Friday, January 31, 2003

F R I D A Y JANUARY 31, 2003

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Volume CXXXVIII, No. 8

An independent newspaper serving the Brown community since 1891

Applications to Brown Graduate School up 25%

www.browndailyherald.com

U. officials extend library workers’ contract

BY MATTHEW SHOPSIN

Applications to the Brown Graduate School rose nearly 25 percent — from 4,619 last year to 5,800 this year — due to the tight job market for recent college graduates and President Ruth Simmons’ recent efforts to invigorate the Graduate School, said Associate Dean of the Graduate School Michael Diffily.

The sciences accounted for the majority of the increase in applications, with the English and mathematics departments receiving smaller but still substantial increases, he said. All but two departments received increases in applications, Diffily said.

The Department of Computer Science saw the largest jump in applications, from 287 to 549, Diffily said.

The dramatic rise in applicants at Brown has lead to an increase in quality according to George Borts, professor of economics and member of the admission committee for graduate programs in economics.

The “quality of essays, grades and letters of reference show an increase in (the)quality of applicants. … Fewer employment opportunities in the U.S. has led more people to seek graduate education,” Borts said.

A 700-application increase from foreign students — including 200 students from the People’s Republic of China — accounts for the majority of the increase in the sciences, Diffily said.

He said he sees the economy as the compelling factor in graduate school

BY JULIETTE WALLACK

Kerry Miller / Herald

LATE NIGHT FIRE AT BROWN STUDENTS’ RESIDENCE A fire at 217 Angell Street caused slight property damage before firefighters extinguished it at about 12:15 a.m. None of the people inside the house at the time of the fire were injured, Battalion Chief Mark Pare said.

see GRAD SCHOOL, page 4

Despite pressures of position, President Simmons writes her own speeches Unlike most U. presidents, Simmons puts pen to paper for issues she cares about

BY CARLA BLUMENKRANZ

When President Ruth Simmons first arrived on campus to greet the Brown community in November 2000, she was surprised to learn the University expected her greeting in the form of an official address. Simmons dashed off a draft in 45 minutes.

“I probably won’t write a better speech than that,” she told The Herald last week, laughing. “When you’re in a leadership position, you often have to express with little notice the most profound thoughts you have. And that’s what everyone remembers.”

College presidents, as the visionaries of their institutions, are obligated to speak on and off their campuses. But these speeches often require hours of brainstorming and drafts, leaving most presidents to rely on speechwriters or administrators to pen their words, Simmons said.

Yet Simmons continues to write her own speeches on most occasions, though she told The Herald speechwriting is the “bane of my existence.”

“I’m not a good person to write for,”

Simmons said, recalling the “mixed success” of two speechwriters she hired at Smith College and the drastic rewrites she often undertakes of speeches written for her at Brown.

“I can give a speech and everyone in the room will know I didn’t write it,” she said of the precise, dynamic speaking style that draws hundreds of speaking requests each year and has proven so resistant to imitation by other writers. “It’s the price of a distinct voice.”

Relying on personal anecdotes to create a trademark style, President Gordon Gee enlisted the expertise of others for the substance of his addresses, said Kate Wolford RUE ’06, who served as his executive assistant and is now project director for the Office of Campus Life and Student Services.

A wide range of University administrators, but never outside writers, generally joined forces to draft Gee’s speeches. Later, he would typically “add in his own stories and own experiences, and if there was a phrase that he didn’t use on a regular basis, he would take that out,” Wolford said.

“It’s as it’s portrayed on many television shows and movies,” she added. “It’s definitely a collaborative effort, but the (U.S.) president always puts his signature on it

and has the final say about what message he’s sending.”

President Vartan Gregorian, who preceded Gee, compressed the speechwriting process by delegating research responsibilities to senior advisors, said Executive Vice President for Public Affairs and University Relations Laura Freid, who often assisted Gregorian. But like Simmons, Freid said, Gregorian completed the writing process himself.

Former interim president Sheila Blumstein said she generally wrote her own speeches as well, although she relied on staff members “to do the legwork” for straightforward introductions or on topics she was less familiar with. In these situations, she always reviewed addresses before delivering them, and, like Gee, said she used the editing process to “make it my own.”

“In principle, you’d like to write everything yourself,” Blumstein said, “but when you’re president, there’s such a varied amount of material that sometimes you can’t do it.”

Herald staff writer Carla Blumenkranz ’05 covers the Office of the President. She can be reached at cblumenkranz@browndailyherald.com.

I N S I D E F R I D AY, J A N UA RY 3 1 , 2 0 0 3 Twenty-five years in the making, Brown prof and author releases new book page 3

Egypt study abroad program afloat despite possible threats in the Middle East page 5

Brown grad awarded Mitchell scholarship, will study international relations in Ireland page 5

University officials and unionized library workers agreed to extend the workers’ contract through Feb. 28 after months of negotiations failed to produce a new contract. The contract would have expired today without the extension.

Karen McAninch, business agent of Service Employees International Union Local 134, which represents more than half of the library system’s staff, said the union has made it clear to the University that if no agreement has been reached by Feb. 28, workers will request an extension of the current contract through the end of September 2003.

Extending the temporary contract that far ahead would increase the likelihood of negotiations taking place during the academic year, McAninch said. It is important to have students on campus while negotiating, she said.

“The University would want to get things resolved in the summer because no one’s around,” McAninch said. “We prefer to have the opportunity to make the community at least aware of the problems. …

Probably, the summer wouldn’t be a good time.”

McAninch said she thinks it is likely that an agreement will not be in place by Feb. 28. If the University does not agree to an extension through the end of September, there are many options union members will consider, she said, including striking or holding a rally to call attention to the problems.

Among the points of contention are the proposed library reorganization and the University’s hiring freeze, McAninch said.

The current contract is an extension of a three-year-old contract that expired Sept.

30, 2002. Because the University and the union must consider many factors, the process is taking a long time, said Mark Nickel, director of the Brown News Service.

“There are a number of changes in scheduling that the library will need to make as it reorganizes,” Nickel said.

But McAninch said the problem goes beyond the sheer volume of information.

In some cases, she said, the University is not adequately communicating changes see UNION, page 4

Joan Jett will play Spring Weekend Joan Jett, whose hit “I Love Rock-nRoll” topped the charts in 1982, will headline the Brown Concert Agency’s April. 10 Spring Weekend Concert, according to BCA Chair Flora Brown ’03.5.

BCA has not confirmed any other acts for either Spring Weekend concert, Brown said.

