Thursday, October 10, 2002 by The Brown Daily Herald

T H U R S D A Y OCTOBER 10, 2002

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Volume CXXXVII, No. 89

An independent newspaper serving the Brown community since 1891

ResCouncil OKs broad expansion of coed suites

Newman aims to build a name for Brown’s Grad School BY BRIAN BASKIN

A student walking across the Graduate Center terrace might see a piece of paper that reads “Graduate School” taped to the door of the Bear’s Lair. The makeshift sign is the only indicator that what puts the “University” in Brown University inhabits the offices above. That’s not enough for Karen Newman. Ten days into her post as dean of the Graduate School, Newman wants the University and the outside world to know that the Graduate School is a major part of the Brown campus — physically and figuratively. As she assembles task forces and conducts studies on everything from childcare to housing and stipends, one of Newman’s first acts will be to install real signs in Grad Center. Eventually the signs will be posted on Horace Mann, the Graduate School’s new home come September 2003. The signs are a physical reminder that her primary job will be to raise the school’s visibility, Newman said. “Often in the university college model … the university part is sometimes forgotten and the college part seems to occupy center stage,” Newman said. “So I see my role in part as trying to make that a more equal relationship.” Already there are signs that Newman will get what she wants. Last semester, the University added $2 million to the graduate school’s base budget as part of President Ruth Simmons’ plan for academic renewal. The money went to health

But the Office of Residential Life must approve the council’s recommendation by December for it to become policy in time for this spring’s housing lottery BY HAYLEY TYLER

ries” that describe Jews’ relationship to Israel. The first is “the story of a relationship between a people and a piece of land, a people and a dream that relates to a piece of territory.” This story, dominant until about 200 years ago, asserts that God gave Israel to the people, the people sinned, and God took Israel away. In this view, living outside Israel is punishment. The Jews’ role was “to keep the commandments, to keep separate as a people, until the Messiah comes,” he said. “You can’t understand why Israel and not Uganda if you don’t understand that story,” Infeld said. The second master story, which began with the French Revolution and the rise of nationalism, liberalism and modernity in the 18th century, grew as a response to anti-Semitism, Infeld said. Jews were invited to leave the European ghettos and stop being different. Some Jews declined this invitation, maintaining their old traditions; others assimilated completely. Still others tried to assimilate but could not succeed, he said. “There is a difference between a law saying you’re equal and your neighbor accepting you as equal,” Infeld said. These Jews responded by saying, “I can’t become one of you, so I’m going to become just like you.” This led to Jewish nationalism

The University may allow future residents of Young Orchard, New Dorm B and Barbour Hall live in coed suites, pending the approval of a Residential Council resolution passed last week. If approved by the Office of Residential Life, the resolution could go into effect for the upcoming spring lottery. But administrators are reluctant to push forward quickly on the proposal and have no set timetable for a decision. The resolution, which passed the council with a vote of 7-0-1, is “the logical next step in the expansion of current coed suite availability on campus,” said ResCouncil member and Lottery Chair Evan Metcalfe ’03. Last year, suites in New Dorm A, Wriston Quad and Morriss-Champlin became optionally coed, expanding coed suite availability on campus. ResCouncil chose not to include New Dorm B in last year’s resolution, in order to test the success of the “pilot program,” Metcalfe said. So far, there have not been any major problems with coed suites, he said. ResCouncil has discussed coed suite availability for several years. The council conducted a poll last fall that reported high student interest in coed living arrangements, said council member and Policy Chair Jesse Goodman ’04, who helped draft last week’s resolution. “The lottery system is designed to maximize freedom of choice, and this (resolution) would give students more options,” Goodman said. Neither this year’s nor last year’s resolution allows students of the opposite sex to share a bedroom in a coed suite. And only suites that contain separate-sex bathrooms, bathrooms with one toilet or shower or bathrooms outside the suite are addressed in either resolution. Each suite affected by last year’s resolution has bathrooms outside the suite or includes separate-sex bathrooms, whereas each suite affected by this year’s resolution includes a single-use bathroom or, in the case of New Dorm B, bathrooms outside the suite. “The main obstacle from Residential Life’s standpoint is that they are not ready to let males and females share doubles or triples, or multiple-use bathrooms,” Metcalfe said.

see INFELD, page 4

see COED, page 4

Megan Lynch / Herald

Teacher and Israeli citizen Avraham Infeld chose to lecture on the question of Jewish identity and its relationship to the Israeli state — issues that he said are just as important as the current political situation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Seperating Israel from the Intifada crucial — not easy

see NEWMAN, page 4 BY STEPHANIE HARRIS

ETS adds essay section to GRE test, removes multiple choice BY FAIZAH MALIK

The GRE, a standardized test for students applying to graduate school in the sciences, arts and humanities, has amended its format, replacing a portion of the multiple choice questions with an essay. The Graduate Record Examinations General Test, as the GRE is formally known, was once composed of a verbal skills section, a quantitative skills section and an analytical section, which consisted of logic “games” to test reasoning. The new analytical writing section is identical to a separate test called the Writing Assessment, introduced in October 1999, according to a press release from the Educational Testing Service, which administers the GRE. The GRE board approved these changes in June, along with an increase in the test see GRE, page 13

Breaking from the recent trend of speakers who lectured on the politics of the IsraeliPalestinian conflict, Israeli citizen and travelling lecturer Avraham Infeld spoke Wednesday about Jewish identity and its relationship to Israel. “People want me to talk about the current situation in Israel. If you want to hear that, turn on CNN,” Infeld told a crowd of about 40 in Wilson 102. “Israel is much more than the current situation.” The Consulate General for Jewish Affairs to Hillel International, Infeld came to Brown as part of a tour of campuses around the country. His talk focused on U.S. Jews’ relationship to Israel rather than the current political situation, although he took questions after his speech relating to political issues. “The Intifada is not Israel,” he said. “Israel is the relationship between the people and the dream and the memory they have.” “Being Jewish is knowing you have a memory that is longer than your own life,” he said. “Not only a memory, but also a commitment to moral teachings.” “We can’t just teach the modern situation. We need people to feel a part of the Jewish people,” he said. “To love Israel demands understanding your relationship to the Jewish people and the relationship of the Jewish people to the land of Israel.” Infeld said there are three “master sto-

I N S I D E T H U R S D AY, O C T O B E R 1 0 , 2 0 0 2 Higher education too costly across United States, national policy center study finds page 3

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City Council candidates for 1st Ward debate the issues at local elementary school page 5

In mayoral bid, candidate Christopher Young claims he’s been shafted by the press page 5

TO D AY ’ S F O R E C A S T Rob Sand ’05 says the Bush administration is foolish to take an isolationist position guest column,page 15

Women’s soccer steps up and sends Northeastern down to defeat, 2-0 sports,page 16

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

THIS MORNING THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2002 · PAGE 2 Pornucopia Eli Swiney

W E AT H E R TODAY

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A Story Of Eddie Ahn

CALENDAR COLLOQUIUM — “Inequality in the Developing World: Equal Treatment, Unequal Outcomes,” Robert Jensen, Harvard University. Maxcy Hall, Zimmer Lounge, noon. COLLOQUIUM — “Adventures in Fair Language Testing of AfricanAmerican English-speaking Children,” Jill de Villiers and Peter de Villiers, Smith College. Room 241, CIT, noon. THEATER — “Hot Comb,” written by Elmo Terry-Morgan. Rites and Reason Theatre, 7 p.m. INFORMATION SESSION — about the Entrepreneurship Program. Room 106, Smith-Buonanno, 7 p.m.

Edwin Chang Hopeless

LECTURE — “Dhimmitude Past and Present: An Invented or Real History?” Bat Ye’or. Room 001, Salomon Center, 7:30 p.m. THEATER — “The Seagull,” by Anton Chekhov, directed by Lowry Marshall. Stuart Theatre, 8 p.m. READING — Jeffrey Renard Allen will read from his work. McCormack Family Theater, 8 p.m.

CROSSWORD ACROSS 1 Minus 5 Impediments 10 “J’Accuse” author 14 Greenspan of the Fed 15 Rocker Eddie Van __ 16 Considerable work 17 Eight furlongs 18 Author Loos 19 Budget item 20 Ask 23 Rank indications, maybe 24 Duke Univ. conference 25 “Sex and the City” network 28 Play aggressively, in a card game 33 Coast Guard pickup 36 Sicilian smoker 37 Goes bad 38 Absolute worst 40 Existence 43 Understanding words 44 Parting of the Pacific 46 Cambodia neighbor 48 Me. hours 49 Have an allergic reaction 53 Bard’s “before” 54 __ la la 55 Smidgens 59 Instruction under a dotted line 64 Home to over three billion 66 Prized horses 67 European automaker 68 Curator’s revelation 69 Amos and Spelling 70 Russo of “Buddy” 71 Some court opponents 72 Church leader 73 Makes sense, with “up” DOWN 1 Heat sources 2 “The Waste Land” poet

3 Hot stuff 34 Edmonton skater 57 Revise 4 Contemptuous 35 High hat 58 Two-time U.S. expressions 39 Ship designation Open winner 5 Dream Team II 41 Carpet feature 60 You can catch member, 42 Sticky stuff them at the familiarly 45 Meter opening beach 6 Part of a sitcom 47 Recipe direction 61 Word with sale sign-off 50 Elaborate or stick 7 “I cannot tell __” 51 Security group 62 Tony relative 8 Implies 52 State bordering 63 Cold War gp. 9 Grab Arizona 64 Golfer’s coup 10 Nil 56 Recorded, in a 65 Windy City 11 Realtor’s comeway team on ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE: 12 Vietnam Veterans E N T E R S C R U B M E T Memorial H A I K U C R Y L O O S E architect H O P F R E S H P O W D E R 13 Pretense E R A S E S H A D E 21 1975 Wimbledon T A I L E D O F F B E A T winner S C A R C E M E R E L Y 22 Does a bakery job A M E N S G L U T S S H A 26 Lecturers, at B L U E S S N U B H U N T times S E E R S H O A G Y A R C 27 Beginning H A L V E S C A R V E S 29 Racing form site, M A R T Y R S B A R L E Y briefly 30 United C H O R D E L O P E 31 Formalwear T O Y P I E I N T H E S K Y 32 Miss Piggy’s I R E N E A E R I E A H A query N A S T Y T R I M S S A L 33 Garden 10/10/02 xwordeditor@aol.com implement

Inappropriate Touches Deepu Murty and Zara Findlay-Shirras

Cookie’s Grandma is Jewish Saul Kerschner

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METRO THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2002 · PAGE 3

