SINCE 1891
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Friday, November 13, 2020
VOLUME CLV, ISSUE 42
SPORTS
Ivy League cancels winter sports
BROWNDAILYHERALD.COM
UNIVERSITY NEWS
U. receives $20 million for U.S. veteran scholarship Gift to support previous University commitments to student veterans BY JACK WALKER SENIOR STAFF WRITER
NAT HARDY / HERALD
The Ivy League Council of Presidents announced the cancellation of the winter sports season due to concerns about the coronavirus pandemic. Brown student-athletes found out during a Nov. 12 webinar.
Decision on spring sports postponed to February, fall sports will not occur in spring BY RYAN HANDEL SPORTS EDITOR The Ivy League will cancel winter sports for the 2020-21 season due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, according to an official statement published Thurs-
day. Spring sports will not begin until at least the end of February. The Ivy League also confirmed that fall sports would not be played in the 2020-21 academic year, putting to rest speculation that the fall sports season, which was canceled July 8, could be made up in the spring. The decision to cancel winter sports was made unanimously by the Ivy League Council of Presidents, which is composed of the presidents of each Ivy League school. “Regrettably, the current trends regarding transmission
UNIVERSITY NEWS
International students reflect on remote semester Students face physical many did so in the spring as well. separation from Brown, For some, like Nam, this means adopting an entirely inverted schedtemporal displacement ule. For others, like Sally Zhang ’23, this means having no schedule at all. from their families BY GRACE PARK SENIOR STAFF WRITER
“Time doesn’t even have meaning anymore,” Zhang said. Residing in New Zealand, Zhang is living 18 hours ahead of Providence, which has forced her to “give up on trying to keep a normal schedule.” Zhang rarely sleeps eight hours a night anymore — instead, her days are made up of all-nighters and incremental one-hour naps. For these students, navigating classes across time differences and compromising their sleep schedules has taken a toll not only on their physical health, but also on their mental wellbeing. Physically sepa-
of the COVID-19 virus and subsequent protocols that must be put in place are impeding our strong desire to return to intercollegiate athletics competition in a safe manner,” the presidents wrote in a joint statement. Student-athletes will still be allowed to practice according to each school’s individual safety guidelines. Fall and winter athletes who lost their opportunity to compete this year will not lose a year of athletic eligibility.
SEE IVY LEAGUE PAGE 2
SEE VETERANS PAGE 8
UNIVERSITY NEWS
Logan Powell’s path to the Admission Office Dean of admission on his road to college, admissions during COVID-19, hobbies BY CAROLINE NASH SENIOR STAFF WRITER
SEE INTERNATIONAL PAGE 6
Logan Powell always admired Brown when he was in high school, but never viewed it as a realistic option for himself. He was raised by a single mother in a trailer park in Jacksonville, Florida, where very few people ever went to college at all, and he doesn’t think he would have known at the time what the “qualifications are that are necessary to get into a place as incredible as Brown,” he said. Now, as the University’s acting dean of admissions for over four years, Powell is passionate about broadening access
Arts & Culture
Commentary
S&R
“The Witches” presents heartwarming, suspenseful moments, but falls short from 1990 classic. Page 3
Walsh ’23: To restore trust in democracy, Biden needs to advance bold initiatives to improve livelihoods. Page 4
At U., Aizenman ’93 spearheaded programs to improve equity, diversity and inclusion in science. Page 7
11 p.m. in Seoul, South Korea. As his family goes to bed, Joon Nam ’23 awakes and opens his laptop to prepare for his Zoom class. As he studies, the sun rises — and by the time he’s ready to end his day, the rest of the country has only just started theirs. Nam isn’t the only one who’s adopted this nocturnal lifestyle — since September, international students across the globe have grappled with difficult time differences, and
A recent $20 million gift from Joseph P. Healey P’22 P’24 will create a permanent endowment for a scholarship for U.S. military veterans. The gift was announced at the University’s annual Veterans’ Day Ceremony on Nov. 11 by President Christina H. Paxson P’19. While the event normally takes place on campus at Soldiers Memorial Arch, it was held entirely online this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Healey, a U.S. army veteran himself and the son of a Brown alum, said in his speech at the Veterans Day Ceremony that he hopes the gift will provide more veterans with the opportunity to attend the University. The announcement follows a series of University initiatives to increase accessibility for student veterans at Brown. In 2019, the University announced its plan to make veteran admissions need-blind and to eliminate standardized test score requirements and out-of-pocket ad-
mission costs for veterans beginning this school year. Collectively, these policies aim to double the undergraduate student veteran population by 2024. Half of Healey’s gift will go toward the Elaine and Joseph Healey Scholarship for Veterans, establishing a permanent endowment that will mark an important step toward the University’s fulfillment of its goal to double the number of student veterans at Brown. The remaining $10 million will establish a scholarship for resumed undergraduate education students, many of whom have past military service. This scholarship will prioritize student veterans. With Healey’s gift, Brown has reached $11.3 million of the $25 million endowment needed to provide full financial support to student veterans during their time at Brown. The RUE scholarship is created in honor of Healey’s mother, who earned her degree as part of the University’s RUE program in 1980. She was admitted to Brown in 1976 as a single mother, and, according to Healey, “she took a RIPTA bus from Warwick to Providence every day for four years to earn her degree,” Healey said.