—Herald staff reports

TO D AY ’ S F O R E C A S T Alex Schulman ’03 says antiwar protesters make argument for, not against, action column, page 7

Athlete of the Week and gymnast Jayne Finst ’04 says “it’s all about the team” sports , page 8

showers high 37 low 30

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

THIS MORNING FRIDAY, JANUARY 31, 2003 · PAGE 2 Pornucopia Eli Swiney

W E AT H E R TODAY

SATURDAY

SUNDAY

MONDAY

High 37 Low 30 showers

High 38 Low 27 snow and ice to rain

High 41 Low 29 partly cloudy

High 48 Low 36 cloudy

GRAPHICS BY TED WU

A Story Of Eddie Ahn

CALENDAR LECTURE—“Journalism and the Culture of War,” Dan Hallin, University of California at San Diego, Taubman Center for Public Policy. Seminar room, Taubman Center, noon.

SPORTS—Women’s basketball vs. Cornell, Department of Athletics.

Pizzitola Sports Center, 7 p.m.

CROSSWORD y ACROSS 1 Genesis matchmaker?

5 Man with a mission 10 Workshop tool 14 Low-voiced woman 15 Cyclist Armstrong 16 Words spoken before the Senate 17 Animal doctor’s cover?

19 Rich soil 20 “Absolutely!”

21 __ Canals 22 Old Testament book 23 Pouches 25 Radius partner 27 Disfigure 30 Jump over an animator?

35 “It must have been something I __!”

36 Where Perry prevailed in 1813 37 Bug 38 Artist influenced

by Freud 40 Abolish, with “out” 43 Canned item since 1937 44 Singer Lopez 46 Fours, usually 48 “The County Chairman” dramatist 49 Offering receptacle?

52 Actor Cariou 53 Gratify 54 Some Jonson works 56 Shorten, with “down” 59 Org. with a muchquoted journal 61 If 65 Costa __ 66 Tarzan’s climate control system?

68 Schooners’ contents 69 “The Temptation of St. Anthony” artist 70 Sink 71 El Dorado, for one 72 Realizes

Coup de Grace Grace Farris

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73 Record collection

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57 Smooth-talking 58 “Law & Order” actor 60 Sigmund’s daughter 62 Jai __ 63 Word after hard or soft 64 Perry’s creator 67 Controversial ability

DOWN 1 Fleet runner?

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I S L C R O P E E R A T 26 Chill in the air I N T O T H E W O O D S 27 Fox comedy N O U M G S series since 1995 M A Y B E A T L E A S T O R A T O R Y 28 1976 Warner K I D D I V A N Communications C E E acquisition S L I C E A N D D I C E 29 Souvenir S L O E E E E L A T E D 31 Bounds M A C O N L E I S R N S 32 Kathmandu’s B Y H O O K O R B Y C R O O K land A C T I Y A L T A E L A L 33 Duck T O S S S W E E T R A T S 34 Oman neighbor 39 Chop-chop 01/31/03 xwordeditor@aol.com

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ARTS & CULTURE FRIDAY, JANUARY 31, 2003 · PAGE 3

Dickens musical picked

Coover continues to innovate in “Lucky”

BY JEN SOPCHOCKCHAI

BY RACHEL AVIV

After considering five different proposals, the Musical Forum board decided on Monday to produce “The Mystery Of Edwin Drood,” a “choose-your-ownadventure murder mystery musical” based on an unfinished Dickens novel.

The novel, published serially but interrupted by Dickens’ death, finally found an ending about 100 years later, when Tony Award-winning playwright Rupert Holmes adapted it for the stage.

Board member James Egelhofer ’04 said that though the process of choosing a show is usually difficult, the group’s move to Bigelow Theater made for an easy choice.

“We were trying to pick a show that would work in the new space,” he said.

“The Mystery of Edwin Drood” is a good match for Bigelow Theater because it has a vaudevillian look about it, which won’t make the room’s low ceiling and tight quarters seem out of place,” Egelhofer said.

During the second act of the show, the audience will vote to determine the story’s end. There are 600 possible endings; the cast will perform whichever one the audience chooses, Immerwahr said.

Egelhofer added that the musical will be a nice change of pace because for the last several years the Musical Forum has sponsored a lot of musical theater standards, including “West Side Story,” “Oklahoma” and “Cabaret.”

The music must be arranged to accommodate a smaller pit orchestra, and the set will not be large, but nothing will be compromised, Egelhofer said.

“We’re still trying to go all-out as much as we can,” Egelhofer said.

The show’s director, Adam Immerwahr ’05, said he

Upon reviewing “The Adventures of Lucky Pierre,” Los Angeles Times book critic Susan Reynolds asks, “Is it a bad thing if there are seven words on the first page of a novel that you don’t exactly know the meanings of?”

She quickly decides the answer is no.

With most writers it would be, but Robert Coover, adjunct professor of English, is in his own league. He can afford to use words like “epiodion,” “sibilants,” “tenebrous,” “fricatives,” “piangevole,” “plainchant” and “embouchure,” even if they are all on one page.

Though his prose can be difficult at times, Coover has not suffered for the risks he has taken. With fifteen published books to his credit, Coover is hailed as one of the most influential writers of the last 50 years. His playful, metafictional style and his irreverence for the so-called “well-made story” have given him a distinct style that, according to a graduate student of his, has influenced the work of other writers as much as Hemingway’s.

In “The Adventures of Lucky Pierre,” Coover tells the story of a porn star living in the frozen megalopolis of Cinecity, a place where movies replace life and sex provides the only terms by which characters communicate — the city’s motto is “Pro Bono Pubis.” In Cinecity, copulating couples are squashed on street corners by rushhour traffic, and Pierre, the porn-star protagonist, is regularly raped by gangs of pubescent girls.

In this book, like his others, Coover sets up situations where he can examine and call attention to the various levels of fictions at stake in telling any story.

“The thing we all as human beings have most in common — other than language itself — is storytelling,” Coover said. “There are countless stories that we’re part of that we don’t even recognize: the patriotic stories, the film stories, the religious stories, all the fictions that are widely held. Going to church on Sunday — who made up that story?”

see MUSICAL, page 4

In the classroom Coover does not push his students to imitate his style, but he does encourage them to break away from the chronology, structure and boundaries of the conventional story — teaching them, as he calls it, “rule breaking.”

Coover is a hot commodity in the Graduate School.

However, as one graduate student said, “It’s not always easy to have him as a teacher. I know the kind of figure he is. I know how great he is. There’s always a difficulty — a desire to please — not exactly conducive to the art of creation. There’s this sort of atmospheric pressure that, if you write metafiction, you’ll get better criticism.”

Coover recognizes this dilemma but isn’t too worried. He said he likes to think of the Graduate Program in Creative Writing at Brown as having a distinct style, different from that of other top writing schools. Coover was first appointed to the creative writing department

by John Hawks — another giant of postmodern fiction.

“We’re not like Iowa or any of the other standard writing schools. Part of that is in the way we pick the students who come here. The grad students that come here are already the oddballs in their own generation.

The more conventional writers, no matter how gifted they are, tend not to get accepted.”

