, to hear us loudly and clearly, that the time for change is now. Not next semester, not the year after, but now. Thank you very much. God bless all of you.”

The speech lasts exactly one minute. Menafee doesn’t linger. As he hands over the megaphone and descends the steps, the crowd’s cheers and applause coalesce into a call-and-response chant.

“What do we want?”

Justice!

“When do we want it?”

Now!

The chant is one of a few that the demonstrators have cycled through since they assembled on the Green. They have probably repeated those words hundreds of times. But now, they seem to have a newfound urgency.

Meanwhile, Menafee wades through the crowd, accepting handshakes and pats on the back as he goes. He doesn’t stop to chat. He just continues through the crowd and walks down Wall Street, back to Morse and Stiles — back to work, like he always does.

THE ELECTION ISSUE

 

On Tuesday, Nov. 8, the country heads to the polls to cast votes in the 2016 election. While the presidential race between Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton LAW ’73 and Republican nominee Donald Trump has captured the most headlines over the past year, this year’s election means much more than the White House alone. See the News’ full coverage below.

COVERAGE

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National projections

 

The election on campus

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Clinton’s early years helped mold her political career

“Hillary’s life is really a reflection of coming of age in the 1960s,” said Alan Schechter, a political science professor at Wellesley and former academic advisor to Hillary Clinton LAW ’73. “The key to understanding Hillary in term[s] of why she went to Yale and what she did after Yale is really key to understanding her whole [life].”

Interviews with multiple individuals who knew Clinton in her college and law school years revealed a passionate women who has long been devoted to bringing on positive social change. Her time as an undergraduate at Wellesley and her professional development in New Haven, provided Clinton with the ground to enact such change in her later roles.

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Candidates split on issues that impact college students

When they flock to the polls on Tuesday, most Yale students will cast their ballots without substantial consideration to how the presidencies of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton LAW ’73 or Republican candidate Donald Trump might shape the future of American higher education. After all, the run-up to the 2016 election has attracted media attention more for sexual innuendos and ad hominem attacks than for concrete policy discussions. Amid debates over Clinton’s private email server and Trump’s border wall proposal, the two candidates’ plans for American higher education have gone largely unaddressed.

Still, just as on almost every other issue, Clinton and Trump have starkly divergent views on higher education, from the student loan crisis to the campus sexual assault.

Here, the News breaks down how Clinton and Trump differ on the major challenges facing American universities.

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Election will direct country, make history

Today’s election marks the end of nearly 18 months of intense campaigning by Republicans and Democrats alike. A field of nearly 20 candidates was reduced to just two: Republican nominee Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton LAW ’73. In the months following the primaries, an election laden with controversy has unfolded publicly, throwing the current divisiveness in modern American politics into sharp relief.

Much has been written of the mudslinging, drama and collective despair of the 2016 presidential election, but as two campaigns draw to a close, the historic nature of the 2016 election is increasingly evident to Yale professors and historians.

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Blumenthal hopes for second term

Sen. Richard Blumenthal LAW ’73, D-Conn., is up for re-election for the first time, running against three-time State Rep. Dan Carter (R-2nd) in the Connecticut Senate election.

Though polling booths will be open until 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Blumenthal already has the race nearly locked up. Recent polls have the incumbent senator up by a large margin: FiveThirtyEight gave Blumenthal a 99.6 percent chance of winning and the most recent Emerson and Quinnipiac polls have the senior senator with a comfortable lead of 20-plus points. A second term would allow Blumenthal to build on the focus points of his first Senate term, which include consumer protection laws, tighter gun control guidelines as well as antitrust proposals.

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Veteran DeLauro up against newcomer

This election day, residents of Connecticut’s third congressional district — a region that includes New Haven, Middletown and Stratford — will have the choice of voting for one of two candidates: incumbent Rep. Rosa DeLauro, a Democrat who has held the seat since 1991, and Angel Cadena, a Republican who has never before held elected office.

In an interview with the News, DeLauro highlighted her past achievements and hopes for another term in office. She said issues such as college affordability, employment opportunities, equal pay for equal work, child care affordability and wage stagnation continue to persist in the third district, and that she hopes to continue advocating for her constituents through a fourteenth term.

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Yale affiliates lead in contributions to Democrats

This election cycle, Yale ranked 15th among American universities in total political donations, with University affiliates contributing $561,585 to candidates, parties and outside spending groups.