Young claims media bias hampers his mayoral bid BY JONATHAN ELLIS

This article may be the most attention the media gives Christopher Young’s campaign to become the next mayor of Providence. That’s because Young, the Independent candidate to succeed former Mayor THE RACE FOR Vincent Cianci, PROVIDENCE says the major SECOND IN A SERIES Providence media outlets aren’t giving him the attention he deserves. At the same time, he isn’t spending a penny on his campaign. Young spoke with The Herald last week about the election, his goals and the future of the city. “This is the time for Providence city government, for bold and imaginative people to come forward,” said Young, who ran for the U.S. Senate in 2000. Born in South Providence and orphaned by age 10, Young worked his way through the Providence school system and went on to earn a degree in electrical engineering from Boston University. When he’s not involved in politics, Young works as an artist and an award-winning filmmaker. Young said his four major goals for the city are safer streets, education reform, lower taxes and neighborhood revitalization. His most ambitious goal as mayor would be the establishment of a new University of Providence in Roger Williams Park. The university would offer a free associate’s degree to all Providence residents — a big incentive for local children to perform better in school. Excellent teachers could also be see YOUNG, page 6

Green Party’s Gerritt looks to lead a government for the people BY JEFFERSON MOORS

Green Party mayoral candidate Greg Gerritt has made a lifestyle out of challenging the status quo and applying pressure to ensure that government institutions serve their constituents appropriately. Gerritt, who THE RACE FOR stands to garner 2 PROVIDENCE percent of the vote THIRD IN A SERIES according to a recent University poll, is an active and longtime member of the Green Party. Typical of Gerritt’s willingness to think creatively are his views on Providence’s housing shortage. Like other candidates, he sites the need to revamp abandoned buildings and utilize vacant lots. But he has gone a step farther to propose an interesting alternative material for building cheap housing: tires. Gerritt said he feels that old tires filled with earth could provide very effective housing material. “We have plenty of earth, and millions see GERRITT, page 12

Nick Mark / Herald

Republican Bill Miller was one of four candidates in the Ward 1 City Council election who debated Thursday night at Vartan Gregorian Elementary School on Wickenden Street. About 200 people showed up to hear the candidates stake out their positions.

City Council candidates square off BY ADAM STELLA

The four candidates for the Ward 1 City Council seat squared off in a cordial debate in front of a crowd of about 200 people on Wednesday night at Vartan Gregorian Elementary School. The night was more informative than openly contentious, with the candidates mostly in agreement on issues ranging from the city’s fiscal situation to affordable housing in the ward to the future of the Fox Point waterfront. The debate was the first time Democrat Kyle Diggins, Republican Bill Miller, Independent Harrison Bilodeau and Green Party candidate David Segal publicly took positions on many issues. All of the candidates promised honesty and change in city government after the corruption of former Mayor Vincent Cianci’s administration. Miller, an adjunct professor at the Rhode Island School of Design, stressed improved management of the city’s finances and a broadening of the city’s tax base. Providence has an “unprecedented opportunity” to beautify the city and bring in revenue by attracting more arts and culture tourism, he said. Diggins tried to position himself as the candidate most in touch with the ward. He is a third generation Fox Point resident and his uncle, Robert Clarkin, is the former ward councilman. Improving Providence’s public schools will be one of Diggins’ priorities if he is elected, he said. “We need to make class sizes smaller,” he said. All of the candidates supported a comprehensive audit of the city’s finances, but Bilodeau, president of the

Fox Point Citizens Association and a former member of the city Planning Commission, stressed that point. Segal spoke forcefully on many issues, citing more facts and figures than any other candidate. All four candidates at least tentatively supported eliminating the ban on overnight parking in Fox Point and College Hill. Segal emphatically supported a parking permit system, while Bilodeau was the most cautious, saying the idea should be studied. Each candidate spoke in favor of a civilian review board for citizen complaints against the Providence Police Department, and both Bilodeau and Diggins emphasized that any board should be free of political influence. Miller called the board “long overdue,” and Segal chastised the PPD as “one of the most abusive police forces in the country.” Every candidate agreed that there was a need for more affordable housing in the ward. Segal and Miller called on Brown and RISD to build more on-campus housing to stop students from moving off campus and driving up rents. Diggins said he would support rent control, a position Segal has expressed in the past. Miller and Bilodeau said the proposed living wage bill for city employees and large contractors would be too expensive given the city’s current financial condition. Diggins said he supported an increase in the minimum wage, but stopped short of promising to support a living wage. Segal spoke in favor of the living wage, citing its implementation in 80 cities across the country.

Nick Mark / Herald

Green Party candidate David Segal is focusing his campaign on amending the City’s street parking laws. Each candidate also called for a mix of commercial and recreational development along the Fox Point waterfront. Fox Point Citizens Association and the League of Women Voters sponsored the debate. Joanne King, former state president of the League of Women Voters, moderated the debate, which lasted about an hour. Candidates gave opening and closing statements and responded to eight preselected audience questions. Ward resident Cynthia Rollins said see DEBATE, page 13

PAGE 4 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2002

Newman continued from page 1 care, summer support and stipends for graduate students. Newman said she expects another $1 million from the University over the next two years. Much of that money will go toward helping departments make competitive offers to potential graduate students. Even with this year’s increased stipends, Brown lags behind peer institutions in its aid to graduate students, Newman said. With the increase in funding, departments will offer more multiyear packages that include summer support, Newman said. The funds will allow the departments to invite top graduate candidates to visit Brown, she added. Such visits are crucial in attracting the best students in the physical and life sciences, Newman said. Though the Graduate School is

in the midst of addressing health care benefits, summer stipends and other issues that arose during the unionization debate last year, Newman said the union has no influence on the graduate school’s current agenda. Renee Allen GS, a Brown Graduate Employee Organization/United Auto Workers organizer, said health care benefits and increases to stipends, both concerns of graduate students for years, were only addressed after the union movement took off. “It’s hard to tie down exactly how the union has affected things,” Allen said. “I don’t think most reasonable people would conclude we had no effect there.” As a dean, Newman said she is required to uphold the University’s position on unionization. She said she also personally believes that faculty and graduate students are not employees and that unionization is not in students’ best interest. Newman’s concern for quality of life issues is welcomed, but many of

the problems she must confront are structural, Allen said. Without more money from the administration, there’s only so much any dean can do, Allen said. At What Cost spokesman Lennart Erickson GS said Newman’s appointment would have little effect on the unionization issue. But he said she will provide a strong voice for graduate students. The Graduate Student Council and BGEO last week gave Newman a recommendation for a Teaching Assistant policy that calls for each department to clearly outline TA duties and then stick with them. Newman said she will appoint a task force to look at TA policies at peer institutions and to study the extent to which departments deviate from the University-mandated TA workload of 20 hours a week. Part of training to be a professor is learning how to balance research and teaching, Newman said. “It’s not a problem that goes away just because you become a

regular faculty member,” she said. But serving as a TA can only provide so much in the way of experience, Allen said. “At a certain point in TAing, especially when TAing things outside your field, it’s a job,” she said. “It’s no longer providing educational benefit.” The Graduate School is still in the first stages of addressing other quality of life issues raised by the Graduate Student Council, Newman said. Student housing “made President Simmons’ list” of immediate priorities, she said. A greater reliance on rental housing and the prospect of new developments opening once the city of Providence finishes moving the I195 bridge should help alleviate housing shortages, Newman said. The University could also reconsider a recent developer’s offer to open housing to graduate students at $800 per month, Newman said. That was too expensive a few years ago, but rents have since caught up. No one solution will solve graduate student housing needs, Newman said. Different students have different needs, ranging from international students who might

Infeld continued from page 1 and the rise of modern Zionism. The third master story is that of U.S. Zionism — Jews who have found a home in the United States but support Israel as a home for those who have not been as successful. Israel is “a state whose very existence is dependent on its relationship with the Jewish people,” Infeld said. Infeld hit closer to home, speaking about Israel activism on campuses. “People think that everything Israel does, you have to support it,” Infeld said. “I do not agree.” But it is important for Jewish students to love Israel, he said — unconditional love like that of family members. “We’re taught to like Israel, but we forget to love it. Liking depends on behavior. Love is part of the relationship,” he said. “And that sense of love is not dependent on Israel’s behavior.” Infeld criticized the Israeli government’s policies with regard to Palestinian sovereignty. “We do things we shouldn’t be doing. We should be embarrassed by

Coed continued from page 1 Before a ResCouncil recommendation can be put into effect, it must be submitted to ResLife for review. Administrators may opt to meet with council members to discuss the recommendation, and must then choose to either accept or reject it. “The ball is in their court now,” Metcalfe said. “The strength of Residential Council recommendations is that they are well thought through and well thought about,” said Associate Director of Residential Life Thomas Forsberg, one of several administrators involved in the review of ResCouncil resolutions. Forsberg said administrators in ResLife have no plans to meet to discuss ResCouncil’s resolution. He said a number of practical considerations must be considered before a deci-

prefer dorm housing in their first year to married couples with children looking for an apartment. “As we consider this issue, it’s going to be from many different directions and not building one great tower with housing for all,” Newman said. As a mother who raised her daughter while working as a professor at Brown, Newman said she’s been an advocate for better childcare for faculty, students and staff for over 20 years. But that issue too will require further study and cooperation from the University, Newman said. In the meantime, the Graduate School’s visibility is key — attract the best graduate students, and everyone benefits, Newman said. “I think that a strong Graduate School is critical for the quality of the college — the kind of teaching we do, the kind of research we do — through the interactions of our talented undergraduates with our talented graduate students,” Newman said. Herald staff writer Brian Baskin ’04 covers the Grad School. He can be reached at bbaskin@browndailyherald.com.

them,” he said. Infeld said he believed that Israel should have been the first to advocate for Palestinian statehood and that Israel should get out of the West Bank. Infeld said he is uneasy when he sees Palestinians being forced to go through checkpoints when he gets through without a problem, but he understands their necessity. “It can’t continue that every time we remove a roadblock, children get killed. “We’ve put ourselves in a terrible dilemma,” he said. There are three possible solutions to the problem, Infeld said. “Fight until one side destroys the other,” which is “not an option;” throw the Arabs out of the land, which is “immoral;” or find a compromise — two states living side by side in peace. “We have to teach the world that there’s another way of using power. We just haven’t done it yet,” he said. His criticism does not diminish his love for Israel in the least, he said. “If you (criticize) with a sense of love, it’s that much more powerful.” Herald staff writer Stephanie Harris ’04 can be reached at sharris@browndailyherald.com.

sion can be made. “Is the number of spaces available to pick from conditioning the number of groupings? Residential Council is guessing that there would be more coed groups if there were more (coed housing) options to pick from,” he said. For the resolution to affect this year’s lottery, ResLife must reach a decision by the end of this semester, Metcalfe and Forsberg said. “Residential Council tries to get student input and feedback to the deans,” Metcalfe said. “As long as there is student demand for coed suites, we’ll try to pass that on to the deans.” ResCouncil meets every Tuesday at 12 p.m. in South Wayland Lounge. Meetings are open to the public. The council consists of 13 voting members including the chair. Director of Residential Life Donald Desrochers was unavailable for comment.