Though he may have begun as an oddball, Coover has written his way to the center of a movement. His fiction, just as much as — if not more than — contemporaries like Donald Barthleme, John Hawks and John Barth, has been crucial in defining the idea of the postmodern. Coover is for the most part satisfied with his critical reception.

After the initial read, no reviews have really stung him much, he said. What does bother him is when reviewers have not done all their homework. Coover was almost certain that the New York Times Book see COOVER, page 4

speak your mind: letters@browndailyherald.com

PAGE 4 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD FRIDAY, JANUARY 31, 2003

Zarda

Musical

Coover

continued from page 8

continued from page 3

continued from page 3

religious objection to basketball as your excuse. Just go play a few games for a country that provides you with millions of dollars to play a game for which 12-year-olds skip dinner daily. That’s it.

When students attend public school, they pause each day and recite the Pledge of Allegiance. It’s a small token of gratitude shown for the freedoms they enjoy. Sadly, our athletes are seldom eager to offer that same minor gesture.

Jimmy Connors consistently snubbed the Davis Cup, while John McEnroe offered to play at the drop of a dime. Despite that, much of the country embraced Jimmy and branded John a brat. Why? I’d take a loyal American with attitude over a showman void of appreciation.

The selection committee obviously differs in its stance. Allen Iverson believes he’ll be overlooked for the selection for his tattoos and his rap record. He’s probably right. He battles relentlessly (during games, not practice) and is clearly qualified. But his image just doesn’t work.

Meanwhile, ample brown-nosing has since persuaded Kobe into a shallow change of heart. Excuse me if I don’t send a thank you card.

In time, Shaq too might don the Superman cape in glorious melodramatic fashion to rescue the future of American basketball.

That’s a shame.

Maybe I speak for myself, but I don’t want either of them.

will be adding to the production by increasing the amount of adlibbed and improvised dialogue.

Auditions for the show’s 14 cast members will be held on Sunday and Monday.

Review critic had not read “The Adventures of Lucky Pierre” from start to finish. In the review the critic suggested that “the best way to read Mr. Coover’s new work may be to take non-narrative at face value and to skip around in it, read the middle before the beginning, go to the end and then slip

Brett Zarda GS hails from Orlando and now has yet another reason to despise the turncoat known as Shaq.

Herald staff writer Jen Sopchockchai ’05 can be reached at jsopchockchai@browndailyherald.com.

Egypt continued from page 5 because obviously our country could use more information about the Middle East,” she said.

Moritz said proposals for programs come in from various sites and institutions in the Middle East, “but whether we would want to do something now is the question.

“Nothing is on the table right now and probably wouldn’t be this year, but were things to come down we probably would encourage more students,” Moritz said.

“I hope when things resolve themselves we can send more students to good places in the Middle East.”

Travel Advisories President George W. Bush used even stronger language in his State of the Union address in condemning Iraq’s President Saddam Hussein and threatening a strike.

“The course of this nation does not depend on the decisions of others,” he said. “Whatever action is required, whenever action is

necessary, I will defend the freedom and security of the American people.”

By registering with a U.S. embassy when they arrive at any country, students are kept informed by the State Department of possible threats and warning, Moritz said. The embassy also has a “warden system” that sends out e-mail alerts, she said.

“If the warning says that Americans should leave the country, then we would make plans with the program for our students to come home,” she said.

Moritz said she received a State Department alert last Friday. The alerts contain various levels of advisories, some that simply advise Americans to be cautious and not visit sites where many Americans gather, she said.

Friday’s alert asked American residents abroad to keep all important documentation available, stock their homes with adequate supplies of food and remain vigilant, Moritz said.

“Obviously our country is talking about war, so the state department wants to be directly in touch with all Americans abroad, and

back.” This sentence, Coover guessed, was probably not so much a compliment, as a confession.

Regardless, Coover struggled to finish the book and is happy that it is finally out of his hands.

He wrote the first hundred or so pages in the ’70s and then intermittently wrote the remainder over the next 25 years. When he moved to a different house in Providence, he decided he was either going to lug the manu-

they do that,” she said.

However, the alert said, “We do not want American citizens to become unduly alarmed. These are precautionary measures only.”

A Georgetown student studying at AUC told the Washington Post that he would not leave the country in the event of a war.

“If war starts, my decision is to stay in Egypt,” said John Gelzer, a junior. “I think there has been a lot of miscommunication between the Arab world and the U.S. There need to be more people who are informed about the Middle East instead of (those) making judgments without

Grad school continued from page 1 admission. A graduate school tends to act as a safety net during times of an economic downturn when employment opportunities diminish, he said.

“It is a better position for students to be in graduate school (while) looking for a job,” Diffily said. He also said he believed recent corporate scandals, such as Enron’s deceptive accounting practices, have dissuaded recent graduates from entering the business world.

Diffily said that Simmons has also been helping promote the Graduate School. “The academic enrichment program’s emphasis on relation and enhancement of graduate education has found its way to prospective applicants.”

What complicates analysis of the number of graduate school applicants is the tendency for applicants to send out more applications if they feel more competition.

“In the past, students applied to an average of four graduate schools,” Diffily said.

“I have one friend at (the University of Pennsylvania) applying to 19 business schools. Most people I know are applying to

Union continued from page 1 included in the restructuring plan.

McAninch said she realizes University officials are still planning the restructuring, but “I think a lot of it is that we have to know the plan,” she said.

Though Nickel said he didn’t think the staff hiring freeze was playing a part in negotiations, McAninch said the freeze is “adding a whole element of complication to the thing” because the union is concerned that library staff members will not be able to advance in their jobs if their former positions will not be filled.

script to the new house and finish the book, or otherwise abandon the entire project. Coover, a man who has never had writer’s block and said he sees writing not as a personal career but as a “means of personal self-discovery”, chose, obviously, to lug it along.

Herald staff writer Rachel Aviv ’04 is the assistant arts and culture editor. She can be reached at raviv@browndailyherald.com.

knowing anything about Arab culture,” he said.

“We send e-mails several times a semester to all the students (abroad), and with particular countries where we know there may be some issues of concern, we e-mail the students twice a semester asking for reactions and how they’re doing,” Moritz said.

“That’s what we did with the Egyptian students in the fall. Thus far, the students have been really undisturbed and not concerned and have had good experiences.”

Herald staff writer Sara Perkins ’06 can be reached at sperkins@browndailyherald.com.

between seven and 10 graduate schools,” said Hilary Gerstein ’03.

The trend in rising applications to graduate schools is not localized to Brown. Most graduate schools across the country have seen a rise in applications in the last year. Law schools saw a 17.4 percent rise in applicants last year, according to an article in The Boston Globe.

There was also a 15 percent rise in the number of people taking the GRE, which is the primary test for admission to graduate school, The Globe reported.

The number of applications to the Graduate School runs in cycles, Diffily said.

Two years ago there was a 200application rise from the year before, and the year before that, there was a 200-application decline, he said.