However, of the 20 universities who spent most on political contributions, Yale led in the percentage of direct donations to Democratic campaigns: 97.8 percent of Yale donations to candidates and parties were made to Democratic committees, while only 1.9 percent were made to the Republican Party and associated candidates.

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Yale lobbies for financial aid support, immigration reform

In an email to the News, University Associate Vice President for Federal and State Relations Richard Jacob highlighted Yale’s lobbying priorities, including the funding of financial aid programs through Pell Grants, Federal Work Study and other programs.

Other priorities, Jacob said, include ensuring a “reasonable regulatory framework for online education that ensures quality without hindering innovation,” as well as maintaining stable and sustained growth in the budgets of agencies that fund University research. He said that the University lobbies for immigration reform that addresses the state of undocumented students.

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Conservatives quiet on campus and in city

According to a survey conducted by the News in October, only 11.96 percent of Yale students categorized their political beliefs as “conservative” or “very conservative.” Only 275 of the survey’s 2,054 respondents said they generally support the Republican Party.
Figures for New Haven reveal an even larger gap between conservative and liberal presence. According to an October 2015 voter-registration document released by the Connecticut Secretary of State, New Haven has only 2,900 registered Republicans, compared to 53,133 Democrats. Moreover, all 30 of New Haven’s alders are Democrats.

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At Yale, third parties appeal to some students

As the national election approaches, third-party candidates offer a viable alternative for a subsection of Yale voters dissatisfied with both major party candidates.

Because most students expressed support for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton LAW ’73, Yale political science professor Eitan Hersh said he was not surprised by the News’ findings about the campus political landscape. There is a lot of public opposition and social taboo around voting for third-party candidates, Hersh said, particularly within the Democratic Party.

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Yale dining workers side with Clinton

UNITE HERE, a labor union representing Yale food, service, maintenance and custodial workers, has endorsed Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton LAW ’73 for president of the United States.

Yale Dining staff interviewed indicated that they supported Clinton and the UNITE HERE endorsement. Some workers declined to speak to the News, citing the sensitive nature of the subject.

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Student groups active in 2016 election

Student organizations have played a major role in nurturing political involvement and awareness among fellow Yalies in the lead-up to this year’s election.

Throughout this election season, many groups and publications across campus have hosted speaker series, debates and voter registration events at Yale, as well as in the greater New Haven and Connecticut communities. Some students have also gone to cities as far as Philadelphia to campaign for their candidate of choice. Regardless of political affiliation or inclination, members of Yale’s student groups said their activities have allowed them to provide an avenue for students to express and embrace respective political interests.

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Campus events planned for election night

On election night, Yalies are planning a variety of events, from watch parties to seminars to detox spaces, to celebrate or mourn the results of an unpredictable election cycle.

Tonight, the Yale community will be viewing the results of the 2016 general election in dorm-room screenings and watch parties planned by various political groups, campus publications and cultural centers. There will also be seminars aimed at discussing the results as they unfold, as well as others that will educate students who are less familiar with the election process in the United States.

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Elm City residents anticipate election

As polls open Tuesday morning, citizens throughout the Elm City are experiencing mixed emotions about the presidential election.

Residents interviewed in downtown New Haven run the gamut in terms of political engagement: some were undecided, others were apathetic and still more were steadfastly against one candidate or the other. Several people who have voted in all presidential elections for the past 30 years have decided to withhold their vote this year, citing hatred of both major party candidates. Others will enter the voting booth undecided. Yet for some, today’s vote represents an attempt to avoid an internal threat to the United States.

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LEWANDOWSKI: For Donald J. Trump

I think most of us can admit that Washington, D.C. is fundamentally broken. We have seen our national debt increase to almost $20 trillion. We continue to see bureaucrats inside the Veterans Administration receive bonuses while our veterans suffer and do not get the care they deserve. Politicians on both sides of the aisle have forgotten about the people they represent and have increasingly become beholden to special interests and big money donors. This must end.

Donald J. Trump has achieved remarkable success in every aspect of his life, whether as a best-selling author, a television personality, a businessman or most importantly as a father and grandfather. Mr. Trump is a winner. He is the big game player that you want to have the ball when you are down by two with 15 seconds in the game.