VICTORIA YIN / HERALD
Motivated by his own experience as a college applicant, Powell has focused on lowering barriers within the college application process. to Brown, especially for students like him who may not even consider it a feasible option for them. “One of the things that I’ve always thought critically about is, putting myself back in those shoes, how can we improve access?” Powell said. “How
can we eliminate barriers?” Reflecting on his own educational journey Powell’s mother always empha-
SEE POWELL PAGE 7
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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | NEWS
Friday, November 13, 2020
UNIVERSITY NEWS
Transformative Justice Initiative grows in first year at University TJ Program Coordinator Bayer ’08, her team lead community education, training efforts BY KARLOS BAUTISTA SENIOR STAFF WRITER Since accepting the position in summer 2019 as the University’s first Transformative Justice Program Coordinator, Dara Kwayera Imani Bayer ’08 and her team have led a series of education and training initiatives for community members on campus and in Providence. Last year, under Bayer’s leadership, the University started the Transformative Justice Initiative, the first of its kind among colleges in the United States. Bayer’s position as TJ program coordinator is a two-year pilot role funded by the Office of the Provost. The TJ Initiative is housed in the Community Dialogue Project, which “supports Brown students and staff in cultivating meaningful and intentional community, grounded in empathy and self and collective care,” according to the CDP’s website. Transformative justice is “a liberatory approach and set of practices for responding to interpersonal and structural violence that relies on community relationships to protect the safety and needs of survivors, while building systems of support and accountability for those who have caused and enabled harm,” according to the CDP’s End of Year Report. In practice, transformative justice “moves folks toward approaches that are community-based, non-punitive and non-coercive,” Bayer wrote in an email to The Herald. Transformative justice at Brown over the past year The TJ Initiative, according to Bayer, has taken on three areas of focus. The first area includes two transformative justice practitioner programs that started fall 2019: one year-long program for a cohort of twelve undergraduates and one five-month program for a cohort of four staff members from the Division of Campus Life. This fall, two new sets of cohorts are midway through the programs, Bayer wrote. Practitioners undergo community-building exercises and introductions to transformative justice values and practices, according to the End of Year Report. The cohorts also participate in trainings and workshops to assess community conceptions of responses to harm “that would reflect values of justice and accountability.” The second area the TJ Initiative has focused on revolves around “Community Accountability” processes. This
IVY LEAGUE FROM PAGE 1 “I’m disappointed for the students, for the coaches, because they work hard and this is very important to them,” said Athletic Director Jack Hayes in an interview with The Herald. “But at the same time, I understand that in the big picture of where this virus is, this was a decision that had to be made.” Brown’s student-athletes were informed of the decision on a Nov. 12 Zoom webinar led by Hayes. The ath-
TRACY PAN / HERALD
In its first year at the University, the Transformative Justice Initiative, which is housed under the Community Dialogue Project, has facilitated two year-long training programs and worked with various groups on campus on developing community-based responses to harm. process is a central practice within transformative justice that individuals embark on “to respond to harm beyond punitive systems,” Bayer wrote. Community Accountability is a “voluntary, long term, formal attempt to resolve past harms and involves a facilitator, support teams and a designed plan for accountability that is co-created by the facilitators, the survivors and the person who caused the violence,” according to the Just Practice Collaborative, a harm reduction and transformative justice training group. Within a Community Accountability process, both the survivor of harm and the person who caused harm work with support teams, which focus on “at once ensuring that the survivor’s needs are met and that the person who caused harm engages in practices to identify and take responsibility for the impacts of their harmful behavior and actions,” according to the End of Year report. So far, Bayer and student staff have facilitated four Community Accountability processes. The final area the TJ Initiative continues to focus on is education and training for communities within the University and in Providence. Since last fall, Bayer, along with the staff and student TJ Coordinators, have held more than 20 skills-based interventions on campus “to support the collaborative development of TJ values and practices,” according to
the End of Year Report. The Initiative has worked with a wide array of student groups and offices, Bayer wrote, including the Meiklejohn Leadership Team, Undergraduate Council of Students, Sexual Assault Peer Education Program, Swearer Center for Public Service, Brown Center for Students of Color, Office of Residential Life, Ultimate Frisbee club sports team, Grasping at the Root, Decolonization at Brown and the Undocumented, First-Generation College and Low-Income Student Center. Efforts “to redistribute resources supporting the self-determination of communities impacted by historic and present-day harm” in Providence have centered on developing relationships with local organizations and grassroots campaigns, Bayer added. These efforts have included collaboration with local organizations such as SISTA Fire, Alliance to Mobilize Our Resistance and the Youth Restoration Project, in addition to grassroots campaigns like “Bring Us Home,” which supports families whose children have been taken by the Rhode Island Department of Children, Youth and Families, Bayer wrote. On working within an institution such as Brown, she wrote that “there are tensions with engaging and implementing an explicitly community-based framework.” According to Bayer, transformative justice’s frame-
work was developed to explicitly exist outside of institutions and punitive processes, “which often further inflict violence.” Growing interest in transformative justice, abolition and community-based harm reduction While the pandemic has led the Initiative to migrate their efforts entirely online, interest and engagement with transformative justice has only increased, according to Bayer. The current cohort of the TJ Practitioner Program received more than sixty applicants for nine participant slots, Bayer wrote. Since this summer’s national reckoning on racial injustice after Minneapolis police killed George Floyd, “people (are beginning) to have more of an understanding of abolition and more of an understanding of what it means to consider futures without policing,” said Marc Peters, assistant director for community dialogue and campus engagement for the CDP. He added that this has translated into an interest in “community approaches to justice and healing.” Reflecting on Bayer and her team’s efforts to build the TJPP and make community accountability processes “available to students on campus who seek them out,” Peters said he has been “nothing short of amazed.” Members of the TJ Initiative are a
“really passionate group of people who care deeply about the work and about each other and bringing this type of approach to Brown,” he added. Xochi Cartland ’21, lead TJ Initiative student coordinator, described Bayer in an email to The Herald as “a phenomenal mentor” who prioritized and facilitated each member’s “development as people and practitioners.” Cartland, who was hired last September, collaborated with Bayer and Camila Pelsinger ’20 to construct the first iteration of the TJPP. She helped develop content around safety planning, harm reduction, mutual aid and crisis deescalation. Bayer’s aim is to “support the development and wellbeing of the practitioners” and help them “think through how to implement transformative justice in their everyday lives,” Cartland wrote. In thinking about the TJ Initiative’s future, Peters said that there is not necessarily a “roadmap,” and transformative justice is a “type of work that is meant to grow organically.” He described the potential in the future for assembling multiple cohorts for the TJPP and expanding educational programming to engage community members who are interested in transformative justice but unable to secure a spot in the practitioner program. “As interest (in transformative justice) grows,” Peters said, “I think we’re really well positioned to meet it.”