The last two years have seen increases of 1,000 applicants, he added.

The University intends to offer 1,000 graduate positions, expecting between 400 and 450 applicants to accept, Diffily said.

Besides one additional doctorate program, the University does not plan to change the size of the Graduate School, he said.

Herald staff writer Matthew Shopsin ’06 covers the Graduate School. He can be reached at mshopsin@browndailyherald.com.

“We want to provide ways for our people to get into new (positions),” including those proposed in the restructuring, McAninch said.

Promotions may not be possible because not all duties will be completed if the hiring freeze prevents old positions from being filled, she said.

Besides the reorganization and hiring freeze, negotiations include discussion of a pay raise and health benefits. The current contract guarantees a 3 percent raise now and a 1.25 percent raise retroactively, which will be paid when a contract is signed.

Herald staff writer Juliette Wallack ’05 can be reached at jwallack@browndailyherald.com.

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

CAMPUS NEWS FRIDAY, JANUARY 31, 2003 · PAGE 5

IN BRIEF Brown grad named Mitchell scholar A Brown graduate was recently named a George Mitchell Scholar — one of 11 selected in a nationwide competition — and will use the award to study international relations in Ireland at University College Cork.

Moira Herbst ’98 said she plans to earn her master’s degree in international labor and to focus on workers’ rights as well as international human rights while in Ireland.

Professor of English William Keach, who taught Herbst in her senior year, said Herbst immediately stood out for her writing and analytic skills as well as her devotion to social and political issues.

“She has a wonderful, clear-sighted commitment to progressive causes,” Keach said.“She’ll do something really great with the opportunity, … something that matters to other people.”

While at Brown, Herbst co-founded the Student Labor Alliance, which helped establish a code of conduct regarding sweatshops. Due to the SLA’s efforts, the University agreed to screen vendors to ensure that their practices are in agreement with the code.

Since graduating, Herbst has worked both as a communications consultant and a writer at the Labor Research Association, a non-profit research and advocacy group, on behalf of labor unions and workers’ rights. She has also edited and written for various union publications.

A political science concentrator, Herbst graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. She spent her junior year studying abroad at the University of Oxford.

The Mitchell Scholarship was established in 1998 and provides for a year of post-graduate study in Ireland and Northern Ireland. Eleven scholars are selected based on academic excellence, leadership abilities and dedication to community service.

Herbst is “exactly the type” of student the scholarship program seeks, said Dell Pendergrast, director of George Mitchell scholarships.

The Mitchell program, which drew nearly 300 applicants this year, aims to “identify the next generation of leadership,” Pendergrast said. The program is administered by the U.S.-Ireland Alliance and is named after former U.S. Senator George Mitchell, D-Maine, in honor of his role in the Northern Ireland peace process.

—Meryl Rothstein

Egypt program continues undisturbed

BY SARA PERKINS

Although international conflict has led Brown to remove students from study abroad programs in Israel, Jordan and Lebanon, the University continues to sanction study in one Middle Eastern country — Egypt.

If the U.S. Department of State recommends that Americans evacuate the area, the Egypt program could be the first to halt mid-semester in at least the last decade, said Brown’s Director of International Programs Kirstin Moritz.

Moritz said she was surprised that, despite the looming possibility of war with Iraq, students continue to go to Egypt — a country that could be affected by hostilities.

But the American University in Cairo has seen its applications from international students double in the past year, said Mary Davidson, a student affairs officer for AUC. As the State Department releases warnings advising American residents abroad to be prepared for unknown dangers in the future, few students have left the Egypt program, said Dan Calarco ’03, who spent his junior year at AUC and then worked in the American Consulate over the summer.

Last programstanding An April 2, 2002 a State Department travel warning closed Brown’s program at Israel’s Hebrew University. A similar announcement closed Brown’s and many other schools’ programs during the Gulf War. Moritz wasn’t director of International Programs at Brown in 1990, but she said she remembers the abrupt closure of other study abroadprograms.

“In the institution I worked in at that time, the program in Israel was closed. Some of the students refused to return home — they felt they wanted to stay with the Israeli students. And others did come home,” she said.

“Since I’ve been at Brown we haven’t had to close a program in the middle of a semester,” she added. There have been closures — most recently, of the India program last summer — that occurred just before students were to depart, Moritz said, but Brown hasn’t had to evacuate students in recent memory.

The Office of International Programs has also stopped sanctioning participation in programs in Jordan and Lebanon, Moritz said. Like most American institutions, Brown gave minimal consideration to President of Syria Bashar al-Assad’s opening his nation to international education in August 2001, weeks before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Moritz said in a September interview with The Herald.

The AUC program in Cairo is the last program standing

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for Brown students who wish to study in the Middle East.

The State Department, according to its Web site, considers Egypt reasonably safe for students and tourists, but strongly warns Americans against visiting Israel, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Lebanon, Jordan, Iran and Iraq. The last attack on tourists in Egypt, according to the State Department, was in 1997, and police have since increased their presence in airports and tourist areas.

In Cairo, Calarco said there was “law enforcement everywhere. … I felt safer there (in Egypt) than I feel in New York.”

He attributed the large police force to the country’s mandatory conscription. A special “tourist police” division was particularly reassuring. Trained in different languages, these officers are charged solely with looking after visitors.

“There were obviously times when I felt (uncomfortable). Ninety-five percent of people there loved Americans and hate the (U.S.) government. ... You hear things like ‘Bush is bad,’” Calarco said. He noted only one incident where he encountered serious hostility as an American — a man shouted something “unprintable” at a bus he was on — but emphasized the positive experience of being in Egypt.

Davidson said there has been discussion and activism on the AUC campus, but it is not hostile toward international students studying there. “When you’re in Egypt, there are other issues that are important, particularly the politics that evolve around the Palestinian issue. … There have been nonviolent demonstrations on campus showing solidarity with the Palestinian people.”

If there Is no war The American University in Cairo has seen the number of both applications and enrollment rise considerably, almost doubling since last year, Davidson said.

“There is a lot of interest in the Middle East … (but) programs in a lot of other non-Western countries have been cancelled,” Davidson said.

Moritz agreed that there is interest among Brown students to study in the Middle East, particularly in Israel.

“There’s interest in Israel and I talk to students about it, and it’s very regrettable that the situation is still tricky there in terms of foreigners,” she said.

She said she is heartened that Brown hired two new faculty members to teach Arabic this year, and hopes to send more students to the Middle East in the future.

“We have a good number of students taking Arabic, I understand. Arabic enrollments are up, and that’s good, see EGYPT, page 4

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

EDITORIAL/LETTERS FRIDAY, JANUARY 31, 2003 · PAGE 6 S T A F F

E D I T O R I A L

Diamonds and Coal A diamond to David Greene for being recently appointed the interim vice president for Campus Life and Student Services.

