F R I D A Y OCTOBER 18, 2002
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Volume CXXXVII, No. 94
An independent newspaper serving the Brown community since 1891
www.browndailyherald.com
Universitybased alliance aims to prepare minorities for future success BY CARLA BLUMENKRANZ
Jason White / Herald
ON YOUR MARK Students participating in the men’s scut race dashed from the starting line on Wriston Quad Thursday night. Women’s and coed races were also held last night in celebration of Greek Week.
The Brown-based National Leadership Alliance aims to prepare minority students for acceptance and success at the nation’s best graduate schools. Founded in 1992 by former Brown President Vartan Gregorian, the alliance consists of 29 colleges and universities, including all eight Ivy League universities as well as historically black institutions. Its mission is to increase the number of minorities in doctoral programs and, ultimately, on university faculty, said Interim Director Michael Plater, associate dean of the Graduate School. At the core of the alliance is its Summer Research-Early Identification Program (SR-EIP), which places minority undergraduates in summer research positions following their junior year. In addition to research experience, these students gain valuable contacts at their host universities and get a head start on the graduate school application process, Plater said. In return, member institutions such as Brown gain visibility among minority students interested in obtaining a Ph.D., he said. Sixty-five percent of participants are black, 30 percent are Hispanic, 3 percent are Native American and 2 percent are Pacific Islander or multiracial, Leadership Alliance statistics report. This year, SR-EIP sent about 150 undergraduates to
Making grassroots labor movements work UMass Professor Eve Weinbaum delivered a Thursday night lecture that focused on the benefits of grassroots labor movements organized by women in rural Tennessee BY ZACH BARTER
Grassroots labor movements that mobilize potential activists can be successful even if they fail to achieve their larger goals, University of Massachusetts at Amherst Professor Eve Weinbaum told a crowd of 20 students in Petteruti Lounge Thursday. In her lecture, titled “Economic Justice for None: Rural Women Challenge the Role of the Global Economy,” Weinbaum presented her findings from case studies of three factory closures in rural Tennessee. Based on her interviews with laid-off women in three towns, Weinbaum described how labor groups mobilized following each incident and the outcomes of each movement. While none of the three movements succeeded in preventing the layoffs, Weinbaum said they were enormously successful in educating working women about the dynamics of labor relations in the new global economy. Weinbaum said she was impressed when former employees of a General Electric plant in Morristown, Tenn., spoke to her about the complexities of welfare policy, social policy and trade policy. “It looks like a failure at first glance, but it’s really a success,” Weinbaum said of the Morristown workers’ effort. “They were involved in a sustained effort at economic change, which is a very unusual thing,” she said. The Morristown workers organized Citizens Against Temporary Services, a group that protests the firing of full-time workers to make way for temporary positions. Women laid off by Acme Boot of Clarksville, Tenn., led a
campaign to amend a portion of the tax code that gave their employer incentives to relocate operations in Puerto Rico. While neither movement achieved legal change, Weinbaum said the movements were a necessary starting point for more meaningful change. They “created the beginnings of a transformation to a more democratic and participatory” role for locally based labor movements, Weinbaum said, “and that’s really what needs to happen.” The lecture was followed by a brief question-andanswer period. When asked why the U.S. government would pass laws encouraging companies to send jobs overseas, Weinbaum said corporate interests influence legislative debates while grassroots labor movements are often marginalized. Those in attendance said they found Weinbaum’s presentation eye-opening. “I feel that it’s an issue that needs to be addressed and is often overlooked,” said Margarita Warren ’04. “I was really impressed.” Weinbaum currently works at the Labor Relations and Research Center at UMass-Amherst. Between 1990 and 1994, she worked as the lead organizer for the Graduate Employees and Students Organization, Local 34 and 35 of the Hotel and Restaurant Employees, where she represented workers at Yale University. Her research focuses on labor and community coalitions, community responses to plant closings and the campaign against sweatshop labor. Her lecture was presented by the Wayland Collegium for Liberal Learning as part of its lecture series, “How We Spend Our Lives: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Work.” The Departments of American Civilization and Sociology, the Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women, the Sarah Doyle Women’s Center and the Office of the Dean of the College co-sponsored the event.
see ALLIANCE, page 4
Grad students with kids worry about lack of childcare at U. BY ZOE RIPPLE
Many graduate students who have children, or expect to have children during their studies at Brown, say they are concerned about the lack of childcare provided by the University. The University currently offers a childcare program for graduate students with children between the ages of three and six through the Brown/Fox Point Early Childcare Center. But Brown “lags behind comparable universities with respect to the support of child care,” the 1999 Mills and Pardee study “Child Care at Brown University” reported. This report cited “a demand for childcare services” at Brown. This demand, many graduate students said, is not being met. Brown might not “realize how many families are there” in need of childcare, said Melissa Lage GS, who recently conducted a survey of graduate students’ life at Brown. According to the survey, several graduate students indicated they would use childcare if the University provided it. Sixteen percent of the 250 graduate students who responded have children, and another 16 percent are planning to have children while at Brown.
I N S I D E F R I D AY, O C T O B E R 1 8 , 2 0 0 2 With unique technique, Isca GreenfieldSanders ’00 makes it big in art world page 3
Heather Johnston ’06 says hookups are not for the faint of heart at Brown column,page 7
Women’s golf team shines in fall finale at ECAC Championship sports,page 8
see CHILDCARE, page 5
TO D AY ’ S F O R E C A S T Football, not ready to throw in towel yet, heads south to face Princeton University sports, page 8
Post- goes inside New York’s hottest new attraction, the Museum of Sex magazine,inside
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