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

CAMPUS WATCH THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2002 · PAGE 5

NCAA resists adoption of a student-athlete bill of rights PHILADELPHIA (U-WIRE) — Bob Timmons’ chances at having the NCAA insert a form of his proposed student-athletes’ bill of rights are dwindling quickly. And overcoming the precedent that nothing so monumental has ever entered the NCAA manual is only half the battle. The NCAA claims that Timmons’ proposed Bill of Rights is not a viable option in its current form, because it only accounts for issues in Division I. “There’s no way to tell whether [the bill of rights] would be accepted or not because of the way that it is structured right now,” NCAA spokesperson Gail Dent said. “If it was structured differently and included all three divisions, maybe it would include be considered.” While the Bill of Rights does not assert itself to represent only Division I athletics, the rights do not specifically claim to be universally applicable, either. The Bill of Rights do mention historical precedents from all three divisions, however. But perhaps more demoralizing to Timmons’ contentions for the NCAA to adopt the Bill of Rights is the national Student-Athlete Advisory Committee’s recent publication of its “Commitment to Student-Athlete Excellence.” Published in July, the document outlines 10 guiding principles that the NCAA and its institutions “may provide” student-athletes at the current time. But the “Commitment to Student-Athlete Excellence” does not provide any new information pertaining to what student athletes can expect from the NCAA — it simply organizes what is currently available in the 460-page 2002-2003 NCAA manual. “It’s nothing groundbreaking or guaranteeing something that doesn’t exist,” Division-I SAAC chairman, Mike Aguirre said. “I just think it’s important to give a commitment.”

Higher Ed too costly in most states (U-WIRE) WASHINGTON — Higher Education is simply too expensive in most states, according to a new series of rankings that offers states’ report cards released by the nonpartisan National Center for Public Policy. The report, Measuring Up 2002 accuses high schools across the nation of not properly preparing students for higher education, and also asserts that higher education itself remains out of the economic reach for many. The bi-annual report grades states on their performance in five categories: preparation, participation, affordability, completion and benefits and allows each state to compare its results to the 2000 report. In many states, tremendous gaps exist among income groups concerning their ability to pay for college. Most states have seen a huge increase in tuition costs in the past two years according to the report, making attending college more difficult for lower income families. While 11 states improved their performance on all measures in providing affordable college education to their residents, these states have since responded to revenue shortfalls through steep tuition increases and insufficient investments in student financial aid. Former Metropolitan State University faculty member and current Communications Director for the Minnesota AFLCIO Diane Obrien said that these increases are driving down the ability for some students to attend college. “This survey addresses many important trends in the cost of higher education. Making college less affordable means that it is less available to most middle and lower income working class families,” she said. Maryland, despite some improvement in affordability, remains one of the most costly states in which to attend college. Maryland families must spend a quarter of their income, after financial aid, to attend public four-year colleges, compared to 18 percent in the top states. Most states are failing to institute adequate programs to increase the availability of student aid for low income families. Alaska, Georgia, South Dakota and Wyoming provide no need-based financial aid at all to state residents. Leading this category were California, Colorado, Illinois and Virginia, which are the only four states that offer both low-cost colleges and high levels of need-based financial aid to state residents. Measuring Up 2002 also demonstrates only slight improvement of students completing University within five years. Completion of degrees at four-year colleges and universities is low, even among the top-performing states. In no state do more than 70 percent of full-time students complete a degree within six years of enrolling in college. Another problem is that many colleges are having trouble retaining students after their freshmen year. More than 50

“As a nation, we are doing better in preparing our young people for college than we are doing in assuring that they have opportunities to enroll in and complete programs of education and training beyond high school.” Patrick Callan President, National Center for Public Policy percent of first-year students at community colleges return for their second year in only half of the states. One of the categories examined by the report is overall preparedness which measures high school math, science, algebra and reading and writing proficiency.In preparing college students, Measuring Up looks at the availability of college level courses offered to high school students that might help prepare them for college level course work. Students in many states still do not have the opportunity to take challenging high school courses that could prepare them for college. In North Carolina for example, 61 percent of students take at least one upper-level math course; in New Mexico, the percentage is about half that, 31 percent. Patrick Callan, president of the National Center, says Measuring Up 2002 demonstrates much higher grades to most States in overall preparedness compared with the affordability of higher education. “As a nation, we are doing better in preparing our young people for college than we are doing in assuring that they have opportunities to enroll in and complete programs of education and training beyond high school,” he said. Maryland and Virginia both earned higher grades than the national average. Virginia is the top-performing state in the number of high school students per 1,000 who score high on Advanced Placement exams-one indication of strong preparation for college. Yet, only 41 percent of high school students in Virginia go on to college right after graduating, as compared to 54 percent in the other top states. Maryland fares well with 55 percent of full-time college students who complete their bachelor’s degree within six years, compared to 61 percent in the top states.

PAGE 6 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2002

Young continued from page 3 rewarded with promotions to professorships at the university, Young said. He called his plan “a seed of hope” for the city. “Education and jobs are directly tied to poverty and crime,” Young said. “By reforming education, we can lower crime and poverty.” With around 24,000 enrolled in the city’s public school system, “the interests of those students have to be taken to heart,” he added. To reform the Providence Police Department, Young would offer incentives to officers for improving performance and coming forward with misconduct charges. He would expand the PPD Internal Affairs Department to fight corruption and bribes and create a civilian review board to oversee misconduct issues, he said. Young said he also wants to pay officers a percentage of their pension after 10 years of service and reward officers who act as role models. He supports the construction of a statue of Police Sgt.

Cornell Young, Jr., who was slain in 2000. As mayor, Young said he would work to meet the unprecedented demand for affordable housing in the city. According to a recent study, he said, two people earning minimum wage must work 96 hours per week to afford a two-bedroom apartment in Providence. One of his goals in running for mayor is to “end the rule of individuals who have direct or indirect connections to organized crime,” Young said. Young said those involved in organized crime are looking to build a casino in Rhode Island, and Cianci supported a Providence casino. Young said the casino would result in an increased need for social services, and the state would wind up subsidizing some of its operating costs. “One of the major reasons I’m running for mayor is to stop that casino,” he said. Young, who recently testified against a water rate increase at a public hearing, said organized crime is also behind extortion and racketeering in the Water Supply Board. He produced years’ worth of articles from the Providence

Journal detailing the activities. “I think water is something everybody should have,” he said. “Organized crime wants to privatize the water system.” Young said he also hopes to secure federal funds to clean the Providence River and improve opportunities for local artists. Young said he wants to heavily tax wealthy property owners like former Mayor Joseph Paolino and lower taxes on the lowest income brackets. Paolino, who served as mayor in the 1980s while Cianci was serving a suspended sentence, lost this year’s Democratic mayoral primary to David Cicilline ’83. But Young said he also has his sights set on another wealthy property owner that doesn’t pay taxes: Brown University. “Brown has to be taxed,” he said. “Uncontrolled growth of universities and nonprofit institutions is forcing people into absolute poverty and hunger. “My objective is not to prevent Brown from growing,” he added. In exchange for some taxes, he said he would allow Brown to offer rent controls on off-campus housing and services like tutoring. He also said he’d ask for the University’s help in establishing

the University of Providence. Young said that taxing Brown would not affect current students, citing the University’s “huge trust.” By forcing rent controls on off-campus housing, future students would end up paying less, he said. Recent polls by Brown’s A. Alfred Taubman Center for Public Policy and American Institutions show Cicilline holds a sizable lead over his opponents and Young is in last place. Aware that his proposals may be unpopular within the University, Young suggested that the survey might have been doctored. “I disagree with that,” said Darrell West, director of the Taubman Center and professor of political science. “If more people had said they favored a different candidate, we would have reported that,” West said. Young said the University shouldn’t be polling since it’s not impartial. He said his own poll, conducted on his Web site, gave him 69 percent of the vote. “Every media outlet covered West’s poll and has concluded that I’ve lost, when no one has had the opportunity to vote for me,” Young said, referring to his

absence from the primaries as an Independent. “Is that democracy?” he asked. Young said that the Providence Journal and Channels 6, 10 and 12 have ignored his candidacy before and after the September primaries, even though the Independent Cianci won the last two elections. “A democracy means giving an equal voice to all people,” he said. “I’ve been denied that voice. I’ve been denied the opportunity for people to even know my name.” Young said he couldn’t believe the Journal had declared Cicilline the expected winner in November, when Cicilline did not secure a majority of the primary vote in September. “What journalists do is look at the quality of a campaign, the money that’s been raised and the message of a candidate, and make judgments about who’s doing better,” West said. “Reporters do that all the time. They’re trying to forecast how an election is going to turn out.” Young lashed out at Cicilline, implying he may have a connection to organized crime. A campaign finance report dated Sept. 3 reports that Cicilline had already spent over $338,000 on his campaign. Young said Cicilline took campaign contributions from questionable groups, such as a Fleet Financial Political Action Committee. Fleet manages the city’s bonds, he said. And Young called Cicilline’s promises that he’s refusing contributions from certain groups “a manipulation of the truth.” Young said Cicilline did not pass any effective legislation in his eight years in the state legislature. He cited a 2000 Cicilline bill that expanded landlord rights over those of their tenants and a 1998 bill in which Cicilline struck out a line that allowed parents to remove their children from sexual education programs. “Cicilline says everything that people want to hear — but none of it’s true,” Young said. Young, who fasted for 28 days during the 2000 election “for the 28 percent of kids in Rhode Island who go to bed hungry,” has long been involved in the community. He started the Leadership for Our Schools program to provide role models for all people in the public school system. As part of his Mayors Across America program, Young traveled the country, visiting major cities to gather ideas for Providence. He wanted “to create a forum for mayors throughout the country to share ideas and public policy that has benefited their communities.” Young refuses all campaign contributions and keeps a small staff of volunteers. “No one’s influencing me,” he said. “I have no promises to keep. “I believe there’s a higher purpose to existence than merely the acquisition of material wealth,” Young said. “My hope is to bring about a peaceful society where individuals are not judged by their appearance, what type of car they own or the size of their bank accounts. “I promise the students at Brown University that I will do everything in my capacity to make sure their neighborhoods are safe and that the causes that they fight for are protected under their free speech rights,” he said. Young is optimistic about his chances in November. “If I won Brown, I would win this election,” he said.