You’re charming, lovable and, according to President Simmons, the driving force behind the Bear’s Lair renovation.

You’re perfect for the job.

Coal to those who feel Ted Turner is somehow obligated to single-handedly fatten Brown’s skimpy endowment. It’s his money, and he can spend it however he wants. But a diamond to Ted Turner, you scamp, you.

A diamond to the burgeoning Arabic Studies program. But coal to the last minute cancellation of most Middle Eastern studies slated for this semester. With all the new adjuncts, couldn’t we get one specializing in the Middle East?

A diamond to the Creative Arts Council for bringing Martin Scorsese to campus, and to the Brown Film Society for the screening of “Gods and Generals.” But coal to the frustrating “crowd control.”

Coal to people who interpret “question-and-answer session” to mean, “use this microphone to demonstrate your superior intelligence.” You embarrass us.

ANDREW SHEETS

LETTERS

A diamond to the Italian Servery. We are still not convinced that the word “servery” is real, but we sure do like our pizza.

A diamond to the men’s hockey team for providing us with the image of seven hockey players squeezed into one penalty box. Hot. Coal to telemarketers who call repeatedly before 8 a.m. and disrupt our beauty sleep. Clearly, you’re not well-informed about the “benefits for college students” that we actually want.

A diamond to Spam Assassin for putting fear into the heart of Viagra discounters and hot teen porn purveyors everywhere.

And it’s a good name for a band, too.

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD EDITORIAL Elena Lesley, Editor-in-Chief Brian Baskin, Executive Editor Zachary Frechette, Executive Editor Kerry Miller, Executive Editor Kavita Mishra, Senior Editor Stephanie Harris, Academic Watch Editor Carla Blumenkranz, Arts & Culture Editor Rachel Aviv, Asst. Arts & Culture Editor Julia Zuckerman, Campus Watch Editor Juliette Wallack, Metro Editor Adam Stella, Asst. Metro Editor Jonathan Skolnick, Opinions Editor Joshua Skolnick, Opinions Editor PRODUCTION

BUSINESS Jamie Wolosky, General Manager Joe Laganas, Executive Manager Moon-Suk Oh, Marketing Manager David Zehngut, National Accounts Manager Lawrence Hester, University Accounts Manager Bill Louis, University Accounts Manager Joshua Miller, Classified Accounts Manager Jack Carrere, Noncomm Accounts Manager Laurie-Ann Paliotti, Sr. Advertising Rep. Stephanie Lopes, Advertising Rep. Kate Sparaco, Office Manager P O S T- M A G A Z I N E Alex Carnevale, Editor-in-Chief Dan Poulson, Executive Editor Morgan Clendaniel, Senior Editor Theo Schell-Lambert, Senior Editor Doug Fretty, Film Editor Colin Hartnett, Design Editor

Ilena Frangista, Listings Editor Marc Debush, Copy Desk Chief Grace Farris, Graphics Editor Andrew Sheets, Graphics Editor Kimberly Insel, Photography Editor Jason White, Photography Editor Brett Cohen, Systems Manager

SPORTS Joshua Troy, Executive Sports Editor Nick Gourevitch, Senior Sports Editor Jonathan Meachin, Senior Sports Editor Jermaine Matheson, Sports Editor Maggie Haskins, Sports Editor Alicia Mullin, Sports Editor

Ryan Adams, Night Editor Marc Debush, Copy Editor Staff Writers Kathy Babcock, Zach Barter, Hannah Bascom, Carla Blumenkranz, Dylan Brown, Danielle Cerny, Philissa Cramer, Ian Cropp, Maria Di Mento, Bamboo Dong, Jonathan Ellis, Nicholas Foley, Dana Goldstein, Alan Gordon, Nick Gourevitch, Joanna Grossman, Stephanie Harris, Shara Hegde, Anna Henderson, Momoko Hirose, Akshay Krishnan, Brent Lang, Hanyen Lee, Jamay Liu, Allison Lombardo, Lisa Mandle, Jermaine Matheson, Jonathan Meachin, Monique Meneses, Alicia Mullin, Crystal Z.Y. Ng, Joanne Park, Sara Perkins, Melissa Perlman, Eric Perlmutter, Samantha Plesser, Cassie Ramirez, Lily Rayman-Read, Zoe Ripple, Amy Ruddle, Emir Senturk, Jen Sopchockchai, Adam Stella, Adam Stern, Stefan Talman, Chloe Thompson, Jonathon Thompson, Joshua Troy, Juliette Wallack, Jessica Weisberg, Ellen Wernecke, Ben Wiseman, Xiyun Yang, Brett Zarda, Julia Zuckerman Pagination Staff Jessica Chan, Melissa Epstein, Joshua Gootzeit, Caroline Healy, Hana Kwan, Stacy Wong Copy Editors Anastasia Ali, Lanie Davis, Yafang Deng, Hanne Eisenfeld, Emily Flier, George Haws, Eliza Katz, Amy Ruddle, Janis Sethness

Internal criticism is integral aspect of club membership

a unilateral relationship with its members.

However, it is a two-way street; they affect each other, and change how each operates in the world.

Neither should be particularly willing to abandon the other. If we abandon an organization with which be basically agree, we risk throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

To the Editor: Kate Gubata (in her column “Love ‘em or leave ‘em,” Jan. 27) suggests that in order to avoid hypocrisy people must relinquish all ties to any organization with which they do not agree in every aspect. This is a truly radical proposition and seems to be based on the premise that organizations are immutable. Institutions are fallible and are never made up of a homogeneous membership. Even though institutions expect that their members will adapt to a central system of beliefs, it is also possible for members to affect the policy of the organization, which they cannot do if they abandon the institution.

This is possible with the two organizations which Guba used as examples: the Boy Scouts of America, and the Roman Catholic Church.

These have had a very positive effect on American life. The BSA teaches boys the importance of civic responsibility and public service, as well as confidence in leadership. The Catholic Church stresses many of the same liberal ideals that many Brown students value, such as the immorality of the death penalty and of the brewing war with Iraq.

As for those grievances addressed by Gubata, these organizations are capable of change. This is particularly clear in the recent scandal in the Catholic Church. There were many Catholics in Boston who were furious with the actions of Cardinal Law, yet still believed that the Church was inherently good and thus worked within the Church for change by forming the group Voice of the Faithful. These people made the Church better because they did not abandon it.

Lastly, just as a dissenting member hopes that his or her institution might change, likewise it is possible that the institution might change its member. A stubborn reluctance to change is unhealthy for both the organization and the member.