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DAVIS: For Hillary Clinton LAW ’73

I first met Hillary at Yale when I was in my third year at Yale Law School in September 1969, and she was an incoming first year. I was standing on line to register for classes, and I turned around and saw her right behind me. I recognized her from her photo in a national news magazine that I had seen the night before about a highly regarded speech she had given at her Wellesley College commencement the previous June. I introduced myself and asked her whether there was any advice I could offer her about Yale Law School — what courses to take, what professors were best, how to read cases and study, etc. Her response: “You could help me — where is the nearest legal services clinic that I could volunteer for?”

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Abandoned buildings:
Ghosts of Elm City's past

Story by Myles Odermann

Photos by Robbie Short

Published on October 31, 2016

Though they have long since been abandoned, English Station, the Pirelli Tire Building and Five Mile Point Lighthouse once had clear purposes. Built over the course of two centuries, they once produced electricity, light and tires. Now, empty and unlit, these buildings dot New Haven’s landscape — a reminder of an industrial era that has long since passed.

Above Ball Island near the Mill River’s mouth, power plant workers arrived at English Station to burn coal and oil for much of the 20th century. The island and plant are now brownfields, contaminated with asbestos and an organic chlorine compound. Then throughout the 1970s employees at the Armstrong Rubber Company Headquarters arrived in the lot now owned by IKEA to work in administration, research, development and supply. The oldest of the three buildings, Five Mile Point Lighthouse was built in the 1800s and guided the way for sailors through the century. It’s now a recreational destination on the shore.

ON THE RIVER

A mill that once provided electricity for New Haven residents has now become a headache for its owners.

After several years of operation, the United Illuminating Company started construction on English Station in 1927 to meet the state’s energy demand. In May 1929, the first barges carrying thousands of tons of coal sailed through the Long Island Sound up the Mill River to deliver fuel to the plant’s initial two units for production. Over the next few years, the remaining four units began operation and increased English Station’s production.

Coal-burning at the plants continued into the 1950s and 1960s. But Mill River District residents complained about vibrations from the turbines and coal ash in the air. To cut back on pollution, United Illuminating swapped oil for coal in many of its facilities, with English Station converting in 1960. The oil was also laced with the chlorine compound polychlorinated biphenyl, which was still legal in the United States.

 

In 1992, financial issues brought English Station’s operations to a halt.

United Illuminating paid Quinnipiac Energy of Killingworth more than $4 million in 2000 to determine how best to use the building. Quinnipiac Energy also received nearly $2 million from the former owner for future cleanup.

Quinnipiac tried to resurrect the plant, but money, regulations and other issues stopped it each time. The energy company then sold the plant to Evergreen Power and ASNAT Realty in 2006.

Those two companies, which now own English Station, have desperately attempted to gain capital and rid themselves of the plant. The two companies attempted to sell an oil-recycling company approximately 4,300 gallons of the plant’s old oil in 2010, 99 percent of which was contaminated with PCBs. The recycling company reported the incident to the federal Environmental Protection Agency. During the same year, ASNAT and Evergreen tried to sell the property to Ball Island for $2.5 million, but the potential buyer backed out of the deal.

Still though, a future for the plant could be found, said John Herzan, New Haven Preservation Trust’s preservation services officer.

“There are solutions for remediation,” he said. “It’s not something you just throw up your hands and say, ‘This site is contaminated, we have to tear it down.’ It’s not that simplistic.”

Following negotiations and legal battles, Iberdrola — a Spanish electric utility company — agreed to purchase UIL Holdings, United Illuminating’s parent company, for $3 billion under the condition that it would also fund a $30 million project to clean up the English Station site.

But no cleanup efforts have been visible on the site and the entire island remains boarded off from the public.

Still, the barriers do not prevent nearby resident Aly Tatchol Camara from casting his fishing line off a Chapel Street bridge, and into the nearby Mill River. Although he worries about his well-being from being near a contaminated site, Camara comes to the river weekly to fish for striped bass and bluefish.

“Maybe even from this fish,” Camara said. “I’m going to die.”

Camara’s worries are not misplaced.

The Connecticut Safe Fish Consumption Guide recommends only eating one meal per month of striped bass and bluefish if they are caught in the Long Island Sound or a connecting river. Eating fish with a high concentration of PCBs may increase cancer risks, according to the guide.

Though Camara is aware that the nearby building contains toxins, he needs the food.

