Daily
the Brown
vol. cxlviii, no. 8
INSIDE
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Fun in the sun Students compete to design eco-friendly housing Page 5
Judgment call Prof finds children base moral judgements on intent
The minimum donation requirement continues to deter young alums from contributing By Tonya Riley
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Two Brown athletes to join the MLL and the MLS
today
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tomorrow
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Since the creation of the University’s Social Choice Fund in 2007 — the first in the Ivy League — the fund has struggled with a lack of donations and poor investment returns. The fund, which invests in companies based on their active commitments to promoting social change, has seen only one donation — about $1.3 million in 2008, according to minutes from a meeting of the Advisory Committee on Corporate Responsibility in Investment Policies. “It was an excellent idea,” said Dan MacCombie ’08, a member of ACCRIP. “But as of now, it’s sort of stunted.”
since 1891
Friday, February 01, 2013
Social choice fund still holds only one donation
Senior Staff Writer
Major league
Herald
Choosing social choice Brown students advocated the creation of a social choice fund both in 2004 and 2005, but the Corporation — the University’s highest governing body — struck down the proposals over concern about donor interest, The Herald reported in 2007. The Investment and Development Offices wanted reassurance that creating the fund would not detract from the rest of the endowment, said MacCombie, who became involved with ACCRIP first as a research assistant and then as a member. Administrators were also concerned that the fund’s original title, “Socially Responsible Fund,” implied that the University’s other investments were irresponsible, and the name was changed, MacCombie said. Since ACCRIP already screens companies for social irresponsibility, the focus of the Social Choice Fund was on / / Fund page 2 investing in
C r e at u r e s o f Fa s h i o n
Courtesy of Daniel Gagnon Photography
Handbag designer Kent Stetson ’01 incorporated surreal masks and costumes into his Tuesday runway show at Northeast StyleWeek.
Hypnotism probes minds, delights audience Continuing Professors explain the cognitive science behind the mysterious mindbending technique By Riley Davis Staff Writer
It is not often one finds college students screaming about aliens and singing top 40 songs they barely know, but last night, that seemed to be the norm — at least for a couple of hours. During Frank Santos, Jr.’s hypnosis show, held Thursday at the Stephen Robert ’62 Campus Center, students mimed frantically with their hands because they had forgotten how to speak English. They took off their shirts and could not re-
science & research
member how to put them back on. They performed in “butt-shaking competitions.” Santos, a comedic hypnotist who has performed at colleges, high schools and corporate events around the country, began his performance with a quick round of hypnosis tests to determine which volunteers from the audience would be hypnotized most easily. He and his 11 chosen volunteers then kept the audience laughing for over an hour as he provided witty commentary on his subjects’ antics. The field of hypnotism doesn’t just involve speaking in a luring tone and convincing people to do strange things. It is a complex phenomenon, so quantified research concerning its effects on patients is difficult to procure and even more difficult to duplicate, said Catherine Kerr, professor of cognitive, linguistic and / / Hypnosis page 2 psychological
Studies closed its doors
Falling enrollment causes the end of the Continuing Ed. Department’s adult learning program By Caleb miller senior staff writer
Dave deckey / herald
Frank Santos, Jr. held the audience in rapture last night as he prompted hypnotized students to engage in the bizarre and hilarious.
Spring theater to present new works and old favorites A new semester on the stage promises an array of emotional and entertaining performances By ANDREW SMYTH Senior staff writer
Theater aficionados and newcomers alike will have plenty to see and talk about this semester as students, faculty members and visiting artists stage an ambitious spring lineup with performances of a vast thematic range. From Neoclassical tragedy to contemporary devised work, the next few months in drama offer works meant to challenge, arrest and delight audiences. Production Workshop will start off the season next week with Peter Shaffer’s provocative “Equus,” directed by Ben Freeman ’13. Equal parts psychological detective story and cosmic rite, the work examines a boy’s theological and erotic fascination with horses and will
arts & culture
play Feb. 8-11 in the PW Downspace. “What has delighted us about ‘Equus’ is the depth of its ambiguity — ecstasy, doubling as torment, doubling as passion, doubling as madness,” Freeman said. “As a team we have far more questions about the play than answers.” Also at PW this semester, Jenny Gorelick ’14 will direct “Goose and Tomtom” by David Rabe, a play about small-time jewel thieves that combines scenes of intense violence with crude humor and slapstick gags. “‘Goose and Tomtom’ is a physical comedy that incorporates elements of the surreal to create an experience that is both hilarious and destabilizing,” Gorelick said. “My vision of the play centers on power — how much we have over each other, our environments and ourselves.” Power and its erosion will figure prominently in visiting director Young
Jean Lee’s “Straight White Men,” which she is producing in residency with Sock and Buskin. Lee has earned an international reputation as an avant-garde playwright. “When starting a play, I ask myself, ‘What’s the last show in the world I would ever want to make?’ Then I force myself to make it,” she wrote in an email to The Herald. The work is still in development, and much of it will be devised on site. “I write my shows as I’m directing them, working collaboratively with my performers and artistic team and getting feedback from workshop audiences,” she said. “I never really know for sure until I’m in the room with the actors making it happen.” The performance will feature themes familiar to a Brown audience, such as the deconstruction of gender, race and sexuality. “Our goal is to find ways to get past our audiences’ defenses against uncomfortable subjects and open people up to confronting difficult questions by keeping them
disoriented and laughing,” she added. “Straight White Men” will run April 4-7 and 11-14 in Leeds Theatre. In a shift from the experimental to the canonical, Sock and Buskin will also be producing “Phaedra,” a tragedy by French dramatist Jean Racine, first performed in 1677. The work, which will run Feb. 28 - March 10 in Stuart Theatre, will be directed by Spencer Golub, professor of theatre arts and performance studies. The play revolves around characters from Greek mythology who were first staged by the likes of Greek dramatists Euripedes and Seneca. At Musical Forum, Alex Ostroff ’14 will direct “Bat Boy” by Keythe Farley and Brian Flemming with music and lyrics by Laurence O’Keefe. The show tells the story of a mysterious bat-like boy who is found in a cave and raised in small town West Virginia. It will run in the PW Downspace in April. “The music is very catchy and very diverse. It has everything from a hoedown to a rap / / Theater page 3
The Continuing Education department shut down the Continuing Studies program at the end of last semester due to dropping enrollment, said Jodi Devine, associate director for executive education and adult programs. The program offered not-for-credit evening courses to adults in the community for five years, Devine said. But the program experienced a decrease in enrollment over the last few semesters, including a 46 percent drop in fall course enrollment from 2011 to 2012 and a 40 percent drop over the same period in the spring courses, Devine said. “The program was no longer sustainable and that was the driving force behind the closing,” she said. Last fall, the department formed a committee to examine the program and consider the possibility of its closure, Devine said. The program officially ended at the close of the semester. “This was not a decision we made lightly,” Devine said. She added that the department would look into reopening the program if interest rose again in the future. Sarah Baldwin-Beneich, communications director at the Watson Institute for International Studies, is a former student and instructor in the Continuing Studies program. She said she had a great experience with the program and is upset to see / /Continuing page 3 it closing.