letes then met with their individual teams to discuss the implications of the Ivy League’s decision for their sport. “I wasn’t surprised by it. I was upset though,” said wrestler Ricky Cabanillas ’23. “Of course I want to wrestle and be a part of that team.” According to Cabanillas, wrestling coach Todd Beckerman has suggested to his wrestlers that they take leave during the spring semester so that they can compete for Brown for another season. Although fall and winter athletes will
not lose a year of athletic eligibility, Brown’s rule that only undergraduate students can participate in athletics still stands. Men’s basketball player Jaylan Gainey ’22 emphasized that his team will continue to stay focused despite their disappointment in the cancellation of their season. “Next move is to keep getting better,” he said. “We’re still going to stay in touch. We’re going to work out tomorrow.” Gainely added that the team has to
“make sure our seniors feel love, because this is their last year. It is taking more of a toll on them than it is (on) the others.” Men’s and women’s water polo coach Felix Mercado discussed the impact of the Ivy League decision on both the men’s team, which plays in the fall, and the women’s team, which plays in the spring and still faces an uncertain future. “With the men … we are going to make sure we are improving for the
years to come,” Mercado said. “I talked to the seniors about (how) their legacy in the program isn’t based on winning and losing, it’s based on their leadership and the example they set.” “On the women … there’s still that possibility they can play,” Mercado continued. “Their job when finals are done is to get back in the water and to train and be ready to play, but also be prepared if they cancel our season. There’s just too many other things that are way more important than sports.”
Friday, November 13, 2020
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | NEWS
3
ARTS & CULTURE
Reimagining of ‘The Witches’ brings a forgettable charm
COURTESY OF WARNER MEDIA
The 2020 movie adaptation of Roald Dahl’s novel “The Witches,” which premiered this past month, succeeds in some aspects but falls short of the original 1990 movie. The film, which is directed by Robert Zemeckis (“Back to the Future,” “Who Framed Roger Rabbit”), features Octavia Spencer, Jahzir Bruno, Anne Hathaway and Chris Rock.
Latest adaptation of classic leaves audiences missing the 1990 original film’s trauma BY IRENE CHOU SENIOR STAFF WRITER Film journalists and movie buffs alike buzzed with anticipation when news arrived announcing that Robert Zemeckis, director of “Back to the Future” and “Who Framed Roger Rabbit,” was slated to adapt the 1983 classic story, Roald Dahl’s “The Witches.” No doubt all those excited to watch the upcoming film recalled its three-decade-old predecessor, a source of childhood trauma for many. One particular scene forever etched in a child’s mind may be that of the Grand High Witch, played masterfully by Anjelica Huston, removing her disguise to reveal a warty, deformed countenance. The practical effects in Nicolas Roeg’s 1990 film remain pure nightmare fuel, as the transmogrification of
children into mice and a witch into her true demonic form take place amidst a haze of green vapors and convincing prosthetics. While Zemeckis’ special-effects witchcraft brings a distinct touch to the 2020 adaptation and Anne Hathaway’s Grand High Witch boasts of some terrifying features of her own — excluding the design of her hands, which proved to be of hurtfully bad taste to the disability community due to a resemblance to ectrodactyly — there is something lacking in the deluge of CGI, an absence that prompted audiences to wax nostalgic for a more repulsive and appalling cinematic experience less reliant on the green screen. Zemeckis’ version of the tale is not entirely insipid and unfeeling, though. Following a script co-written by Zemeckis, Kenya Harris and Guillermo del Toro, the story is re-situated from England and Norway to the American South of the 1960s. A young unnamed boy (Jahzir Bruno) is the sole survivor of a car accident that kills his parents on a snowy night. He moves to the Alabama town of Demopolis with his homely grandmother (Octavia Spencer)
who gradually draws him away from his sorrow and back into healthy play with a pet mouse and lively living-room dances. Yet just as his life regains a semblance of normalcy, the boy has his first encounter with a candy-proffering witch in the general store. Realizing that he is in dire danger, the grandmother decides that they must move to a beachside resort and find anonymity among wealthy patrons and their doted-upon children, as witches tend to target children if they are poor and neglected. However, the grandmother’s well-meaning plan actually leads her grandson to a direct confrontation with a coven of witches, who are arriving at the hotel for their annual meeting. This first third of the film brings heartwarming charm and building suspense. The boy’s grief is relatable, and Spencer shines as the caring, charismatic grandmother. Though the narration by Chris Rock as the elderly version of the boy may be over-the-top, the duo reigns in the campiness with nuanced performances. The grandmother’s rec-
ollection of her own encounters with witches is equal parts horror and comedy, and Zemeckis captivates with flashy visuals of rain dashed against window panes on a stormy night. But the rest of the film isn’t as well-constructed, and eventually diminishes in substance. The Grand High Witch and her coven strut in, and Hathaway has fun rolling her ‘r’s in a vaguely European accent. The film’s hit-or-miss comedic moments are pervasive — viewers end up wondering if Rock and Hathaway and apparently the rest of the cast are attuned to a sense of camp that the boy and his grandmother are left out of. Tension dissolves after the children are transformed into mice, and there is nothing else to do but move the plot swiftly along. The boy’s transformation not only makes him a mouse with expressive brows, but also elevates him to a role as a suddenly much more outspoken and quick-witted protagonist. His pet mouse turns out to have been an orphan girl miserably tricked by a witch. In contrast to the grandmother’s memories, there is a disappointing lack
of visual depiction of what actually happened to this girl. The children-mice then carry out their plan to stop the witches from executing their large-scale “mousification” of all children without a hiccup, culminating in an underwhelming climax. The only noteworthy, crowd-pleasing moment may be the well-written side-plot of the Grand High Witch’s cat, Hades. Overall, the film currently sits at 50 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, an accurate evaluation of what it has to offer. It has its darkly hilarious bits, and the special effects on the witches succeed in making the audience grimace. Bruno and Spencer also offer a refreshing delight as the main characters. But the film’s identity remains muddled, as it struggles to shock and alarm the audience with its portrayal of the demonic ladies while remaining family-friendly. In the end, the movie functions peremptorily. This 2020 attempt at the Roald Dahl story isn’t bad. But compared to the 1990 original that scarred moviegoers, it’s just not memorable.