“We worry about everything, but we gotta survive,” Camara said. “We wish whoever was responsible would do something about it.”

OFF THE EXIT

Toward the end of his 16-year tenure as mayor of New Haven, Richard Lee took aim at the Long Wharf neighborhood. As part of Lee’s urban renewal program, Joseph Stewart, an administrator at the Armstrong Rubber Company, proposed a simple two-story structure for the neighborhood that would serve as the company’s headquarters. Unimpressed with the design, Lee recommended hiring a high-profile architect to create the building since it would be seen by many travelers on two major highways — Interstates 95 and 91.

Persuaded, Armstrong Rubber commissioned Marcel Breuer, the architect behind Yale’s Becton Engineering and Applied Science Center on Prospect Street, to design the headquarters. After more than two years, the $7 million building was completed in August 1970.

The headquarters consisted of a two-story structure, which housed the warehouse as well as research and development. To prevent the noises from those floors carrying to the administrative offices, which were in the upper section, Breuer designed a gap between the second and third floors. These upper and lower sections are connected by several small beams and three larger supports: The two outside supports house staircases while the central support has an elevator.

For nearly two decades, Armstrong Rubber kept its headquarters in New Haven even though it experienced economic slumps throughout. In 1973, the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries placed an embargo on oil exports to the United States, leading production costs to spike and vehicle-driving levels to fall due to the higher gas prices.

In neighboring West Haven, where Armstrong Rubber ran a tire factory, 120 workers were laid off in 1979. By 1982, the plant closed.

Armtek Corporation, Armstrong Rubber’s parent company, decided to focus on other parts of automobile production instead of tires. So in 1988, the parent sold its subsidiary to Italy-based tire manufacturer Pirelli for nearly $200 million.

But several years later, Pirelli decided to move out and relocate its United States headquarters.

During the late 1990s, a handful of developers tried to make use of the Pirelli building, but most projects did not pass the planning stages. Some developers wanted to create a mall, while the city considered transforming it into a school.

None of these projects succeeded, but in 1997, members of the Alliance for Architecture submitted a proposal to put the site on the State Register of Historic Places. The application was accepted.

IKEA began to take interest in the site, and bought the Pirelli building and surrounding land to construct a 300,000-square-foot store. They wanted to tear down the building, but the city and preservationists objected to total destruction.

“At the time, we suggested that they consider using [the warehouse] for parking, and they could’ve gotten two levels of parking,” said Karyn Gilvarg ARC ’75, City Plan Department executive director.

After the Board of Alders approved plans in 2002, IKEA demolished the 64,000-square-foot warehouse section of the building to create roughly 150 more parking spaces and increase the store’s visibility. Only the upper section and the lower section beneath it remain.

Since the partial demolition, the building has remained unused, but Gilvarg said it could serve as an office building, a company’s headquarters, a hotel or residential space. She added that remediation is likely necessary since health hazards such as asbestos tiles and lead paint are typical of buildings from its era.

The Pirelli building now primarily serves to display IKEA signage.

But last week The New York Times said IKEA will rent part of the Pirelli to Bortolami Gallery Associate Director Emma Fernberger, to display Bortolami artist Tom Burr’s artwork by the winter. IKEA will charge the artist $1 for the year, according to the Times.

IKEA did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

ON THE SHORE

Two hundred years ago, Jonathan Finch, the keeper at Five Mile Point Lighthouse, trimmed wicks, restored fuel and cleaned windows as well as lenses. On a clear night, Finch’s light could be seen from nearly 13 miles away.

The U.S. Department of Treasury had funded the lighthouse’s 1805 construction to notify incoming sailors that they were approaching the Southwest Ledge and New Haven Harbor. The Southwest Ledge, located a mile offshore, and the New Haven Harbor are both natural formations and have been important components of New Haven development since Puritan colonists landed in the harbor in 1638.

In the 1830s, a home for a full-time keeper was installed next to the lighthouse. More changes followed: As sailors complained about the lighthouse’s poor light due to its short height and dimness, Congress allocated more funds to replace the building. The new lighthouse, which still stands today, followed its predecessor’s shape as octagonal, but was more than twice its height. The structure stands 80 feet tall and is built with sandstone and brick instead of wood and shingles.

It guided the way for ships for 30 years. But in 1877, Southwest Ledge Light replaced it, and that version of the lighthouse is still in operation today.