Gubata seems to believe that an organization has

Brendan Jerzy Baran ‘03 Jan. 29

Herald column is hateful and racist To the Editor: In his Jan.. 29 column, Nick Noon writes, “First of all, racism by definition can not be experienced by whites.” As a Puerto Rican and thus a minority myself, I feel comments like these, which are in themselves ignorant and racist in the sense that they express “the belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability and that a particular race is superior to others” (American Heritage Dictionary), whether it be in physical, intellectual, or emotional abilities to understand, feel compassion, and recognize hatred when one sees it. I enjoyed TWTP and have loved every minute of my time here at Brown, but am disgusted that the author of such a ridiculous and blatantly hateful article is thought to be the minority voice of Brown. If Nick Noon is going to lash out against the aspects of this society that single out persons based on their ethnicity or appearance, singling out the white “race” completely contradicts and undermines any point of worth in his article, and does, in fact, make himself a very self-absorbed racist.

Sarah Rose ‘06 Jan. 28 C O R R E C T I O N Clemency Williams GS is a community director for Andrews Hall and New Pembroke 3 and 4.

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

OPINIONS FRIDAY, JANUARY 31, 2003 · PAGE 7

Second thoughts on the Iraq war Protesters make the case for intervention LIKE MOST LIBERALS, I WAS AT FIRST to the inferno that is Kim-Jong Il’s North dismayed to learn that the organizing force Korea; denial of the Tiananmen Square masbehind the recent well-attended “peace” sacre and so on and so forth. One quickly demonstrations in Washington, D.C., was gets the idea. But in said support, ANSWER, ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End at least, does not dress up what is really timid Racism) and the International Action neutrality as noble and humane pacifism, as do most of those who followed Committee, front organizathese pied pipers to the tions for the Workers World nation’s capital.

Party. Of course, to call such “Be careful of the company people “communists” would at you keep,” and its corollary, this point be a bit misleading, “guilt by association,” are as they spent a good deal of the murky concepts and can be ’90s supporting Slobodan thrown around endlessly to Milosevic and the Serbs against little avail. How does it feel to NATO’s (yes, NATO’s!) aggresbe marching alongside sion; this, long after Milosevic Stalinists and apologists for had given up on Marxism and the Balkan genocide? Well, taken up fascist ultra-nationalALEX SCHULMAN one might retort, how does it ism. And I don’t believe I have BORN TO RUN feel to be marching alongside to point out what such support Paul Wolfowitz and Richard says about their “anti-imperialPerle? I take the point. Suffice ist” credentials, either.

The American media barely noticed it to say, I believe the vast majority of those ANSWER’s role in the protests; it was who marched on Washington — even decried mostly by conservative hawks and those hoisting idiotic posters of Cheney embarrassed establishment leftists, the dressed up as an SS commandant — do latter under the aegis of “too bad such a not even remotely share the philosophy of malignant shadow lurks behind all those ANSWER, pro-Stalinist, pro-fascist, openly well-meaning peaceniks.” Originally, I hostile to democracy. So what philosophy shared such a view. But after some consid- is at work here?

Is it pacifism? Certainly war is by its very eration, I’ve decided that whatever ANSWER’s malignancies are, in its own essence horror, but chanting peace for its twisted way it represents the only really own sake is simply not a coherent value honest portion of the current antiwar system. Those who lionize peace may be movement, and that is why I cannot join more than misguided; they may be dangerous, as beneath the slogans, their real any such movement.

It is not difficult to find ANSWER and its implication is that any and every principle co-thinkers repulsive. First, standard con- will be sacrificed to avoid armed conflict. demnation of U.S. and Israeli warmonger- ANSWER openly and honestly advocates ing; meanwhile, support for Milosevic, for the regimes its odious ideology protects, Castro, Ghadafi and Hussein; all-out paeans while the standard peace protesters find themselves in the odd position of condemning action against a state that embodies everything — mass murder, Alex Schulman ‘03 knows he’s been bad, despotic rule, apocalyptic imperial ambibut he can chaaaaaange.

tion — of which one would assume they hope to rid the world.

So, since such people seem willing to brave the “guilt by association” charges that follow from solidarity with vermin like ANSWER, why do none of them risk the same with Bush and Cheney? If we accept that shady motives can nevertheless produce positive effects, wouldn’t you rather grin and bear an alliance with Bush, whose goal at least involves liberating the Iraqi people from Saddam, than one with ANSWER, which actively seeks to solidify Hussein’s stranglehold on his own people?

Back in the day, the peace marchers would probably have argued, rightly, that even if the African National Congress was a Sovietbacked regime of frequent terror and torture, it was acceptable as far as ending the evils of apartheid. Well, now the shoe appears to be on the other foot.

American pilots have been patrolling the top and bottom chunks of Iraq since 1991. A Democratic president signed the Iraq Liberation Act in 1996. Did you march on Washington back then? Do not those two phenomena signify acts of war, to which Bush’s invasion plans are simply a logical (and far too belated) end? If Al Gore were president today, and he argued that we had both a moral and strategic imperative to relieve Iraq of perhaps the world’s most brutal autocrat, would there be placards comparing him and Mr. Lieberman to Nazi war criminals? If not, then I question not only your antiwar arguments, but your motives for making them as well. Do you, like ANSWER, demand an end to the American and British-enforced No-Fly Zones, accepting that may mean renewed slaughter for the Kurdish and Shi’ite peoples?

No blood for oil, we hear you say, implying that the world’s most valuable material resource is not worth fighting for. Do you say the same to the great internationalists

of France, whose oil contracts with Hussein make sure he survives yet another day, the oceans of blood on his hands still not brought to reckoning? Did you say the same to Hussein when he brutally annexed the Kuwaiti oil fields and then torched them while retreating? If Hussein acquires nuclear capacity and threatens to bomb the Saudi fields, you may just see the amount of blood that could result from lack of oil, as destruction of the Saudi fields would ensure a worldwide economic catastrophe that could kill tens of thousands, all of them poor.

There is only one thing linking the peace demonstrators of Vietnam and Nicaragua — whom I would have gladly joined — to those of the current conflict. Both were often herded by parties of worrisome motivation.

But there the comparison ends. When U.S. counterinsurgency wars began against the NLF/NVA and the Sandinistas, both had mass peasant support, and the United States only had the support of the corrupt security sectors of decayed oligarchies. In the first case, we rendered what would have been a brief civil war genocidally drawn out; in the second we created a terrorist army to undermine a popular (though communist) government. Peace was more logical and more moral than war, in both instances. But Hussein hates most of his own people and is hated in return. Those carrying signs for peace and against “imperialism” should, for the sake of honesty, instead start chanting things like, “Hell no, we won’t go, we support the status quo!” At least the conservative “realists” — Kissinger, Scowcroft, Eagleburger, etcetera — call a spade a spade.

All the moralizing of the protesters can be summed up by a phrase Kissinger might have used while advising against any sort of response to a Tiananmen or a Srebrenica: “Don’t rock the boat.” But that wouldn’t look cool on a placard, now would it?

Blind Bush-bashing is latest political fad Ideologues on both sides of the aisle forfeit integrity for political gain FORGET ABOUT CHRISTIAN DIOR. Don’t carved perfectly to their advantage.