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | COMMENTARY
4
Friday, November 13, 2020
Widespread support for Trump shows that democracy is at stake BY MATT WALSH ’23 STAFF COLUMNIST
Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump last Tuesday with both a healthy electoral college margin and a significant popular vote majority. But the fact that more than 71 million voters chose Trump, the most anti-democratic president in American history, is more than enough proof that faith in our democratic institutions has eroded substantially. And if we fail to recognize this reality, populist demagogues could become commonplace in American elections. To begin restoring trust in the system, a Biden administration must pursue bold change to improve people’s livelihoods. In democratic countries like the United States, a government’s legitimacy — that is, the popular acceptance of an administration — tends to come from a faith in the fairness and functionality of the system. And the survival of democracy requires that, as long as there is no evidence that anyone has cheated the electoral system, all stakeholders (be they voters or politicians) agree to accept the results that the system produces. A president who rejects this duty is simply anti-democratic. Equally important, for a country to remain democratic, everyone must concede to the decisions of fair democratic processes — even if they come into conflict with their ideological and personal interests. If a candidate makes a credible threat to democracy, voters ought to vote against them, regardless of their political alignments. Those who voted for Trump rejected these core tenets of democratic participation by enabling his anti-democratic behavior. Despite the overwhelming evidence that voter fraud is rare, the Trump administration floated a myth that mail-in voting would result in massive fraud in favor of Democrats. And as state legislatures passed vote-by-mail laws during the summer, Trump intensified his rhetoric, going so far as to refuse to promise a peaceful transfer of power. The peaceful transition between presidents has been an unbroken norm as long as the presidency has existed in the United States. It even occurred after Thomas Jefferson defeated incumbent John Adams in 1800, an election often regarded as one of the most bitter in the country’s history. And there’s evidence that this
tradition is important for upholding democracy elsewhere in the world as well, so even a verbal threat to the peaceful transfer of power shows a lack of respect for fundamental democratic norms. A vote in favor of Trump, therefore, reveals a lack of commitment to upholding democracy. In August, Postmaster General and Trump mega-donor Louis DeJoy began to make significant changes, likely intended to slow down the mail. The changes were enacted as Congress was negotiating its second round of an economic stimulus, which Democrats hoped would increase funding for the USPS to handle mail-in voting. In an August interview with Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo, Trump even admitted that he was holding up the stimulus negotiations because he objected to the in-
clusion of greater USPS funding. While Trump has not been the only obstruction to a second stimulus (Congress has yet to pass anything), he still tried to use the power of the presidency to compromise an apolitical bureaucratic agency and tilt the election in his favor. It was likely unprecedented. Yet, this was no dealbreaker for the 71 million and counting Americans who voted for Trump. Trump has waged many more attacks on democracy that date back to the very beginning of his presidency. But the two I’ve mentioned are the most recent and the most alarming. A democracy can weather a gutted civil service, a diminished ability to discern fact from fiction or a president that lies all the time. But once the electoral system — the very means by which the government becomes representative of the popular will — is compromised, it becomes hard to call a country truly democratic.
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Managing Editors Sophie Culpepper Allie Reed Senior Editors Elise Ryan Alex Smolar post- magazine Editor-in-Chief Amanda Ngo
trends that eroded democratic trust in the first place. Rather, the U.S. needs fundamental policy changes to restore faith in the system and prevent budding authoritarians like Trump from ever ascending to office again. If the Biden administration makes bold efforts to diminish income inequality, it could improve the livelihoods of many Americans and elevate their trust in both government and democracy at large. But if Republicans retain control of the Senate, and bold economic action proves difficult, the next best option for Biden is to find common ground with the other side. Since congressional gridlock erodes trust in government, promoting bipartisanship — that is, showing that the government can actually get things done — could increase trust and decrease the
“But once the electoral system — the very means by which the government becomes representative of the popular will — is compromised, it becomes hard to call a country truly democratic.”