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

WORLD & NATION THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2002 · PAGE 7

IN BRIEF US, French investigators arrive to probe tanker explosion AL MUKALLA,Yemen — (Washington Post) French and American

criminal investigators arrived here together Wednesday night to probe the unexplained explosion that crippled a French supertanker this week. The three French and two U.S. investigators were to examine the damaged hull of the Limburg early Thursday morning. An explosion ripped a hole at the waterline of the huge vessel on Sunday as it prepared to take on crude oil in a harbor near here. One crew member drowned and 24 others were rescued. The cause of the blast remains a matter of intense speculation.The Limburg’s owners contend that the ship was attacked by suicide bombers in much the same way that the USS Cole was hit two years ago in the Yemeni port of Aden, but Wednesday a senior Yemeni official said a preliminary examination showed no human remains or clothing on the damaged ship.“No clothing, no remains of body parts, nothing to indicate humans were involved in it,”said Transportation MinisterSaed Yafai. But Yafai also acknowledged the eyewitness account of a crew member who said he saw a small boat speeding directly into the section of the tanker’s hull that seconds later exploded. It was a small boat packed with plastic explosives that tore open the hull of the Cole, killing 17 U.S. servicemen. The Cole attack was blamed on al-Qaida, whose leadership twice the last week issued threats mentioning Western economic interests. In the most recent warning, Ayman Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden’s highest ranking aide, singled out France and Germany as “deputies of America”and warned,“We advise them to make a hasty retreat from Palestine, theArabian Gulf, Afghanistan and the rest of the Muslim states, before they lose everything.”

Al-Qaeda link seen in Kuwait attack (Washington Post) KUWAIT — Kuwaiti and American officials

said Wednesday that two Kuwaiti gunmen who killed a U.S. Marine and wounded another in an attack here Tuesday were Islamic activists who had attended an al-Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan. Investigators were trying to determine whether the shooting was decided independently or planned in conjunction with al-Qaeda’s fugitive leadership, officials said. Although nothing conclusive was known, some U.S. and Kuwaiti officials suggested it was unlikely the two men acted on their own, noting the attack took place on a largely uninhabited island in the Persian Gulf 12 miles east of Kuwait City as a contingent of Marines were conducting urban-warfare exercises. “It’s hard to imagine that they could do this by themselves,” said Mohammed Sager, chairman of the Kuwaiti parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee. “They couldn’t do this without detailed information. There had to be people behind them.” In another violent incident involving American forces here, a U.S. serviceman shot at a civilian vehicle Wednesday night after somebody inside pointed a gun at a Humvee carrying two American soldiers on a highway west of Kuwait City, U.S. defense officials said. No American personnel were injured and it was not clear what happened to the occupants of the civilian vehicle, which U.S. soldiers saw veering off the roadway, the U.S. officials told reporters in Washington. The two shootings have intensified fears of hostility toward the approximately 6,000 U.S. military personnel in this small but wealthy Persian Gulf nation, which is regarded as a vital launch pad for a possible attack against Iraq. Analysts said the incidents could pose challenges to the United States as it seeks to mobilize more troops and equipment here and elsewhere around Iraq, resulting in new security precautions and restrictions on the movement of U.S. troops. “I think we will see more of these small-scale attacks,” a

U.S. official said in Washington, adding that intelligence analysts believe they could begin in Qatar and Bahrain, other gulf states with U.S. troops. “They are cheap to do and are not complicated.” U.S. officials said they were examining whether Wednesday’s incident was related to Tuesday’s. One U.S. official said American and Kuwaiti investigators also were examining whether the two men who launched Tuesday’s attack received coded messages from al-Qaeda leaders. A senior Kuwaiti official said authorities arrested several people for questioning in connection with the shooting. Analysts here said most were Muslim fundamentalists known for expressing anti-Western views and other Kuwaitis believed to have visited training camps in Afghanistan. “We have rounded up individuals who we think provided some assistance” to the gunmen, the Kuwaiti minister of state for foreign affairs, Mohammad Salem Sabah, said in an interview. He called the attack an “isolated” incident, saying that an overwhelming majority of Kuwaiti people support the presence of U.S. troops in Kuwait. American soldiers have been here since 1991, when a military coalition led by the United States ended a seven-month Iraqi occupation. But the shooting has raised fears that people with anti-U.S. sentiments similar to those of al-Qaeda—and perhaps with connection to the organization itself—have decided to act even in one of the most pro-Western nations in the Arab world. The U.S. Embassy here issued a notice to American citizens Wednesday urging them to “remain vigilant with regard to their personal security and to exercise caution.” Sager said people with anti-American views remain a small minority in Kuwait, “but they do exist here.” “These are people who are against the United States not because American soldiers are here — people realize the Americans are here for our protection — but they are frustrated with the United States because of its support for Israel,” he said.

PAGE 8 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2002

Al-Qaeda voices are heard on tape WASHINGTON (L. A. Times) — A

taped monologue by Osama bin Laden’s top lieutenant, Ayman Zawahiri, broadcast this week threatens new attacks against the United States and provides the first evidence Zawahiri may still be alive, officials said Wednesday. The tape cites the current debate over Iraq and other events of the last three months, suggesting that the Egyptianborn doctor and Islamic militant survived the war in Afghanistan. A separate tape that surfaced this week is believed to contain the voice of bin Laden, also threatening new attacks, but provides no clue when it was made. It thus doesn’t indicate if the chief of the global al-Qaeda terrorist network is still alive. “We believe it to be bin Laden’s voice,” said a U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “But it’s not timespecific. It could have been done any time in the last year or so.” In the past, bin Laden often issued a public statement shortly before launching a terrorist attack. But not every broadcast signaled an attack, so it’s unclear if the new tapes indicate an

impending strike. “If legitimate, the tapes are both of concern,” the U.S. official said. “It’s the kind of thing that can foreshadow future attacks.” U.S. officials believe they last heard bin Laden on a radio broadcast rallying his fighters in December during the Tora Borabattle with American-led coalition forces in eastern Afghanistan. He then disappeared despite an international manhunt. U.S. intelligence officials say they believe bin Laden is still alive somewhere along Afghanistan’s border with Pakistan. Other experts are skeptical, however, saying the Saudi-born terror mastermind would make new videotapes to taunt Washington, rally his forces and recruit new followers if he were still alive. U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told reporters Monday that the bin Laden tape, which was broadcast Sunday by the Qatari-based Al Jazeera television network, did not prove or disprove anything. Bin Laden, he said, is “either alive and well, or alive and not too well, or not alive.” The Zawahiri tape, obtained

Tuesday by Associated Press Television News, refers to the current U.S. standoff with Iraq and an American bombing in Afghanistan on July 1, and accuses Washington of trying to subjugate the Arab world on behalf of Israel. “I don’t think we’ve established it authoritatively, but the initial take is that it probably is him,” the official said. Officials also identified a senior al-Qaeda figure who President Bush said Monday had recently received medical care in Baghdad. He cited the case as evidence of Iraq’s alleged ties to al-Qaeda. The man was identified as Abu Musab Zarqawi, a Jordanian-born operational commander for al-Qaeda who lost his leg during the Afghan war. U.S. officials consider Zarqawi among the 20 most powerful al-Qaeda figures. Zarqawi reportedly was arrested in Jordan in 2000 as part of the “millennium plot” to blow up tourist sites, but was later released. Other reports indicated that he went to Iran after leaving Afghanistan. A U.S. official said Zarqawi was treated about two months ago in Baghdad but is no longer believed to be in Iraq.

Iraq debate thwarts Dem’s fundraising WASHINGTON (Washington Post) —

The prospect of war with Iraq is dealing Democratic candidates a triple blow. It’s pushing their best issues, such as health care and the economy, into the background, while also damaging two crucial campaign operations — fund raising and voter turnout — among key liberal constituencies disillusioned over the party’s failure to challenge President Bush more forcefully on his bellicose posture toward Baghdad. With the House and Senate elections less than four weeks away, several Democratic officials cite a troubling drop in contributions from disaffected groups and they fear a sluggish Election Day turnout from minorities, women, suburban professionals and others. “Our liberal base wants us to stand up and challenge Bush on the war,” said Donna Brazile, who runs the Democratic National Committee’s Voting Rights Institute and managed Al Gore’s 2000 presidential campaign. She said loyal Democrats in low-income areas and black neighborhoods, along with many women and liberal suburbanites, are bitterly complaining that “no one is talking to us, no one is addressing our issues” on the economy and preparation for war. “There is a real danger out there.” For weeks, Democrats have acknowledged that Iraq’s dominance of the news has helped keep voter attention on an issue generally seen as beneficial to Bush and his fellow Republicans. Party insiders, however, are increasingly worried about the potential impact on fundamental mechanics that win or lose elections: fundraising and get-out-the-vote efforts. Direct-mail donations to the DNC took a nosedive in August and September, party officials acknowledge. Several of them say a major cause is discontent over

the acquiescence of many Democratic leaders to Bush’s preparation for war with Iraq. One Democratic strategist familiar with the situation said, “Democratic donors want the leadership to fight harder on Iraq. Instead, people see Democrats are not raising questions.” The most recent Washington Post survey conducted at the end of September shows that opposition to taking military action against Iraq is most intense among voters who constitute a significant portion of the Democratic base: those who strongly disapprove of Bush, liberals, blacks and, to a lesser extent, women. While 34 percent of all Americans oppose going to war against Iraq, the figure is 76 percent of those who strongly disapprove of Bush — a group Democrats must rely on for donations and high voter turnout. DNC chairman Terry McAuliffe downplayed the role of the Iraq debate in the August-September drop in direct-mail contributions, contending “it could be the economy, it could have been a bad mail piece.” Looking at all of 2002, he said, the DNC is headed toward a direct-mail fundraising record for a non-presidential election year. McAuliffe declined to provide month-to-month figures on direct-mail contributions. But another source close to the DNC said McAuliffe has “been on a tear about the direct mail. He is complaining to everyone who will listen.” Overall, McAuliffe said, the DNC has raised $21.3 million from direct mail through the first nine months of this year. During the same period, Republican National Committee officials said they had raised three times as much: $66.1 million from direct mail, with $7.4 million raised in August and $8.6 million in September. A fund-raising specialist said, “The people who give to the

Republican and Democratic parties are the ones with the strongest ideological viewpoints. They are strong conservatives in the case of the Republicans, and strong liberals in the case of the Democrats. The Democratic donor base is inclined to oppose the president’s actions in Iraq, and if the party is not doing that, it causes some problems.” The direct-mail drop at the DNC has not been replicated at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, officials said. Many donors view the Senate — where Democrats hold a onevote majority — as the party’s last bastion in Washington, and fundraising at the DSCC has been on a record-setting pace. “In August and September, we raised $2.3 million through direct mail, $1 million more than last cycle and $250,000 more even than in 1998 which, due to impeachment, was the golden age of Democratic direct mail,” said Jim Jordan, executive director of the DSCC. Officials at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee — the party’s political arm for House races — said mail donations fell off “slightly” in August and September. Direct-mail donations are important this year as a source of campaign cash and as a barometer of activist support. But building a large base of mail donors is even more important for the Democratic Party after the election. Beginning on Nov. 6, the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law will prohibit the parties from raising “soft money,” large contributions from unions, corporations and rich people. Democrats have relied on big softmoney checks much more than have Republicans, so it’s vital that they cultivate thousands of supporters willing to send checks in the $25 to $200 range, party activists say.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2002 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD PAGE 9