In 1924, New Haven received the lighthouse as well as surrounding buildings from the federal government and bought the parcel of land. One quarter of a century later, the city made the location a park and added amenities such as bathhouses, concession stands and an amusement park.

Facing cracking mortar and decades worth of bird-feces accumulation, the city spent $86,000 in 1986 to refurbish the lighthouse and brighten the park’s aesthetics.

Today, swimmers wade in the waters and children ride a carousel nearby.

Election 2016:
Politics transcend socioeconomics

By Luke Ciancarelli

and Ishaan Srivastava

Published on October 28, 2016

Students’ political and ideological views do not vary greatly with respect to race, class, family income level or gender, a News survey suggests.

Despite varying socioeconomic statuses, nearly 67 percent of the survey’s 2,054 respondents identified as either “liberal” or “very liberal,” and 80 percent of all respondents intend to vote for Hillary Clinton LAW ’73. The survey’s results were not adjusted for bias.

(Jacob Middlekauff)

 Indeed, the Trump candidacy is so overwhelmingly unpopular with the student body, just under 5 percent of Yale students said they support Trump, that it transcends divisions often found nationally along lines of class and race.

Among respondents whose parents or guardians had a combined income of below $100,000, about 5 percent of respondents said they planned to vote for Donald Trump. This figure was within two-thirds of a percentage point of students whose parents made between $100,000 and $250,000 and only about one-tenth of a percentage point higher than among students with family incomes greater than $250,000.

Similarly, filtering survey data by respondents’ ethnic backgrounds revealed no major difference among presidential candidate preferences. Among Caucasian and African-American students, roughly 5 percent of respondents of each ethnic background indicated that they will be voting for Trump, with approximately 80 percent of each group planning to vote for Clinton.

While about 5 percent of Latino/Hispanic-American students also indicated that they supported Trump, a slightly smaller proportion than the overall percentage — about 75 percent — will be voting for Clinton.

Asian-American Yalies were the least enthusiastic about Trump, with just under 3 percent supporting his candidacy. Eighty-six percent of Asian-American respondents said they were voting for Clinton.

The campus consensus surprised some students interviewed by the News, especially in the context of this election cycle, which was repeatedly cited as divisive and unconventional in survey comments.

“Most of my friends are unable to converse about Trump because it’s as if they think I’m a terrible person,” one anonymous respondent and intended Trump voter wrote. “But then again I think they’re terrible people for supporting Clinton as well.”

Daniel Flesch ’19 said he was surprised by the fact that socioeconomic background did not align with political views but noted that the insight was illuminating.

“Sometimes not finding something is as interesting as finding something, especially in a case like this” Flesch said.

Austin Wang ’19 said the fact that political differences could not be easily accounted for by socioeconomic differences did not surprise him. Wang cited an event he attended on campus led by Kathryn Lofton, a professor of religious studies at Yale and the inaugural Faculty of Arts and Sciences deputy dean for diversity and faculty development. At the event, Lofton presented statistics which suggested that Trump’s supporters could not be accurately identified by socioeconomic divisions, Wang said.

The News’ survey results align with the findings of national polls and political surveys: On the whole, college-educated voters tend to be more supportive of Clinton’s presidency than Trump’s. An August Pew Research Center poll indicated that nationwide, registered voters holding college degrees favor Clinton over Trump by approximately 23 percentage points.

The campus consensus seen in survey results also reflects the viewpoint conveyed in a Thursday William F. Buckley Jr. Program press release, which said it was “deeply concerning” that 75 percent of News survey respondents believe Yale is not welcoming to conservative students.

Seventeen survey respondents are voting for Green Party candidate Jill Stein.

Election 2016: Conservative views considered unwelcome at Yale

By Rachel Treisman

and David Yaffe-Bellany

Published on October 27, 2016

Despite ongoing campus discussions about free speech, Yale remains deeply unwelcoming to students with conservative political beliefs, according to a News survey distributed earlier this month.

Nearly 75 percent of 2,054 respondents who completed the survey — representing views across the political spectrum — said they believe Yale does not provide a welcoming environment for conservative students to share their opinions on political issues. Among the 11.86 percent of respondents who described themselves as either “conservative” or “very conservative,” the numbers are even starker: Nearly 95 percent said the Yale community does not welcome their opinions. About two-thirds of respondents who described themselves as “liberal” or “very liberal” said Yale is not welcoming to conservative students.