SINCE 1891
Editorial Leadership Editor-in-Chief Colleen Cronin
Stable democracies are reliant on a trust in the validity and fairness of the system. The theory goes that even in bad times and amid incompetent administrations, most voters remain committed to democracy. That means rejecting anti-democratic candidates like Trump. But given the large support for Trump on Nov. 3, it’s clear that many Americans are no longer fully committed to upholding democracy. Whatever they liked about Trump, be it his staunch conservatism, personalistic style or rejection of common political decorum, was more important to them than the integrity of our republic. Donald Trump is a symptom of a government that has failed to improve the livelihoods of its citizens. His continued popularity reveals that even in supposedly stable democracies, performance can’t dip too low if democracy is
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to remain. In the U.S., despite widespread reverence for democratic ideals, low government performance has lasted for so long that many are now willing to vote for an anti-democrat like Trump if they believe he will make their lives better. And the evidence for declining trust in government in the past 50 years in the U.S. couldn’t be clearer, thanks to Watergate, political polarization, congressional gridlock and ever-growing economic inequality. Had there been stronger government performance over the past 50 years, it’s likely that many voters would have had an easier time rejecting a demagogue like Trump last week. Instead, they saw him as an antidote to the country’s myriad problems. Thus, we can’t take it for granted that people will trust the system and reject anti-democrats. We need to give them a reason to do so. Preserving the status quo of the last 50 years is not enough, for it will only perpetuate the
demand for a strongman like Trump. There’s evidence that citizens’ declining trust in government may make them wary of initiatives that increase the size and power of the federal government. But is there an alternative option? If the Biden administration fails to make people’s lives noticeably better, then trust in the system will stay low, and we’ll remain prone to electing anti-democratic demagogues like Trump. Democrats must aim high and do everything in their power to enact change — because democracy may quite literally depend on it. Matt Walsh ’23 can be reached at matthew_ walsh@brown.edu. Please send responses to this opinion to letters@browndailyherald. com and other op-eds to opinions@browndailyherald.com.
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NOV 13 — VOL 26 — ISSUE 9
FEATURE
See Full Issue: WWW.POST.BROWNDAILYHERALD.COM
NARRATIVE
Wish You Were Here a love letter to pen pals By Siena Capone
Birdkeeper
watching my dad birdwatching by Adi Thatai illustrated by Naya Lee Chang I noticed that you fell in love with the birds this summer. As your kidneys shrank, I think your interests did too. It started small. You started by looking out the window. You never did that before. Or perhaps, more truthfully, I never bothered to notice. Every day after lunch, you stood at the kitchen window looking at our backyard, your upper back hunched as always, your thinning, graying hair messy over your scalp, peeling an orange and eating it slice by slice. Your calloused fingers moved, but you didn’t look down. The days you stood there longest, planted and unmoving, were the warmest ones. On those days of streaming sunlight, the romping sparrows weren’t afraid of the hawks and even the cowardly cardinals would criss-cross through the trees, blood-red spots flitting against the sky for what could be no reason
but fun. You planted your feet and looked out. I don’t think you noticed me watching. Those were the days you called me over. You handed me an orange slice. Do something nice for your father, you said. I want a bird feeder. Did you know we live across from a bird sanctuary? I never noticed. He never did that. My father. He would never stand there and watch the birds. He’s the kind of man who keeps his head down. At least that’s how I know him. I remember one night on a family vacation in Maine, I was out late on the deck, resting my elbows on the railing, staring up at a pin-pricked, starry sky cut open by the white arc of the Milky Way. He came out and stood next to me in silence. He glanced up,
fonts. An unsealed invitation into the world I was occupying miles away, reachable through a few…
breathed in, and said, When your great-grandfather turned 80, I got him his first pair of glasses. He put
influenza A meets gossip girl
them on for the first time at night in the village and began to cry. My father paused. He said to me, I never knew that this is what the stars look like. There were only a couple coughing stars visible in the polluted Indian sky. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that he could have seen so many more here. My dad clicked his tongue, disappointed. He bent his head down...
During quarantine, the weekend starts when the first song is queued on our kitchen speaker. The music plays as my housemates and I assemble ingredients for dinner (pasta every Friday) and continues until we’ve dried the last dish: BØRNS,
“It's like he just thought: Oh no I need a hobby—what do people who wear hats do?” “I think that one of us, just for the heck of it, should find out about urine.”
Embarrassing Middle School 1. Memories
Literally fighting over rubber bands (Silly Bandz)
6. Like my post for a tbh (the tbh in question: ur cool)
2. Pairing a plaid seafoam green button down with highlighter orange shorts
7. Buying a mini-chandelier to decorate my locker with
3. Stirring the pot on Ask.fm 4. Rocking accidental scene hair because my mom didn’t want to spend money on a proper barber 5. u got kik?
post–
Want to be involved? Email: amanda_ngo@brown.edu!
“Un francobollo, per favore?” The employee at the tabbachino was unimpressed, sliding a packet of stamps in my direction. In English: “here you go.” Almost three years of learning Italian and the try-hard air of an American accent suffocating my pronunciation gave it away. Regardless, I left with stamps, which was the goal. It would be another hour of shuffling around a Florence piazza until I could find a little yellow mailbox and deliver my handful of postcards, slipping the bundle of well wishes and retellings of my misadventures on the bus system into a slot that seemed a little too easy for someone to reach into. In June of 2019, temperatures in Florence hit 110 degrees some days. My back was plastered with the sweaty sunflower pattern of my dress, a garden just-watered. One postcard was for my parents. A few for my friends, some for family members. Glossy, doctored photographs of the Ponte Vecchio smothered in late-day sun, under Firenze in corny WordArt
8. Thinking rawr xD was a personality trait 9. Using “YOLO” as a justification for poor coping mechanisms 10. Refusing to wear jeans and only wearing yoga pants with clogs
ARTS&CULTURE
Fever Pitch By Liza Edwards-Levin
Frank Ocean, Glass Animals, Taylor Swift, HAIM… many songs prompt memories of moments that don’t make sense in a pandemic. Like Frank Ocean’s “Super Rich Kids” playing on a laptop freshman fall as 12 of us sat, cramped together on the floor of someone’s dorm room, awkward but determined not to show it—or, years later, my friend and I splitting his AirPods as the snow greeted us outside the GCB, “Thinkin Bout You” in his right ear and my left. The memories aren’t just mine: I can picture...