Iraqi army weaker, still a threat WASHINGTON (Baltimore Sun) —

Iraq’s military is significantly smaller and more poorly equipped today than it was a decade ago when it was routed in the Persian Gulf War, but it retains the ability to inflict casualties on American-led forces should President Bush decide to forcibly remove Saddam Hussein from power. Still the largest military force in the gulf region, Iraq could blunt or at least slow a threatened attack with chemical and biological weapons, an urban warfare strategy and the fierce resistance of Republican Guard units and internal security forces who have the best training and equipment, American and British military analysts say. The Iraqi army, made up mostly of conscripts and down to 430,000 men from a high of nearly 1 million at the time of the Gulf War in 1991, is said by defectors to suffer from morale problems in all but its most elite units. In addition, Iraq’s 2,200 tanks date mostly to the Soviet era, the majority from the 1950s, and nearly all are in dire need of spare parts. The air force has about 300 aircraft that may be operational, but just a handful of the sophisticated Russian-built MiG 29 interceptors that could challenge U.S. attack planes. Iraq has no navy other than about 90 armed patrol craft. Charles Heyman, editor of the defense journal Jane’s World Armies, said the Iraqi fighting force has so deteriorated that “we are talking about a military that has by and large imploded.” And William M. Arkin, a former Army intelligence officer and now a defense analyst, dismissed Saddam’s armed forces: “They were a paper tiger in 1991, and they’re a tissue paper tiger today.” Former Iraqi Army Brig. Gen. Najib al Salhi, an armor officer who defected in 1995, recalled that the allied attacks of the Gulf War, coupled with the United Nations sanctions, left his force in near-total disrepair. “I couldn’t trust a tank to go 20 miles,” he recalled. The morale of his troops, he said, “was very bad,” a view expressed by other, more recent defectors, according to Iraqi opposition officials. While the Iraqi forces have steadily declined, the U.S. military has spent the past decade

modernizing, charging ahead in everything from precision bombs and unmanned spy drones to digital communications that can speed targeting information to a combat pilot or a tank commander. But the Iraqis, for their part, have built up a fairly sophisticated and widespread air defense system since the Gulf War. While the United States has chipped away at the system with repeated bombings during the past decade, the Iraqis continue to rebuild and improve the system with some of the billions of dollars collected from illegal oil sales and shadowy international deals. Saddam, despite U.N. sanctions and bans on what he can purchase, has a network of suppliers. The Chinese in the past several years provided fiber-optic cables that speed communications and, unlike microwave dishes, are buried, making them hard to locate and destroy. The Yugoslav military, which fought the United States in an air war over Kosovo in 1999, shared technical expertise with the Iraqis on evading and deceiving American pilots, defense officials said. The North Koreans are suspected of shipping missiles or their components to Iraq. Ukraine is suspected of selling sophisticated radar and missile systems that could endanger U.S. attack aircraft, a possibility the Bush administration is investigating, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told reporters in a recent news briefing. The Iraqis also are becoming adept at shifting around their mobile air defense systems and shooting at American and British aircraft patrolling Iraq’s no-fly zones, set up after the Gulf War to protect the Kurds in the north and Shiite Muslims in the south. “It’s very, very hard to find things that are mobile,” Rumsfeld said. While none of these hazards would be a “show stopper,” in the words of one retired Army officer, they amount to the troubling unknowns of warfare that could delay an allied military advance and drive up the number of combat deaths. The low state of the Iraqi military “is a piece of the puzzle, but it’s not the whole puzzle,” said John Hillen, a defense analyst who served as an Army infantry

officer during the Gulf War. “The other piece is, `Will they fight?’ I’m not sure if anyone has a good handle on that.” About 20 percent of the Iraqi army, some 80,000 men, makes up the Republican Guard or the Special Republican Guard, Saddam’s personal security force. Many of the soldiers have kinship ties to the regime and receive the best equipment, such as the comparatively modern Russian T72 tank. These soldiers protect the approaches to Baghdad and Saddam himself. In addition, there are three paramilitary units that along with security and border guards total 24,000 men. Then there are Saddam’s Fedayeen or “Men of Sacrifice,” some 18,000 to 20,000 young soldiers who patrol Baghdad and have executed those disloyal to the regime. Though many Iraqi soldiers surrendered or fled from allied forces during the Gulf War, the Republican Guard fielded some of the few units who “fought ferociously,” wrote Kenneth M. Pollack, a former CIA military analyst and author of the recent book, “The Threatening Storm: the case for Invading Iraq.” The Republican Guard, and especially the Special Republican Guard, includes more of Saddam’s fellow Sunni Muslim tribesmen than in 1991, Pollack wrote. “If anything, this suggests they may be more willing to die for this regime.” Retired Army Gen. George Joulwan, former commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Europe, said it would be wrong to underestimate Saddam’s elite troops. “They’ll have a few units that will be particularly loyal, particularly if we get into the urban areas,” he said. It is that prospect, fighting block-to-block, especially among the 5 million residents of Baghdad, that troubles some U.S. officers and military analysts. Heyman, the editor of Jane’s World Armies, said Saddam’s forces would be destroyed by U.S. air power if they marched into the open desert. “What they can do is sit in the cities,” he said, adding that the Iraqi dictator could position troops and tanks near schools and nurseries. “We can end up with a nasty standoff.”

N. Korea to let 5 kidnapped Japanese go home TOKYO (L. A. Times) — North Korea will permit five Japanese kidnapped more than two decades ago to visit their homeland next week, although their children born in the Communist nation will not be allowed to accompany them, Japanese officials said Wednesday. North Korea has said the five victims, whose trips will be paid for by the Japanese government, can stay only two weeks. The announcement came as Japanese and North Korean officials prepared for talks Oct. 29 and 30 in Malaysia aimed at establishing diplomatic ties between their two countries. The five kidnap victims are the only ones alive among the 13 Japanese whom North Korea last month admitted abducting in the 1970s and 1980s. The survivors include two

couples who married and had children after they were brought to North Korea. Hitomi Soga, who married former U.S. Army defector Charles Robert Jenkins in North Korea, also will return. All told, they have six children. North Korea maintains that the other eight kidnap victims died in incidents ranging from suicide to traffic accidents, although their families doubt the reports. In a summit last month, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il admitted that North Korea kidnapped the Japanese to steal their identities and force them to train spies in their language. Though relatives have demanded that the five survivors be allowed to remain in

Japan, the victims told Japanese diplomats in North Korea last week that they were uncertain about returning home permanently because their children don’t speak the language and aren’t familiar with their parents’ birthplace. The victims’ families fear that the survivors might refrain from telling the truth while in Japan because their children remain inNorth Korea. “They should come back with the entire family. Leaving behind the kids — my grandchildren — is like leaving behind hostages,” Tamotsu Chimura, whose son Yasushi was kidnapped in 1978 at age 23, told a news conference. The relatives balked at traveling to North Korea because they feared the kidnap victims would not be able to freely talk.

PAGE 10 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2002

Three share Nobel Prize for chemistry (Washington Post) — Virginia Commonwealth University’s John Fenn and two other scientists were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry Wednesday for innovations in microbiological analysis that inspired a revolution in biomedical research. Fenn, 85, and Japan’s Koichi Tanaka, 43, an engineer at Tokyo’s Shimadzu Corp., shared half the $1 million prize for developing different methods of determining the mass of large biological molecules like proteins, peptides and DNA. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the other half of the prize to Switzerland’s Kurt Wuthrich, of Zurich’s Federal Institute of Technology, for using magnetic imaging techniques to determine the three-dimensional structures of complex, ribbonlike protein molecules in solution. Fenn, a researcher at Yale for much of his career, moved to Richmond with his wife in 1994. He has his own laboratory, maintains a full work schedule and mentors two graduate students. “There’s an awful lot of luck in this,” Fenn said at a VCU news conference. “To succeed as a theorist, you have to be good. To succeed as an experimentalist, you only have to be lucky. As an experimentalist, you can go through life kicking over a lot of stones, and, if you’re lucky, you’ll find something.” Still, winning the Nobel Prize was not totally unexpected, said Fred Hawkridge, chairman of VCU’s chemistry department:

“We had a seminar yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon,” Hawkridge said. “I tried to get him to bet me on this, but he wouldn’t do it.” Recent advances in cell biology and genomics have made it necessary for researchers to know more about the interactions of the hundreds of thousands of different proteins and other components that form human cells. All three of Wednesday’s winners achieved prominence by conceiving brilliant new ways to describe quickly and relatively cheaply these large, complicated “macromolecules.” Working in the 1980s, Fenn devised a method for preparing biological molecules so they could be analyzed by a mass spectrometer, a device that accelerates charged particles through a magnetized vacuum chamber so they will separate by weight. The problem, Hawkridge explained, was that the molecules were so large that they fragmented before a charge could be imparted to them. Fenn’s solution was to build a syringe-like device in which proteins mixed with water were squeezed through a tiny needle charged with thousands of volts of electricity. As the solution exited the “syringe,” the protein molecules picked up a positive electric charge, becoming ions. The water evaporated, leaving the ions intact. Even better, they remained isolated from one another—repelled by their positive charges. The molecules were

then fed into the spectrometer. The technique, widely used throughout the world today, is called “Electrospray Ionization.” Working in Japan about the same time, Tanaka achieved a similar result, but used a laser to blast apart the sample so that the molecules separated from one another into intact “hovering” ions that could then be accelerated through the spectrometer. This method, equally widespread today, is called “Surface Enhanced Laser Desorption Ionization.” While Fenn and Tanaka had given microbiologists new methods of identifying biological molecules and determining their size, Wuthrich was able to answer the question “What do they look like?” His tool was Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, using the principle that some atomic nuclei absorb radio waves of different frequencies when they are placed in a magnetic field. By diagramming the peaks and valleys in the resulting spectrum printout, scientists could draw a picture of the sample. The technique, in general terms, is like that used in Magnetic Resonance Imaging, which contrasts hydrogen nuclei in water — as in most human tissue — with the same nuclei in “drier” spots, like tumors. In applying the technique to large molecules, however, researchers had to overcome the profusion of peaks and valleys that filled the spectrum: the printout looked like a grass lawn.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2002 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD PAGE 11

Kashmiris seek normalcy amid bloodshed While Indian and Pakistani officials debate the continuing problem of Jammu and Kashmir, residents in the Indian state have everyday concerns to attend to SRINIGAR, India (L. A. Times) — As India and Pakistan trade charges over the legitimacy of a bloody election in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir and analysts ponder the implications for the global war on terrorism, taxi driver Mohammed Ramzan Dar worries about school fees, why none of his neighbors have jobs and how to afford his daughters’ weddings. For many people in this beautiful but strife-torn region, the outside world is missing the point. With election results expected Thursday, they say far too much attention has been paid to security and geopolitical issues and far too little to the sorts of bread-and-butter concerns affecting them most. “The politicians don’t give us anything,” said Mehrajdin Bhat, a 25-year-old student, who voted against the government on material rather than ideological grounds. “We need roads, services, jobs. That’s what’s really important.” The Kashmir region, with its

predominantly Muslim population, has been divided between mainly Hindu India and mostly Muslim Pakistan for more than five decades. The two nations have gone to war twice over the embattled area. The current fighting, which has gone on for more than a decade, has devastated Kashmir’s economy, undermined people’s confidence in the future and left, by some counts, as many as 60,000 people dead, mostly civilians. Few believe the politicians are addressing these issues. India has heralded the election’s 44 percent voter turnout as a significant achievement in the face of so much violence. It sees the voting—which occurred on four separate days, beginning last month and ending Tuesday—as a way to bolster its legitimacy over the disputed region. Pakistan has termed the election a sham, calling instead for a U.N.-sponsored plebiscite on succession. With hardly a family left untouched by the violence, most Kashmiris dream of peace. Still, many find it’s far easier to focus on concrete local issues rather than illusive negotiations far beyond their control. “Those are issues for big people,” said Tanveen Ahmad, a local civil servant. “Seventy percent of young people here are unemployed, social problems are increasing and people are stressed. We just want a bit of bread and a normal life.”