For example, during his presidential worry about Chanel. Even the Gap pales in comparison to the cheaper fashion in campaign, Al Gore implied (in rebuttal to vogue: hatred for George W. Bush. It no Bush swearing that if elected that he longer matters what clothes one wears, as would only appoint strict-constructionlong as one hates the president. It is a ists to the Supreme Court) that if Bush won the presidency, African quality that will win you Americans would be considadmission to almost any ALEXANDRA ered three-fifths of a person. fashionable circle, or prompt TOUMANOFF “I often think of the strictly a glance of perfect accord and GUEST COLUMN constructionist meaning that understanding with almost was applied when the any stranger on campus.

Independent thought is not a prerequi- Constitution was written, how some peosite. Bearing gifts of prejudice, come one, ple were considered three-fifths of a human being.” What Al Gore neglected to come all.

When I listen to Republican politicians mention was that the Three-Fifths on the radio, I hear similar flat denuncia- Compromise he was referring to took during the Constitutional tions of Democrats and their ideas, with place little if any consideration of fact. As they Convention when our founding fathers shoot off their mouths from opposite were trying to settle representation issues sides of their ideological sandbags, each with the South. The Supreme Court had nothing to do with it. Since then, a little party plays the same guilty game.

This is not to say that anyone who incident called the Civil War has taken knows and understands many actions of place.

Now, a whole new slew of pressing the president (or any other politician) and still abhors him must be an idiot. political problems glares at us, and there However, it seems that too many people is no logical reason to dredge up issues allow their political parties to think for from over 200 years ago except to try to them. Throughout history, politicians manipulate the debate. Talk about using have spewed facts as twisted as a face in a your tongue as a personal penknife. broken mirror, using their tongues as per- Hopefully Al nicked himself when he told sonal pen knives to whittle truth until it is that whopper.

Lying politicians are made even more infuriating because many people automatically swallow the words of their party Alexandra Toumanoff ‘06 wants readers hook, line and sinker, making public to know that she is not an anarchist.

Instead of actively trying to build a bridge across their wide gulf of political differences, Democrats and Republicans dance on opposite shores, shaking wooden sticks and shouting,“I’m right, you’re wrong.” opinions easy to manipulate by the use of code words, like “pro-life and “prochoice,” that allow the listeners to supply their own compatible meaning without firmly committing the speaker to any definitive principle.

Because of this, all too often it is not fact that divides public opinion, but political brand names. Did the Democrats come up with the idea? Then it must be angelic. The Republicans came up with a conflicting idea? Then it resulted from a secret plot to make the Republicans head of a demonic government. Most liberals automatically view Democrats through a rose window, Republicans through a smutty screen and vice versa.

As usual, recently each party has been much too busy blasting its own horn and cultivating witty repartee, and the country suffers for it. For example, take each party’s new economic plan. The plans are flawed, but with compromise, could probably throw the economy a quality life jacket. The main problem with the two different plans is that the Republican one, with its suggestion to remove individual divi-

dend taxes on stocks, strongly favors the rich, while its Democratic counterpart is so concerned with seeming fair that its plan, a gift of a $300 dollar tax credit to each American family, is for such an insignificant amount that it would wind up helping almost nobody.

Instead of actively trying to build a bridge across their wide gulf of political differences, Democrats and Republicans dance on opposite shores, shaking wooden sticks and shouting, “I’m right, you’re wrong.” If each party would stop automatically denouncing the other, perhaps they could focus on the true task at hand: dragging the economy out of the water.

But while each party has good ideas as well as bad, if compromise means publicly acknowledging that the other party has a good thought, we are unlikely to see it.

Sadly, in today’s world, politics is a continuous three-ring circus. Amidst the fireeating, the hoop-jumping and the mudslinging, it is all too easy for certain members of government to forget any noble purpose.

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

SPORTS FRIDAY JANUARY 31, 2003 · PAGE 8

A Laker lack of American pride KOBE BRYANT AND SHAQUILLE O’NEAL should be ashamed of themselves.

No, I’m not talking about their miserable start to the season. I’m not talking about their childish “it’s his fault” attitude. I’m not even talking about Shaq’s racially insensitive remarks regarding Yao Ming.

BRETT I’m referring to ZARDA the obnoxious disreBORN AND RAISED spect the Lakers’ stars have displayed toward their country.

A few months ago the apparent invincibility of American basketball disappeared following a sixth place finish at the World Championships. Since allowing professional participation, the U.S. record had stood at an unblemished 57-0. Nothing indicated that an end to that trend was forthcoming.

Three losses, 12 pointed fingers and one tournament later, American basketball swallowed a big fat pill of humility. When the dust settled, two factors contributed to the dismal performance: a nationwide complacency and a vast improvement in European talent. The former can be corrected, and the latter is by no means insurmountable.

In the months that followed a renewed emphasis on recovering our rightful crown was evident. Players lined up to help and the public demanded that the world receive patent notification of basketball’s once and future kings.

Letting our guard down was a natural and excusable response to nearly a decade of uncontested dominance. But now that the lion had been awakened, the forces will surely unite to fight back, right?

Well, almost all of the forces.

The two biggest stars on the planet’s most storied franchise danced when asked about their potential involvement on the 2004 Olympic team.

Shaq politicked for his coach, Phil Jackson, to head up the team (which sounds similar to his last days in Orlando) and threatened to boycott if ignored. Following Larry Brown’s selection as coach, Shaq’s position appears unyielding.

“There’s a pain on the outside of my knee in 2004,” he said.

Living in America ensures an individual’s right to support or abstain from any patriotic endeavor. But, come on. Mocking the event with a fictitious future injury is just bad taste. The Big Aristotle has become a pain in something else.

Kobe, a few years younger, clearly needed the American History requirement he missed in college. He just can’t seem to get what all the fuss is about.

“People are really trying to take this and turn this into a bigger deal than what it is, like it’s some unpatriotic deal,” Kobe said.

Did I miss something? Actually Kobe, it is unpatriotic. We’re not asking you to lace up and head to war. And you’re not citing some see ZARDA, page 4

SCHEDULE FRIDAY Men’s BASKETBALL at Cornell.

Women’s BASKETBALL vs.

Cornell. 7 p.m. Pizzitola Women’s SQUASH at Williams.

Women’s SWIMMING at Columbia vs. Cornell.

Men’s ICE HOCKEY at Harvard.

Men’s SQUASH at Williams.

SATURDAY Men’s BASKETBALL at Columbia.

Women’s BASKETBALL vs.

Columbia. 7 p.m. Pizzitola Women’s TRACK at Harvard vs.

Cornell.

Men’s TRACK at Harvard vs.

Cornell.

SKIING hosts the Brown Carnival.

WRESTLING vs. Hofstra. 10 a.m

Pizzitola.