“Anybody who supports Donald Trump or is a Republican is just hated,” said one respondent, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of backlash from liberal students. “I just get the general vibe that Republicans aren’t respected for their beliefs as much as maybe the liberal people are.”

More than 60 percent of the 103 Yale students supporting Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said they are “uncomfortable” or “very uncomfortable” discussing their political beliefs at Yale.

The 2,054 respondents make up 37.58 percent of Yale’s undergraduate population, and results have not been adjusted for bias.

(Amy Cheng)

By contrast, more than 98 percent of respondents said Yale is welcoming to students with liberal beliefs. And among students who described themselves as “liberal” or “very liberal,” 85 percent said they are “comfortable” or “very comfortable” sharing their political views in campus discussions.

In an interview with the News, Yale College Dean Jonathan Holloway said the results of the survey were lamentable but unsurprising. Holloway attributed conservative students’ discomfort at sharing their views partly to the pervasiveness of social media.

“So much of your generation’s world is managed through smart phones. There’s no margin anymore for saying something stupid,” Holloway said. “People have been saying dumb things forever, but when I was your age word of mouth would take a while. Now it’s instantaneous, now context is stripped away.”

(Ashna Gupta)

Holloway added that Yale is one of many liberal arts universities where conservative views are highly unpopular, noting that in election years the political environment can become especially heated.

According to a 2015 article in the Harvard Crimson’s weekly magazine, many conservative students at Harvard College feel like their political opinions are neither respected nor appreciated. And in a recent article in The College Fix, a right-leaning online news outlet, a student at Columbia said that he feared he would be “physically assaulted” if he displayed conservative images or slogans on his clothing.

Still, Karl Notturno ’17, an outspoken Trump supporter, said he feels comfortable discussing his beliefs, even though he agrees that overall Yale is unwelcoming to conservative viewpoints.

“I have been very honest for most of my life. I’m not going to change myself to what others want me to be,” Notturno said. “I’m a little bit of an anomaly, but most Trump supporters I know don’t feel comfortable talking about it.”

Kevin Olteanu ’19, a member of the conservative William F. Buckley, Jr. Program, said his views make him a “rebel in the crowd” who keeps conversations in his friend group interesting.

Scott Smith ’18 said that while he would be considered a liberal outside of Yale, he is more conservative than most students on campus. Smith said his views have grown more conservative over the course of his time at the University.

“I think on social issues I’ve become somewhat less liberal mainly because of how incredibly liberal Yale is,” Smith said. “I’m not a fan of going along with the majority on everything. I think I’ve been pushing back against all of that mainly because it’s just frustrating to see only one viewpoint being expressed, and expressed loudly.”

But not all conservative Yalies feel as comfortable outside of the majority. Grant Richardson ’19 said it sometimes feels “intimidating” to voice conservative opinions during discussion sections.

“I have been very honest for most of my life. I’m not going to change myself to what others want me to be. I’m a little bit of an anomaly, but most Trump supporters I know don’t feel comfortable talking about it.”

—Karl Notturno '17

Claire Williamson ’17 said it became harder to express conservative viewpoints during the controversies surrounding Calhoun College and the title “master” last fall. Students who did not hold the “popular vocal opinion” of renaming the college and changing the title were seen not only as wrong, she said, but as bad people.

“I would say it’s a frustrating Catch-22 to be a conservative-leaning moderate or conservative on campus,” Williamson said. “You’re sort of airing your own political views and trying to talk about them with the risk that someone disagrees with you to the point of assuming you’re an immoral person because of them. You either stay silent or you risk alienating some of your friends and groups around you.”

Still, political science lecturer Jim Sleeper ’69 said unwritten rules about when one should and should not share controversial opinions have existed for decades and are “woven into the fabric” of the University.

“Some of what we call self-censorship is necessary and good,” he said. “What you disagree about productively depends on certain things you agree not to disagree about. Civility requires self-restraint.”

Clarification, Oct. 27: Describing the statement he initially provided the News as unintentionally unclear, Dean Jonathan Holloway issued the following: “In no way did I intend to imply that the views of any student or faculty were stupid or should be dismissed. I meant to lament the fact that meaningful conversations were too often reduced or misconstrued in the shortened messages of social media, leading to a lack of understanding. I apologize if my words were misconstrued and taken to mean anything otherwise.”