LIFESTYLE
The Fight is Far from Over post-election action items By Elliana Reynolds
Last Saturday, after many days of following the presidential race, it was finally announced that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will be the next president and vice president of the United States. For many, this was a relief from what felt like four years of constant negative news. However, even with this supposedly… november 13, 2020
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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | NEWS
Friday, November 13, 2020
SUMMER ZHANG / HERALD
INTERNATIONAL FROM PAGE 1 rated from Providence and temporally separated from home, some international students have felt entirely displaced. “I feel isolated both ways,” Zhang said. “I haven’t had dinner together with my family since forever because they eat when I’m asleep.” Thin Su San ’23, who studies from Myanmar, added that an inverted schedule has had further implications for her study habits. “It doesn’t feel motivating to study at 3 a.m. when you know everyone is asleep,” she said. While such remote studying can be lonely and stressful, Zoe Coleman ’23 said it has helped foster a “spirit of understanding and kindness” among the student community. She added
that “people are more concerned about mental health and checking in,” a practice that she hopes will last beyond the pandemic. Students have mixed opinions regarding the University’s efforts to make accommodations for those studying in other time zones, with many admitting the measures the University can take are limited to begin with. Ultimately, students said it was largely up to individual professors to make necessary accommodations for their students. “I think a majority of professors have had patience and been understanding of our situations, and they’ve been kindly accommodating in response — though there are certainly some horror stories,” Nam said. Anvita Bhagavathula ’23, studying
from Singapore, cited lecture recordings and office hours spanning across time zones as helpful resources professors have offered. But she added that “keeping track of classes is still overwhelming” due to a heavy and challenging workload. Besides academic resources, students have found that other University services such as Counseling and Psychological Services and Health Services have become less accessible — which in some ways is inevitable because “they’re not physically around,” Coleman said. Zhang added that physical removal from campus has lowered her motivation to actively engage with University resources. Though the international office and some professors send check-in emails, it feels “futile” in
CA L E N DA R
current circumstances, Zhang said. With the fall semester nearing a close, students are beginning to plan for the coming spring. For international students who reside in countries that responded to the pandemic quickly and vigilantly, the decision between leaving a safe home to enter a high-risk country and taking another remote semester is one that induces a lot of anxiety. Cases currently stand at record highs in the United States. “‘Safety’ is a complicated situation,” Coleman said, weighing her life in South Africa against returning to campus. “COVID-wise, I’m safer at home, where we have handled the virus quite well,” but being isolated from college can have far-reaching psychological effects, she explained.
Similarly, Nam said he feels “hesitant to go back to the U.S.,” but “having to deal with online learning for another semester is non-negotiable.” Ultimately, international students who choose to return to campus next spring will have to place their faith in the University. Clara Vaduva ’23, who hails from Romania but is currently studying on campus, praised the University’s social-distancing and testing policies, adding that they have been “important for keeping things under control.” Remote students similarly observed that the University seems to have managed the pandemic better than most places in the United States. “I’m anxious about Providence,” Bhagavathula said, “but I think I could be safe in the campus bubble.”
COVID -19 AT BROWN LAST 7 DAYS*
NOVEMBER Completed Tests
People Tested
S
M
Tu
W
Th
F
S
10,545
6,621
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Confirmed Positives
Positivity Rates
21
0.2 %
8
9
10
11
12
13
14 SINCE AUGUST 24, 2020*
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
Completed Tests
People Tested
110,217
7,634
Total Cases
Prevalence
78
1.0 %
*AS OF NOV. 12
Friday, November 13, 2020
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | NEWS
SCIENCE & RESEARCH
Prof. Aizenman recognized for work in STEM diversity Carlos Aizenman ’93 named to list of inspiring Hispanic/ Latinx scientists BY KATHLEEN MEININGER STAFF WRITER Professor of Neuroscience Carlos Aizenman ’93 discovered his passion for neuroscience while studying on campus as a University undergraduate. Now, he plays an integral role in teaching students who share his same scientific interests and helping to increase diversity in the field. Aizenman has taken on many roles within the University’s neuroscience programming; as a professor, a principal investigator of his lab and Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan chair for the department. In September, he was named to CrossTalk’s list of “100 inspiring Hispanic/Latinx scientists” for his work in science and his dedication to diversity and inclusion at Brown. “We received hundreds of nominations of different scientists, but Dr. Aizenman definitely stood out to us,” said Christina Termini, postdoctoral fellow at the University of California at Los Angeles and author of the article that announced the list. Aizenman was chosen not only because of his scientific achievements and “his connection to the Hispanic and Latinx community, but also his dedication toward improving diversity at the institutional level, as well as the national level,” she said. Among various efforts to increase diversity in science, Aizenman was formerly the faculty liaison for the University’s chapter of the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science and is co-director of the Post-Baccalaureate Research Education Program. The Aizenman Lab studies how early life experiences affect neural connections in the developing brain. They use the visual system of tadpoles to model these networks in the context of normal development and neurodevelopmental disorders, such as autism. The lab has studied how a certain anti-epileptic drug can increase the connectivity between neurons — a type of cell in the nervous system — in unborn children, which has been linked to the development of autism, The Herald previously reported. The researchers are currently investigating a gene involved in neural plasticity, or the adaptability of the nervous system, which is often dysregulated in autism, Aizenman said. Additionally, they are looking into how abnormal connections between neurons may result in epilepsy. Outside of his lab space, as DIAP chair for the neuroscience department, Aizenman advocates for department-wide programs seeking to increase equity, such as training programs designed to teach faculty to be more inclusive and mentor across cultural differences, he said. The DIAP is also currently working to increase opportunities for students on work-study financial aid by adding available paid positions in University research labs. “We always talk about diversity and