The ruling National Conference, a pro-India party that could see its majority slip or even disappear Thursday, is viewed by many as inept or worse. National Conference officials declined to comment. “I voted against them because they’re a dynastic party and extremely corrupt,” said Hilal Ahmedpir, 25, owner of a publictelephone booth that was fired on during the election. “We really need a change.” Pakistan-backed Kashmiri militants fighting for succession aren’t much better, others say. “In the early ‘90s, most of them enjoyed a lot of sympathy with the local people, but then opportunists took over,” Ramzan Dar said. “Now many wear nice clothes, ride expensive motorbikes and extort money from rich Kashmiris. They’ve lost their ideals. We’re suffering and they’re not sharing the pain.” Money spent on about 1 million soldiers positioned along the India-Pakistan border and all the security forces in Kashmir could be better spent on hospitals, social issues and regional development, said Saier Rasool, 25, a carpet salesman. “The money is being wasted, along with our futures.” Jammu and Kashmir state police chief A.K. Suri said Wednesday that 310 civilians, 370 militants and 150 security force members had been killed in violence since Aug. 2, when the elections were announced.

PAGE 12 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2002

Gerritt continued from page 3 of tires are simply being wasted,” he said. The idea is not a mere shot in the dark, he said. Gerritt explained that this method has been used for many years overseas. “In England, these houses routinely pass building codes,” he said. It remains to be seen how the Brown community would react to such housing near campus, but Gerritt emphasized that the city’s south side is in greatest need of cheap housing. Gerritt also discussed Brown’s current conflict with the surrounding community over the construction of the Life Sciences building. Many East Side residents are concerned that the building’s proposed location on Meeting Street does not provide adequate room for “satellite businesses,” and eliminates available walking space, Gerritt told The Herald. “Brown needs to think about being good corporate and institutional citizens for the neighborhood, and they do not do that as well as Harvard or M.I.T. do for their neighborhoods,” he said. As a result of these concerns, Gerritt said, some Providence residents ponder whether Brown should begin paying taxes. “If they don’t want this movement to grow, they need to be more careful about how they treat the area,” he said. Gerritt said he cares deeply about Providence’s environment. He said he is primarily concerned with decreasing air pollution from cars. While many cities are now trying to decrease traffic and promote livability, Providence is still trying to draw more cars, he explained. This leads to “dirty air” and inconveniences pedestrians. Gerritt proposed a variety of possible solutions to this problem, including vouchers for buses, shuttle systems, and making the city more bicycle-friendly. These solutions could also be friendly to the city’s economy, Gerritt said, citing Portland, Ore. as a city that recently decreased traffic while increasing jobs. “A city can always use more green,” he said. While outlining his views on education and economic development, Gerritt sited his axiom of pressuring the government. He said his opponents are too partyoriented to understand the nature of a true political movement that will create actual change. “They don’t understand how important it is to tell the government to stick it,” he said. Gerrit’s education strategy involves mobilizing parents and the community to organize in pressuring city hall for improvements, he said. At present, the mayor appoints members of the school board, but Gerritt feels that the public should elect these members. From an economic standpoint, Gerritt said he believes that the city should not be so dependent on imports from other places, rather it should try to make the things it needs itself, when possible. “Now, most cities do business with other cities, and Providence is a small city that can get smothered,” he said. “We can’t just be a place where people come to look at our quaintness, we need to start making things again and be energy efficient in doing so.”

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2002 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD PAGE 13

GRE continued from page 1 takers’ fee from $105 to $115. ETS officials said the change should benefit students by allowing them to display proficiency in writing. “The GRE General Test is responding to the movement toward performance assessment, the desire among graduate deans that we assess the practical competencies of prospective graduate students,” said John Yopp, vice president of Graduate and Professional Education at ETS.” Our data show that a variety of groups within our test taker population use (the new essay section) effectively to display their skills in analytical writing,” Yopp said. Test takers are asked to write two brief essays: a 45-minute “Present Your Perspective on an Issue” essay and a 30-minute “Analyze an Argument” essay, ETS reported in a press release. The first essay asks the test taker to construct a personal argument on an issue, while the second requires a critical assessment of someone else’s argument. The analytical writing prompts will be on computer, but test takers can choose to type or handwrite their answers, the ETS Web site says. “It is so much easier on the computer,” said Nikhil Laud ’03, who plans to take the GRE at the end of the month. “The only thing that is bad about the new section is that you are forced to constrain yourself to a time limit.” Two readers score each essay on a six-point scale that rates the overall quality of content as it meets the expectations for the question. The readers’ scores are averaged to find a final score. If there is a discrepancy among the two scores, a third reader will evaluate the essays. “I don’t know if the range will discriminate usefully among our applicants, especially if they are all sixes. The multiple-choice test had a larger range of scores,” said Joan Lusk, Associate Dean of the Graduate School, who is involved in receiving and reviewing applications to Brown’s Graduate

Cropp continued from page 16 you shouldn’t go into hooligan mode and maim any fan rooting for the other team, and unlike golf, you don’t have to worry about suspending all bodily functions while a player is about to take a shot. Go crazy and yell as loud as you can, but remember that while it’s hard for one fan to get under any player’s skin, you’ll find that with a lot of hard work and coordination you can get the

Debate continued from page 3 she came to the debate to learn more about each candidate’s positions. She said she thought Segal was “articulate” but too young. She said she was most impressed with Miller and would

School. “The transition to graduate school is often a transition from being able to learn well, to being able to organize knowledge, to think critically and to produce knowledge,” said Thomas Rochon, executive director of ETS’ GRE Program. “Producing knowledge requires being able to think critically and analytically. So, we’ve combined those two traits into one measure.” There is some concern that students with a limited understanding of English will be affected since they may have difficulty articulating their ideas in the writing section — as opposed to the straightforward approach of the multiple-choice analytical section, ETS’ Web site reports. “I would guess that the writing test would be useful in assessing foreign students’ ability to write in English in a more realistic way than multiple choice tests can,” Lusk wrote in an e-mail. Scores for the verbal and quantitative sections will not be combined with — or weighted differently from — the new section. “Each section should be considered separately because it provides insight into a different aspect of the applicant’s abilities,” the GRE Web site reports. A Test of English as a Foreign Language score can supplement an analytical writing score by helping faculty determine whether a low score on the GRE writing section is due to lack of familiarity with English or to an inability to produce and analyze logical arguments, ETS reported. ETS has also made study materials available so students can prepare for the new writing section. Each individual who registers for the computer-based GRE General Test is sent a CD-ROM containing “GRE POWERPREP Software.” The software includes practice questions with explanations, test tutorials, two actual computer-adaptive tests for the verbal and quantitative sections and sample topics and essays for the analytical writing section. “POWERPREP is a good way to prepare. But it is really about taking lots of practice tests,” Laud said. “Like the SAT, it just comes down to how well you take the test.”

entire crowd to inform the goalie his resemblance to a sieve. As the latest hockey season unfolds I bid you to watch a game or two. Even if you don’t know which team Uwe Krupp plays for or that the North Stars moved from Minnesota to become the Lone Stars, you can still follow the game. Find out for yourself if it truly is “twice as nice on the ice.” Iann Cropp ’05 hails from Buffalo, New York and will probably be waiting a long time for a Bills’ Super Bowl win.

vote for him. Segal, 22, defended his age during the debate. “My youth will give me the energy to keep plugging away,” he said. James Barnhill, a ward resident, said the “organization of the city’s finances” was the most important issue to him in the upcoming election.

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

EDITORIAL/LETTERS THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2002 · PAGE 14 S T A F F

E D I T O R I A L

Let’s shack up The University is on its way to making coed living an even more viable option to students residing on campus. Last week, Residential Council passed a resolution to make coed suites available in Young Orchard, New Dorm B and Barbour Hall. Although a limited number of coed suites are currently available in New Dorm A, Wriston Quad and Morriss-Champlin, the resolution is a welcome measure that will allow a greater number of students freedom in creating desirable living situations. We laud ResCouncil for bringing this issue to the table and urge the Office of Residential Life to examine and approve the measure in a speedy manner. Student leaders on ResCouncil recognize that, after a year in the dorms, students are mature enough to choose their own housing. With only a handful of coed suites, though, groups of mixed sexes are hard-pressed to find housing together. Making more suites available to coed groups would not only increase the number of options available to such groups, but it would encourage more students to form groups with both sexes as well. As it stands now, the suites in ResCouncil’s proposal are often assigned to juniors and seniors in the housing lottery. Often juniors and seniors choose to live off campus simply because their housing group is composed of men and women and coed on-campus options are limited. Having more coed suites would encourage more students to seriously consider on-campus living. Unfortunately, ResCouncil’s recommendation is not enough to make more coed suites a reality. The administrators and deans at ResLife still need to review and approve the measure. As leaders of ResCouncil said, “The ball is in their court now.” It is unfortunate that Associate Director of Residential Life Thomas Forsberg said administrators in ResLife have no plans to meet to discuss ResCouncil’s resolution. We urge Foresberg and the other administrators in ResLife to consider and approve the measure swiftly so as to allow more students the option of living in coed on-campus housing in the next lottery.

