Campus clips

A medical student who was just weeks away from graduation was hit by a car while crossing South Frontage Road on April 19 and died the next day. Mila Rainof ’08MD was to begin an internship in emergency medicine in California in the fall.

The victim in the sexual assault case involving former Yale geology professor Antonio Lasaga is suing the university for negligence. Lasaga was convicted in 2002 of sexually assaulting a New Haven boy over a six-year period. The suit alleges that another geology professor, who is no longer at Yale, once discovered Lasaga and the boy in an empty classroom but did not report the incident. The university says the suit is "without a legal basis."

Charged with voyeurism after he had sex with another student last year and made a video recording of the act without her knowledge, Casper Desfeux ’10 pleaded guilty in June and was sentenced to two years' probation. Desfeux was arrested after he showed the video to his roommates, one of whom told the woman involved. "You should be ashamed of yourself," Judge Philip Scarpellino told Desfeux at his sentencing.

Call it Coffeegate: in May, the Yale Daily News printed allegations that the Bass Library's Thain Family Cafe was secretly substituting decaffeinated espresso for regular at various times during the year—including the last two weeks before finals—as a result of inventory problems. The cafe's manager called the allegations "absurd."

Yale's new sculpture building complex on Howe Street was cited as one of the top ten green buildings of the year by the American Institute of Architects. The project includes a parking garage, a gallery, and studios for sculpture students in the School of Art. It is the first building in Connecticut to earn a platinum rating under the Green Buildings Council's LEED rating system.