WRESTLING vs. East Stroudsburg. 2 p.m. Pizzitola Women’s SWIMMING at Columbia vs. Cornell.

Men’s TENNIS vs. Denver. 1 p.m.

Women’s ICE HOCKEY at UConn

SUNDAY FENCING at the M.I.T. Invitational.

SKIING hosts the Brown Carnival.

Women’s SQUASH at Dartmouth vs. Colby.

Men’s SQUASH at Dartmouth vs. Colby.

GYMNASTICS vs. Bridgeport, UPenn and Brockport. 1 p.m.

Pizzitola Center

AT H L E T E O F T H E W E E K

For Finst ’04, teammates, fun come first

BY ERIC PERLMUTTER

Jayne Finst ’04, a psychology concentrator from Delray Beach, Fla., makes Athlete of the Week for her recent gymnastics performance, which included winning the Individual All-Around title at Brown’s most recent meet with Alaska and Southern Connecticut State. Though she has led the team recently with strong showings, neither the personal attention nor the headlines, she says, are what matter.

On being a young gymnast: “When I was little, probably around two years old, I did a program called ‘Mommy and Me.’ I had a lot of energy as a child; they had to put me somewhere so I didn’t go crazy. I was always a little bit advanced, and I just progressed from there.”

On her love for gymnastics: “I’ve really never thought about this because it’s been such a part of who I am. I love the sense of accomplishment. Gymnastics is a sport in which you can see results. I also love competition — whenever I hear the national anthem, no matter if I’m competing or not, my heart starts to get that nervous energy and excitement, you know? I like that feeling. It’s one that all athletes know. When I perform I get into that zone where nothing else exists.

Sometimes after I land I won’t remember if I made my routine or not and I’ll have to ask my girls, did I make it?”

On the team: “At Brown it’s all about the team. Club was very individual, but college is not. I mean, my name was on (Wednesday’s) headline, but it really doesn’t matter. I wouldn’t be able to do anything without the team. We all depend on each other so much. If somebody

makes a mistake, I know that I need to pick up for her, and vice versa. I just love their energy, receiving their support and giving support back to them. When I walk into the gym, I know that every single person really cares about me with all of her heart.

“And our coaches are all about us, not only concerning gymnastics but our lives.

They know about boyfriends and school lives, everything. They legitimately want what’s best for us, and I know that not all coaches are really like that.”

On gymnastics and the mind: “Our bodies know our skills, so at a meet it becomes more of a mental game.

Gymnastics is a very mental sport because you have to learn to overcome the potential for fear. It’s a big challenge in that way. It’s unbelievable how you can do something perfectly every day, yet you can completely bomb it in a meet.

Fortunately, I’m pretty good at controlling my mind. I actually took mental lessons when I was younger; we would stare at a candle for a while and then close our eyes, and try to work with the mental imprint of that flame. It was effective in helping my visualization skills, which are so important for gymnastics.”

On having three coaches in three years: “Every year, I think that whether you have the same coaches or not, it’s an adjustment. The seniors graduate, the new freshmen come in, so regardless it is completely different. We had some really great seniors that graduated last year, but our seniors this year have stood up to the challenge and our six freshmen have so much potential.”

dspics

In recognition of her peformance last weekend, Jayne Finst ’04 was named ECAC Gymnast of the Week for the third time in her collegiate career.

Final thoughts: “I think that for every one of us, when we step foot on that floor, we’re representing Brown. I’m so proud to be an athlete here, I can’t think of anything better.”

Sports staff writer Eric Perlmutter ’06 writes Athlete of the Week feature stories. He can be reached at eperlmutter@browndailyherald.com.

Upon further review, government panel examines potential changes to Title IX WASHINGTON (Washington Post) — With protesters marching outside and distrust swirling in its ranks, a federal commission began work Wednesday on its final recommendations to the Bush Administration for reforming Title IX, the landmark law that fueled an exponential increase in women’s sports participation over the past three decades.

The 15-member Commission on Opportunity in Athletics began honing recommendations developed over the past six months for altering Title IX, which bans sex discrimination in education programs, including athletics.

The most controversial proposals being considered by the panel would weaken a standard that allows colleges and universities to comply with the law by demonstrating they offer “substantially proportional” athletic opportunities to men and women. Schools also can comply with the law by demonstrating they have increased athletic opportunities for women in recent years or by proving they meet the athletic interests and abilities of their female students.

Under one proposal, colleges and universities could devote as little as 43 percent of their athletic scholarships and varsity team slots to women and still comply with the law — even though women comprise 55.5 percent of the enrollment in the nation’s four-year colleges.

That proposed recommendation is among six proposals being considered by the panel for adjusting the proportionality rule for complying with Title IX. Those

suggestions, scheduled to be voted on Thursday by the panel, are supported by some college coaches and others who say Title IX requires “quotas,” forcing colleges to cut men’s teams to accommodate women.

But the changes are vehemently opposed by women’s sports advocates, who predict they would end more than 30 years of growth in athletic opportunities for women.

“I really would hate to see us go backwards in terms of opportunities,” said Siri Mullinix, a former Olympic and University of North Carolina star, who is now a goalkeeper for the Washington Freedom women’s soccer team.

The meeting was closely watched by women’s sports activists, who buttonholed friendly panel members and took careful notes as the commission moved through its proposed recommendations.

Meantime, about 30 sign-carrying protesters including Mullinix marched outside the downtown hotel where the commissioners are meeting, to urge the panel not to change the law’s enforcement.

Wednesday’s session got off to a slow start as commission members seen as the strongest proponents of the current Title IX enforcement regime complained that they were being “gagged” by the commission’s rules limiting debate and prohibiting “minority” views from being reflected in its final report.

The complaint prompted the commission’s co-chairs, former WNBA star Cynthia Cooper and Stanford University Athletic Director Ted Leland, to issue a

statement saying: “Any reasonable person who attended the commission meetings knows that our process was open, fair and inclusive. The commission was very careful to invite witnesses representing all points of view.”

Once the commissioners got down to business they moved through a series of relatively uncontroversial findings and recommendations, leaving the thorniest items for Thursday’s session.

Education Secretary Roderick Paige appointed the panel last June to recommend ways to preserve the intent of Title IX, while addressing concerns that it is often enforced in a way that enhances female athletic opportunities at the expense of men. Once the commission completes its final recommendations, its report then will then be forwarded to Paige, who will then decide which, if any, to adopt.

Before Title IX’s enactment in 1972, fewer than 30,000 women participated in intercollegiate sports programs sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association; by 2000, nearly 151,000 women were NCAA athletes. At the high school level, the number of female athletes increased from 294,000 to nearly 2.8 million during the same time period.

A lawsuit filed last year by the National Wrestling Coaches Association and others brought new attention to its impact on men’s sports programs.

The coaches say hundreds of men’s college athletic teams have been eliminated over the past decade largely because of Title IX.