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD EDITORIAL Beth Farnstrom, Editor-in-Chief Seth Kerschner, Editor-in-Chief David Rivello, Editor-in-Chief Will Hurwitz, Executive Editor Sheryl Shapiro, Executive Editor Elena Lesley, News Editor Brian Baskin, Campus Watch Editor Carla Blumenkranz, Arts & Culture Editor Stephanie Harris, Academic Watch Editor Juliette Wallack, Metro Editor Victoria Harris, Opinions Editor

BUSINESS Stacey Doynow, General Manager Jamie Wolosky, Executive Manager Joe Laganas, Senior Accounts Manager Moon-Suk Oh, Marketing Manager David Zehngut, National Accounts Manager Lawrence Hester, University Accounts Manager Bill Louis, University Accounts Manager Hyebin Joo, Local Accounts Manager Jungdo Yu, Local Accounts Manager Tugba Erem, Local Accounts Manager Jack Carrere, Noncomm Accounts Manager Laurie-Ann Paliotti, Sr. Advertising Rep. Genia Gould, Advertising Rep. Kate Sparaco, Office Manager

Sanders Kleinfeld, Opinions Editor PRODUCTION Marion Billings, Design Editor Bronwyn Bryant, Asst. Design Editor Julia Zuckerman, Copy Desk Chief

P O S T- M A G A Z I N E Kerry Miller, Editor-in-Chief Zach Frechette, Executive Editor Morgan Clendaniel, Film Editor Dan Poulson, Calendar Editor Alex Carnevale, Features Editor Theo Schell-Lambert, Music Editor

Jonathan Skolnick, Copy Desk Chief Andrew Sheets, Graphics Editor Ellen Bak, Photography Editor Allie Silverman, Asst.Photography Editor Brett Cohen, Systems Manager

SPORTS Joshua Troy, Sports Editor Nick Gourevitch, Asst. Sports Editor Jermaine Matheson, Asst. Sports Editor Alicia Mullin, Asst. Sports Editor

Bronwyn Bryant, Night Editors Yafang Deng, Hanne Eisenfeld, Copy Editors Staff Writers Kathy Babcock, Brian Baskin, Jonathan Bloom, Carla Blumenkranz, Chris Byrnes, Jinhee Chung, Maria Di Mento, Nicholas Foley, Neema Singh Guliani, Ari Gerstman, Andy Golodny, Daniel Gorfine, Nick Gourevitch, Stephanie Harris, Victoria Harris Maggie Haskins, Shara Hegde, Brian Herman, Brent Lang, Elena Lesley, Jamay Liu, Jermaine Matheson, Kerry Miller, Martin Mulkeen, Alicia Mullin, Crystal Z.Y. Ng, Ginny Nuckols, Juan Nunez, Sean Peden, Katie Roush, Caroline Rummel, Emir Senturk, Jen Sopchockchai, Anna Stubblefield, Jonathon Thompson, Joshua Troy, Juliette Wallack, Jesse Warren, Julia Zuckerman Pagination Staff Bronwyn Bryant, Jessica Chan, Melissa Epstein, Joshua Gootzeit, Caroline Healey, Hana Kwan, Erika Litvin, Stacy Wong Staff Photographers Josh Apte, Makini Chisolm-Straker, Allison Lauterbach, Maria Schriber, Allie Silverman Copy Editors Anastasia Ali, Lanie Davis, Marc Debush, Yafang Deng, Hanne Eisenfeld, Emily Flier, George Haws, Daniel Jacobson, Eliza Katz, Blair Nelsen, Eric Perlmutter, Amy Ruddle, Janis Sethness

SHANE WILKERSON

LETTERS Social scientists also contribute to society To the Editor: I normally do not respond to personal attacks, but I found two aspects of Dwight Doolan’s ’56 comments (“Reparations talk must take a backseat to teaching practical skills to youth,” 10/9) amusing. First, alas, I am already quite a substantial contributer to the tax base. Second, I did study digital design and engineering and worked in Silicon Valley for nine years. Even though I am currently a social scientist, I am also leading a moderately large online database development project. I had a chance to be an engineer, I made an informed choice that I could make a greater contribution to society as a social scientist. It is precisely unfortunate stereotypes such as those Doolan embraced that convinced me of the need to study race and politics. Michael C. Dawson Professor of Government and Afro-American Studies Harvard University

Post-graduate education in diversity necessary for Doolan To the Editor: After reading Dwight Doolan’s ’56 letter to the editor (“Reparations talk must take a backseat to teaching practical skills to youth,” 10/9), I feel that we must get more alumni involved in the process of cross-cultural exchange because I would like to add Doolan to the non-bigoted mainstream. Doolan should quit working in Silicon Gulch, learn about Afro-American studies and go to work in the Third World Center. Doolan may not believe it, but I and most undergraduates here at Brown don’t like seeing alumni as screwed up and as miserable as he is. It’s no fun watching perfectly good

alumni turn into semi-literate cranks who barely speak English. Jocelyn Weiner ’03 Oct. 9

Doolan misunderstood point of Dawson talk To the Editor: A letter like Dwight Doolan’s ’56 (“Reparations talk must take backseat to teaching practical skills to youth,” 10/9) ordinarily would not merit comment, but since it appears to be generating discussion, I think a word or two on the substance of the Dawson talk would help. Harvard professor Michael Dawson is one of today’s leading academic scholars of U.S. public opinion. Contrary to the tone of Doolan’s letter, Dawson’s talk neither advocated nor opposed reparations. Instead, Dawson is interested in why black and white Americans have differing opinions on this policy topic, just as he and other public opinion scholars are interested in the sources of opinions on a wide variety of topics. Learning the sources of U.S. public opinion can take us a long way in understanding the reasons why issues divide Americans and can give us insight into the very nature of U.S. democratic government and politics. Understanding public opinion can even help us understand why citizens write angry letters to newspapers. That Doolan has read his own presuppositions and biases into Dawson’s talk, a clear misreading, shows how important it is for public opinion scholars to understand how people develop opinions. If anything, Doolan’s letter suggests that Michael Dawson and other public opinion scholars have their work cut out for them. Kevin Esterling Brown University Taubman Center Oct. 9

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD F E E L I T. P E A C E .

CO M M E N TA RY P O L I C Y The staff editorial is the majority opinion of the editorial board of The Brown Daily Herald. The editorial viewpoint does not necessarily reflect the views of The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. Columns and letters reflect the opinions of their authors only. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR POLICY Send letters to letters@browndailyherald.com. Include a telephone number with all letters. The Herald reserves the right to edit all letters for length and cannot assure the publication of any letter. Please limit letters to 250 words. Under special circumstances writers may request anonymity, but no letter will be printed if the author’s identity is unknown to the editors. Announcements of events will not be printed. ADVERTISING POLICY The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. reserves the right to accept or decline any advertisement in its discretion.

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

OPINIONS THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2002 · PAGE 15

The fight against Darwin: a battle we can win? Although medicine enables human longevity, it has not improved the elderly’s quality of life DARWINIAN THEORY STATES THAT ONLY longer, they are more susceptible to the strong survive. It is this concept of nat- degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s ural selection that makes the species and Parkinson’s that precipitate a slow and become more apt to subsist. It seems, draining debilitation. After recognizing however, that evolution, God or a combi- this, the question that presents itself is: nation of both may have created quite the can the fight against natural selection be won? paradox when humans came Perhaps, people are only into existence. Homo sapiens intended to live to a certain represent the first species to age. Although the agony be gifted with both increased associated with losing someintellectual abilities and an one to a sudden fatality is opposable thumb that maniextremely painful, is it worse fests those abilities through than the alternative? There the creation of tools. are definitely many elderly With the advent of modern people who enjoy life and medicine, both the quality of have modern medicine to life and the lifespan of the thank. I would also like to average American have skyADAM STERN ADAM’S RIB state that I am in no way rocketed. Antibiotics have advocating any form of rendered bacterial infections euthanasia. On the contrary, impotent; whereas strep throat once killed regularly, children now I do think that we as a society have a hope to come down with it to miss a day of responsibility to promote good health. school. Where polio once left millions par- We have no choice but to seek wellness alyzed, vaccines have now saved count- among our elderly. Further, I would like to offer illnesses less lives. Sudden, unexpected deaths have also been significantly reduced. that unjustly claim the lives of children Blood pressure medication and cardiovas- and relatively young adults as an excepcular surgeries have made it common for tion to my analysis. Seeing no other people to live well into their 80s and even options, I still question the efficacy of medicine in promoting a happily extended 90s. Along with an extended life span, how- life. From experience with my grandmother, ever, comes a shift in the most common types of death. As people live longer and I know the misery associated with Alzheimer’s disease. Without modern medicine, she would have died 20 years Adam Stern ’06 has nothing but respect ago from a massive heart attack. If she for modern medicine and the goals it were not in the right place at the right pursues.

time, I would never have known her, and so I am thankful. Yet, after being shocked back to life, my grandmother has lived somewhat dejectedly through her elderly years, which culminated in a degenerative disease that has for all intents and purposes killed her. She is not physically dead, but with no recognition skills or definitive memories, her spirit and essence have definitely passed on. Her current struggle has taken a toll on me. The unanswerable question is, taking into account all of the experiences of the last 20 years, what death would have been less difficult for my grandmother? In the recently revived television series, “The Twilight Zone,” an episode featured Jason Alexander playing the role of Death. He played a depressed Grim Reaper who wished to quit his job, so he took a day off from killing. What followed was a disturbing series of events: people still experienced the pain and suffering of death, without the relief of actually dying. It made me think that maybe we are not helping ourselves by artificially extending our lives. It is possible that the powers that be have naturally established the human life expectancy to be a certain age. By disturbing the natural order of health, maybe we disallow our own peaceful passing. Although we can delay death, we cannot bypass the aging process that features deterioration and pain. What will happen years from now when the average life span is two hun-

dred years? Excellent! My great-greatgrandchildren will be able to visit me in a nursing home. Of course, once they leave the room they will probably depart from my cognition as well since a multitude of neuro-degenerative diseases will have expunged my ability to dwell on anything. To solve the problem, I will decide to stand up and follow my descendants out the door. Unfortunately, I will have arthritis in every joint and osteoporosis in each of my 106 bones. The act of standing up, alone, may literally break me. Critics of this column will say that advances in medicine should be able to control these ailments. With promising areas of research, such as stem cell manipulation and cloning, doctors will be able to correct the horrible illnesses I fear. I concede that these areas of research have incredible potential. Subscription to either evolutionary or religious beliefs requires an immense amount of respect for the power of nature and God. If it is the will of either of these forces to limit life among our species, our powers of scientific research will inevitably prove to be insignificant. Although the human race can be selfaggrandizing at times, it would be hard pressed to claim that it could outsmart the creative powers of the universe. Ethically and morally there is no choice but to proceed with advances in modern medicine in the hopes of curtailing illness and prolonging life. Yet, the question remains: can we win this battle?