inclusion, but one thing (that) is often overlooked is equity — having equitable access to research,” Aizenman said. “I definitely think that there’s a lot of room for these programs to make it just as easy for anyone who wants to work to do that … and not have to worry about whether they have to work for free.” As co-director of the PREP program, Aizenman works with students who want to apply to graduate school but do not have the necessary experience or resources. The program enables them to spend another year at the University building professional development skills, gaining research experience and enrolling in additional courses, he said. The initiative also educates students on the graduate school application process and provides guidance on interviews and essays. In addition to being a leading figure in efforts to support underrepresented students throughout campus, Aizenman directly mentors students in his lab. He encourages students to think critically about their research to understand its importance, while also advocating for them and providing them with the means to achieve their goals. Every student comes from a different background and requires different guidance to be successful, Aizenman said. “I think the key is to not just focus on the science but focus on the individual.” Alexis Toliver GS, a member of the Aizenman Lab, has worked very closely with Aizenman to receive the prestigious National Health Fund and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Gilliam Fellowships. She expressed appreciation for his mentorship and accommodation for students. Toliver described a time she was released from the hospital on the day she had to submit the NSF grant. “He supported me even as I submitted it last minute coming straight out of the hospital,” Toliver said. She also added that Aizenman “does a great job of providing opportunities for students of color.” Jackie Ho ’21, who joined the Aizenman Lab as a sophomore, said that through Aizenman’s mentorship, she’s developed a deeper interest in basic science, which has inspired her to apply to MD-PhD programs and continue research at the graduate level. Ho added that she has had a great experience working in “one of the most diverse” neuroscience labs on campus, where she’s always “been welcomed warmly.” “He’s helped me get the resources I need to succeed,” Toliver said.
COURTESY OF BROWN UNIVERSITY
Aizenman was recognized for his research on neural connections and for his efforts to increase diversity and equity within the sciences.
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POWELL FROM PAGE 1 sized the idea that it was essential for Powell to go to college, and helped him achieve that goal in many ways: making sure he did his homework on time, giving him pep talks and coaching him through his running, which he continued through college. “She kind of did it all because she knew that college was a pathway to even greater opportunity and to having choices that the people in the trailer park in Jacksonville just didn’t have,” Powell said. Powell ended up attending Bowdoin College, where he ran track and field. Later, he began to volunteer for Bowdoin’s admissions office by hosting students and serving on admissions panels. “I really genuinely got hooked on (admissions) then because I felt like there was an opportunity for me to connect with students who, like me, maybe never even thought that going to an amazing school was a possibility and didn’t know how the process works.” After receiving his master’s degree at Harvard, Powell became even more engrossed in the world of admissions. He built a career in the admissions offices at Princeton, Harvard and Bowdoin before coming to Brown in 2016. Motivated by his own experience as a college applicant, Powell has focused his work on making the daunting and stressful college application process as straightforward and accessible as possible — especially during an unprecedented global pandemic. Powell is cognizant of the many invisible barriers in the admissions process, such as application fees, testing policies and the availability of information for students who can’t visit campus in person. Powell said he experienced some of these barriers firsthand when applying to college himself. But since then, he has seen the admissions community focus on making the process more accessible to all interested students. The Admission Office is made up of people with a broad range of perspectives who are committed to “strengthening the diversity and academic talent represented at Brown,” he said. “We all feel this incredible honor, frankly, to bring students from all walks of life to Brown.” “Every day, I am awed by the University and the team I have to work with and the opportunity we have to shape the future of Brown,” Powell said. “It’s something I have never taken for granted.” The Admission Office’s adjustment to COVID-19 Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Powell and his team had to quickly adjust their typical procedures. The Admission Office came up with several contingency plans that modeled potential outcomes depending on the impact of the virus as it began to spread in February and March. Just as campus was closing to students and visitors, the Admission Office was preparing to send out regular-decision acceptances, and very quickly had to adjust much of the regular outreach and communication for admitted students. While adapting to the new landscape, Powell said that one main piece of the planning was keeping in mind the “actual human impacts on the families in our applicant pool.” Powell understood that many admitted students and families would be disappointed that they would not
COURTESY OF LOGAN POWELL
Powell spends his free time running and biking on the East Bay Bike path and on walks around College Hill with his French bulldog Gus. have an opportunity to visit campus, but the Admission Office strengthened its virtual outreach and adapted programs like A Day on College Hill to an online format. Beyond accommodating the needs of admitted students, Powell also focused on how the Admission Office would stay connected and maintain its sense of community internally. The team is accustomed to working together in the same building and easily dropping in on each other to find solutions to problems, Powell said, so the transition to Zoom was a challenge. The admission process benefits from seeing prospective applicants in person, Powell said, whether it be on campus through a tour or information session or at an event near their home or school, in order to learn more about a student’s life. “It’s really important for us to have that empathy and to have that understanding to know what the environment is that our students are coming from,” he said. “I think it really informs our decision-making in a way that we don’t want to lose.” But Powell is aware that even prior to the pandemic, many students did not have the opportunity to visit campus or attend another Brown-sponsored event. The pandemic, in many ways, has forced the Admission Office to be more creative about outreach and strengthen its digital assets. As a result, Powell said, these new initiatives have created more opportunities for prospective students to learn about Brown through live virtual tours, for example. “When things go back to normal, we would still encourage (visiting campus) while also recognizing there are a lot of students who just can’t visit for whatever set of reasons, and we should continue to do everything we