Bush administration foolish in its isolationist stance The President and his aides have succeeded only in increasing international divisions AS MOUNTING TENSION AND INCREASING officials to U.N. summits when someone pressure divide the globe on the issue of of Colin Powell’s stature would be more Iraq, one may notice that things have appropriate. Right now foreign states are being gone from bad to worse in the international community since President Bush heavily pressured to fight the “war on tertook office. This is not the first time the ror,” and many are doing so quite willingly. Every week there are news Bush administration has stories of terrorist plots broken ignored or blatantly disreup and the perpetrators arrestspected foreign interests by ROB SAND ed. Despite this fact, Bush does virtue of its action or inacGUEST COLUMN not have the diplomatic comtion. mon sense to send high-rankSince the “war on terror” ing officials to meet with forbegan, this problem can be attributed to the Bush administration’s eign representatives. Now, at the front of all our minds, his creed of “going it alone,” much like an angry, indignant teenager going to a fight unrelenting stance on Iraq further just to prove he’s tough, even though his angered our allies. Last week Nelson friends have tried to talk him out of it. Mandela spoke out against Bush’s warWhat the administration does not realize mongering, saying “I criticize leaders for is that they are alienating the United keeping quiet when one country wants to States from the rest of the globe at pre- bully the whole world.” On Monday, both France and Russia cisely the time when their leadership made statements of opposition to Bush’s could be most useful. For starters, Bush overtly withdrew “preemptive strike” doctrine. England is from the Kyoto Protocol in 2001. The the only European nation that sided with international community continued Bush thus far. Middle Eastern countries working toward it without us and was still are strongly against any unnecessary able to bring the Protocol into law, even action that could bring more instability to though it needed 55 percent of global car- what is now the world’s powder keg and bon dioxide emissions to be represented are also upset with Bush’s inaction in the by ratifying countries, and the United Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Simply put, Bush is refusing to act in States accounted for 25 percent of global emissions at the time. Shortly thereafter, the interest of any other country while Bush enacted tariffs on foreign steel for expecting everyone to join it in the war on the first time in decades, further angering terror. This hypocrisy has been duly noted our trading partners. These were the first by other nations. Bush’s response to their bad omens for the global community dur- criticism has been to ignore it or, since Sept. 11, 2001, threaten them with his ing Bush’s tenure. Add to that the administration’s contin- “with us or against us” rhetoric. Not only ued dismissal of U.N. legitimacy. The that, but the great outpouring of foreign president has repeatedly sent low-ranking sympathy for the events of Sept. 11, 2001, has been continually exploited, as Bush makes more demands and fewer concesRob Sand ’05 hails from Decorah, Iowa.

sions. Foreign leaders are running out of sympathy that might have been used to spread trust and unity instead of divisive opposition. In addition, Europe is closer together than ever before thanks to the European Union, which Bush tries to ignore while undoing much of Clinton’s work towards global unity. In one key mistake, the administration stated that it “does not intend to become a party” to the International Criminal Court, despite the fact that 12 countries have agreed to making U.S. peacekeepers immune from prosecution, and the E.U. has freed its member countries to do so as well. This treaty creates an international court system, located in The Hague, to try war criminals, help prevent and end international conflicts and prevent genocide and ethnic cleansing. The ICC treaty came into force in July 2002 and the Court hopes to be in complete working order by 2007. By refusing to recognize that the global community, the United States included, possesses a greater sovereignty than the United States alone, the Bush administration made the divisions between the the United States and the rest of the world even wider. Thus, while the majority of the world moves closer together, the United States is losing much of its potential to maintain global leadership. By taking a lead role, Bush might be able to help the United States serve as the foundation of globalism. Instead, the administration is unwilling to compromise, and Bush seems set on being remembered as the first global tyrrant or the biggest brat of the 21st century. This is exactly the opposite of what any

current administration should be doing. The tide of globalism has yet to crest and, when it does, I would wager that the highwater mark will be far above where most imagine. Even though we stand as the world’s only superpower, our president can do little to stop it. Rather, the current president should be trying to guide it in a responsible direction that respects and protects the environment and the people who do not have the resources to take advantage of a global economy. Now, I do not expect a miracle from Bush, but I would expect him to realize that the United States has great ability to shape the developments of globalism. If the United States were leading globalization in a postive way, it could maintain its strength and sovereignty well into this new order, wherever it takes us. Worst of all, the ICC aspect of globalization is not about increasing profits, expanding trade or exploiting cheap labor abroad. This is about preventing another Hitler or Pinochet, another Rwanda or Kosovo. It is about punishing leaders who murder hundreds of thousands of their own, and giving countries a chance to file for greivances rather than simply going to war. It is also a chance for the United States to set a positive example and show that it values all of humanity and a tight-knit global community. It has the potential to be a great step toward making a safer and more peaceful world, but Bush, in the name of national sovereignty and selfinterest, seems to prefer building walls over breaking them down. I hope something changes before the global community decides it likes those walls and leaves the United States apart from a more united and peaceful world.

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

SPORTS THURSDAY OCTOBER 10, 2002 · PAGE 16

An ode to the coolest game on the planet AS I WOKE UP ON TUESDAY MORNING to the frigid temperatures, it dawned upon me that fall had finally arrived, albeit a little late. A few days prior the world had been blessed with the early departure of the New York Yankees, and I didn’t really expect to find another reason for contentment until the Buffalo Bills win their first Super Bowl. I would soon become elated after realizing that a IAN CROPP LOAD OF CROPP new season of the fastest game on earth was only days away. I’m not talking about a chess match between Deep Blue and Keanu Reeves, but rather the sport of ice hockey. There are many reasons I can give you to abandon your faithful “alternative” sports, but I won’t even sink down so low as to slander other sports in my campaign (I can’t keep any promises), or furthermore, take soft money donations. But how can anyone in their right mind not enjoy watching or even playing a sport in which fighting yields only a five minute penalty, players throw their bodies in front of solid rubber traveling up to 104 miles per hour, and the per capita number of false teeth is greater than that of a nursing home? Sports like football and baseball are fun to watch, but sometimes it gets a little boring waiting half a minute for each play or pitch. In most hockey games, several minutes will elapse without a stoppage in play, all the while I can guarantee no one on the ice will be playing “when they feel like it,” or stopping to adjust their jock strap. The ability for the puck to change possession more times in a minute than the Falkland Islands keeps the level of excitement high and the spectators engaged. Even when there are stoppages in play, it’s usually for a good reason. Every so often the players are unable to remain in the boundaries of the arena and consequently cause a stoppage in play. Shattering glass will usually arouse a bit of fear, but only at a hockey game will the sound and sight of a player being launched throw a pain of glass cause an eruption of applause. While I do support quarrels on the ice, I am not going to instigate one off the ice and give you the pros and cons of college and pro hockey; I don’t want to bore you to death. Whether you see a game at the college, professional, or amateur level, you will definitely be treated to a display of skill and hard work. Even watching a bunch of seven year olds shuffling around the ice like a herd of OompaLoompa’s is highly entertaining (at least until the novelty wears off ). Watching a game alone won’t allow you to fully appreciate the game of hockey. It’s imperative that whenever you attend a game you do your part to be the ideal hockey fan. Unlike soccer, see CROPP, page 13

ATHLETE OF THE WEEK

Carpenter ’04 drives w. golf to victory BY LILY RAYMAN-READ

Golf comes naturally to Elizabeth Carpenter ‘04. Having lived on a golf course in her hometown of Plantation, Florida, playing golf was an easy hobby to indulge in. She started playing around fourth grade, but did not become a serious player until high school when she began participating in five to ten tournaments a summer. “While I really enjoyed the tournaments, when I started having to travel a lot, it was not as fun,” Carpenter said. But she stuck with it, and is now the number one player for the women’s golf team at Brown. Carpenter has raised a storm here at Brown. She was named Freshman Female Athlete of the Year in 2000, and was the first female golfer to capture an individual title when she took the championship at the 24th Annual Mount Holyoke Invitational 2000 by 11 strokes. Also as a freshman, Carpenter was named the Northeast Rookie of the Year, a very high honor and prestigious award. She had also been named an All-Ivy league golfer for both her freshman and sophomore years. This year Carpenter has placed first with medal honors at the Princeton Women’s Golf Invitational in September. She has done well in all of the tournaments so far this year with a fourth place finish in the Ivy League Championship in August — giving Carpenter her second Ivy title and a seventh place in the Dartmouth Invitational in September. Her teammates have also done well, and it is team effort that has led to Brown’s constant improvement. New head coach Mike Harbour is having success in his first season. Carpenter is not only interested in golf however, in fact, unlike many other golfers golf was not the only sport she participated in high school. She also swam. She is very focused on her studies here, and emphasizes this by explaining that she came to Brown for the academics. If she had wanted to earn money she could have stayed at home and played for Florida State. She is energetic and includes having a good time as one of the things she most enjoys. Many people deride the sport of golf as being little more than walking hole to hole and swinging a club. When challenged with this view, Carpenter easily defends her sport, saying that “golf is the toughest sport mentally. We have to concentrate for six hours, and we need to contain our emotions. Unlike many other sports you cannot get too worked up in golf because it

dspics.com

Elizabeth Carpenter ’04 (above) led women’s golf to a victory at the Princeton Invitational. works against you.” She also challenges the idea that golf is not a physical activity, like herself, many of her teammates are in good shape. “We could be playing many other sports, but chose to play this one,” said Carpenter. When talking about golf, Carpenter becomes enthused, and though she does not seek a future in the sport as a professional, it certainly plays a large role in her life. “The team is awesome,” she said. “Some of my best friends are on the team.” Carpenter and her teammates have a rigorous schedule, which often causes

them to be away on many weekends during the season. Because Brown has no golf course, she never gets a home course advantage, and is always traveling for her tournaments. Despite all this she remains very dedicated, and a true athlete. The combination of academics, athletics and maintaining anything near a social life can be very trying for a varsity athlete, but Elizabeth Carpenter certainly has found a balance, and it is clear that she has a lot of talent in her chosen sport of golf. Contributing writer Lily Rayman-Read ’06 covers the volleyball team and writes Athlete of the Week features.

Women’s soccer shuts out Northeastern BY SHARA HEGDE

The women’s soccer team (4-4-2, 0-2-1 Ivy League) got back on the winning track Tuesday, shutting out Northeastern 2-0. It was the Bears’ third shutout of the season. After dropping a tough overtime game to Dartmouth last week, Brown came out fired up BROWN 2 NORTHWESTERN 0 against the Lady Huskies. The Bears were led by goalie Kim Boortz ’05, who earned her first career shutout. Boortz faced only one shot in her first collegiate start thanks to some strong defensive play. On the offensive end, Brown received all the scoring they would need from Molly Cahan ’04.

At the 28-minute mark, Kristin Nabb ’03 sent a long cross through the top of the box and Cahan sent the ball past Northeastern goalie Cynthia Slowik. The goal was Cahan’s second in two games while Nabb tallied her first point of the season with the assist. Brown scored again at the 81-minute mark with Laura Iden ’03 tallying her third goal of the season on a pass from teammate Caitlin Carey ’03. Brown out shot Northeastern 24 to 3 during the game. The team resumes play on Friday against Sacred Heart at 7pm on Stevenson Field. Shara Hegde ’04 is a sports contributing writer and covers the women’s soccer team.

dspics.com

Ten games into the season, the women’s soccer team is a respectable 4-4-2.

Thursday, October 10, 2002

Published on Oct 10, 2002

The October 10, 2002 issue of the Brown Daily Herald

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