can to showcase Brown to the best of our ability because it really is an incredibly special place,” Powell said. Nationwide, the volume of early-decision applications has decreased by eight percent amid the COVID-19 pandemic, according to data Powell said that the Common Application has shared with “chief enrollment officers” at its partner institutions. The virus has disproportionately impacted low-income and first-generation populations, and early-decision applications from those groups of students have decreased by 16 percent nationwide. But Brown has seen its early-decision application volume increase by 16 percent and did not observe a decrease in the number of first-generation and low-income applicants in the pool. Powell mainly credits this increase to the strength of the University’s financial aid, including the Brown Promise, as well as the virtual outreach of the Admission Office. Outside of work The Admission Office is currently in the early decision phase of the year. Powell’s schedule currently consists of 12- to 13-hour work days with various meetings from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and additional hours of application-reading in the evening. In his brief slivers of free time, Powell still enjoys running or biking on the East Bay Bike Path and reading or studying anything he can in order to be a “more informed member of the Brown community,” he said. “At this point in my life, I still only read non-fiction because I just feel like I need to know as much as I can.” He also spends his free time going on walks throughout College Hill with his French bulldog, Gus. “He’s way more popular than I am,” Powell said. “When I’m walking with him, no
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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | NEWS
Friday, November 13, 2020
UNIVERSITY NEWS
Amid anxiety about U.S. Election, professors support students in classes
U. administrators asked faculty to move exams scheduled for day after Election Day BY COREY GELB-BICKNELL SENIOR STAFF WRITER For students like Renee Clairvoyant ’23, the uncertainty of last week’s election made it difficult to focus. “It was like my chest felt heavy,” Clairvoyant said. “I kept checking the maps every five minutes. I couldn’t really think about anything else.” As the election dominated thoughts, discussion and news coverage outside of the classroom, professors were tasked with meeting student needs without espousing political views or falling behind on their course agenda. Faculty should not discuss politics in class unless it is directly related to the content of the course, according to Dean of the Faculty Kevin McLaughlin. “We are not a political organization,” he said. “We are an educational institution.” McLaughlin said the University rarely receives complaints over professors expressing political views in class. But he acknowledged that there may have been a “temptation for faculty to express their views about the presidential election.” He said that the University makes an effort to remind faculty about the policy. In addition to avoiding discussion of their own political ideologies, McLaughlin added that professors also have a responsibility to ensure that students only discuss politics in class when relevant. “The faculty member who’s responsible for that classroom space really has the authority and the responsibility to try to prevent students from turning the classroom into a political venue,” he said. One reason for such a policy, McLaughlin explained, is that faculty are grading students’ work. “It shouldn’t ever seem that a student has to embrace the faculty members political position” to receive “a better grade
VICTORIA YIN / HERALD
While University policy discourages professors from taking political stances in classes, many professors and instructors provided accommodations, flexible deadlines, office hours or discussions to help students deal with the stress of the Presidential Election last week. in the class.” Still, many faculty and teaching assistants alluded to the election or acknowledged the stress that many individuals were experiencing. “Things appear to be sane and stable enough to have a class meeting tomorrow,” one professor posted to Canvas on Election Day. In another class, a TA offered office hours for students feeling anxious as election results rolled in: “Feel free to drop by, chat or just hang out.” Adam Shepardson ’22 said that while his professors were generally very vocal about voting in the election, they did not speak about the results. In some political science classes, however, discussions about the election were essential to the content of the course. Professor of Political Science Richard Arenberg, who teaches POLS 1120: “Campaigns and Elections,” said he devotes the beginning of every class for students to comment
ELISE RYAN / HERALD
In 2019, the University announced an initiative to double its U.S. student veteran population by 2024 — a goal Healey’s gift supports.
VETERANS FROM PAGE 1 “While I didn’t attend Brown, this University has had an incredible impact on my life and the life of my family,” Healey said in his speech. “In many ways, this gift encapsulates two of the most important aspects of my life. The first is service to my country and the
second is education — specifically, the doors that have been opened to my family through education.” “At my core, I believe that service to your country is truly one of the highest callings that there is,” Healey said. “That’s why it’s important that we honor our veterans today and always.”
on and ask about the current election and its implications. Arenberg said that remaining bipartisan during these discussions has posed a unique challenge throughout this election cycle. “From an objective basis, from the perspective of a political scientist, there have been a number of aspects of the (Trump) administration … that have been fairly subject to criticism,” he said. Still, Arenberg believes his class has “been an environment where students who want to express views and want to engage in discussion feel comfortable doing that.” Drayton Nabers, an English professor who teaches courses on political history, said he tries to “make it possible for people to bring up current affairs if they seem relevant to what we’re talking about.” But Nabers found that during Election Week that students were generally relieved to
discuss political themes of the course without bringing up the election. Nabers also said that he will “inevitably” allude to his general political leanings when teaching historical politics, but he tries to avoid partisanship when discussing the “immediate fray of back and forth partisan politics.” While the University discourages professors from discussing their political views in class, they did ask professors to move exams that were scheduled for the day after the election. Ultimately, though, faculty were in charge of decisions regarding exam times, McLaughlin said. Arenberg said he has always worked on a case-by-case basis with students who are unable to complete assignments by the deadline. But the pandemic, more than the election, has necessitated greater flexibility for students. Still, Shepardson said that his pro-
fessors provided even more flexibility during Election Week than the semester as a whole, with one professor expanding the time window to complete an exam and another pushing back the deadline for a paper. Professor of Philosophy Felicia Nimue Ackerman said that she always provides flexible deadlines, regardless of the national context. “People do not have to barter details about their personal lives in return for flexible deadlines,” she said. “I stay out of my students’ emotional lives.” While Clairvoyant believed that Trump’s reelection could have been detrimental for themself and others, they were glad that professors generally limited any discussion of the election. “The election was a big deal for everyone. But if we had gone into a discussion about who we voted for, I wouldn’t have been comfortable,” they said.