T H U R S D A Y FEBRUARY 20, 2003
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Volume CXXXVIII, No. 20
An independent newspaper serving the Brown community since 1891
www.browndailyherald.com
Friends, family celebrate life of Lamendola BY CARLA BLUMENKRANZ
Family, friends and teachers gathered Wednesday to celebrate the life of Sarah Lamendola ’04, a student who “was able to be that two-feet tall little kid just as she was developing into this beautiful young woman,” said her mother, Alene Lamendola, at the memorial service in Sayles Hall. Sarah Lamendola constantly impressed her faculty advisor, Karen Fischer, associate professor of geological sciences, with her exceptional self-confidence, Fischer said. Even when preparing to fly halfway around the world for a semester in New Zealand, Lamendola felt “no doubts or anxiety, just happiness and anticipation,” Fischer said. “If Sarah were here today, I am sure she would tell us all to go out and seize the world,” said Sara Read ’04, a friend of Lamendola. “She was never scared of living her life.” Harry Siple ’04 met Lamendola at A Day On College Hill and, ever since, his experience at Brown has been colored by the “crazy, magnetic pull of her personality,” he said. Making up names for everything from Kermit the car to Abraham the finger puppet, Lamendola “drew you into her world, and the next thing you knew, you’d find yourself talking about Kermit and Abraham,” Siple said. Lamendola was just as famous for her perpetual optimism, friends said. “I’ve got an idea: Go blow bubbles on the Main Green and eat lots of ice cream,” she wrote in an e-mail last summer to cheer up Kerry Miller ’04, Herald executive editor. “I remember thinking, ‘It’s just not fair. How can she be so happy?’” Miller said. Now, she said she understands what Lamendola meant — that there are “so many things in life worth experiencing and appreciating and being happy about.” Photographs showed Lamendola following her own advice, blowing bubbles on the Main Green, eating ice cream with zeal and laughing, smiling and making faces in the halls of her freshman unit. Friends and family members received bubble solution and wands with their programs and picked up Ben and Jerry’s ice cream bars in the foyer. In remembrances they passed up to the front of Sayles to be read aloud, friends and family testified that Lamendola “rocked my socks, literally,” acted like “living catnip,” making everyone happy all the time and “made me feel special in a way no one else has.” Lamendola “had the capacity to get you excited about life on a daily see MEMORIAL, page 4
Cassie Ramirez / Herald
BUILDING THE DREAM Teamwork and a ladder were required to fashion a massive snowman — or perhaps, snow beast — on the Main Green Wednesday.
Students debate Iraq war BY DANIELLE CERNY
Supporters and opponents of war with Iraq sounded off against each other in a loosely-formatted debate Wednesday night designed to address the concerns of a divided campus over an impending war. Hosted by Brown’s Debate Union, Young Americans for Freedom and the International Socialist Organization, the debate showcased six Brown student debaters, three antiwar and three pro-war. Both sides were allowed five minutes to make their original arguments, which were followed by brief rebuttals, and concluded with alternating questions from the two views. A forum was later opened to audience questions. President of the Debate Union Brookes Brown ’04 proctored the event. “Too often Brown is accused of being a place where not all views are represented,” she said. “It is important that we recognize the diversity of ideas on Brown’s campus.” The pro-war debate team was comprised of Joseph Lisska ’04, Joshua Marcus ’04 and Ari Gerstman ’05. Arguing against the war were Shaun Joseph ’03, Stephen Beale ’04 and Sasha Rosenthal ’04. Joseph gave the opening statement for the antiwar proponents, which centered on the lack of public support for war, the devastation Iraq would endure as a result of a U.S. attack and the human cost of war. “The U.S. has no plans of instilling a democracy after war. What they have is a shock and awe plan. This is a terrorist policy beyond the most twisted dreams of Saddam Hussein,” Joseph said. The pro-war advocates, first represented by Marcus, molded their argument around the consequences of not going to war — the horrific acts Hussein has taken against his own people and the need to
reinforce the validity of the United Nations. “None of the debaters are in disagreement that Saddam is evil. The question is has he gone against the U.N. enough to warrant an attack. Yes, no question about it,” Marcus said. “We’ve let a lot of middle fingers from Saddam slide,” he said. “Are we willing to wait for the final straw that breaks the camel’s back? Are we going to wait for Saddam to launch his own war that could kill five million people?” Marcus asked. The two sides remained sharply divided throughout the debate about what did and did not legitimize the need for war and about the existence of possible alternate solutions. Gerstman said the need for war boiled down to how long we would allow Hussein to violate U.N. requests and potentially build up an arsenal of nuclear weapons. The pro-war side also acknowledged the role oil plays in the motivation for action. “Even if all our interests in the Middle East were about oil, let’s at least get some good out of it and liberate the people of Iraq in the process,” Gerstman said. Ultimately, the antiwar advocates stressed the illegitimacy of an unprovoked attack that was not, Rosenthal said, a matter of protecting the United States, but was simply an act of revenge by an administration with hidden agendas. In the pro-war group’s final statements, Gerstman said “evil happens when good people sit back and do nothing.” Smitha Khorana ’06 was disappointed by what she said was a lack of passion from the debaters. “I thought it was really good that both sides were represented
ResCouncil approves Art House and Interfaith House as Bottega House disbands page 3
Grad students in education practice teaching at local schools like Wheeler page 3
This weekend’s Corporation retreat will focus on extending President Ruth Simmons’ academic enrichment program, said Secretary of the University Russell Carey. The Corporation, a group of 42 trustees and 12 fellows that directs the University’s academic and financial initiatives, meets three times a year in October, February and May, Carey said. The February meeting usually examines the University’s budget, including its tuition and fees, Carey said. Typically, the standing committees of the Corporation, which deal with specific aspects of the University’s organization such as athletics and investment of the endowment, meet individually, Carey said. He said a business meeting usually is held on one day of each Corporation meeting. But rather than convening the Corporation’s standing committees separately, Simmons has chosen to hold the meeting in a retreat format, with the Corporation as a whole coming together on Friday, Carey said. “You need different formats for different agendas,” Carey said. He said the retreat format is appropriate for the goal of February’s meeting — to continue crafting an “ambitious plan” for Brown’s evolution in the next decade. “The academic plans and future direction of the University are broad enough that they cut across committees,” Carey said. —Philissa Cramer
see DEBATE, page 4
I N S I D E T H U R S D AY, F E B RUA RY 2 0 , 2 0 0 3 Brown First program doesn’t hurt local businesses as much as expected page 3
Corp. meeting this weekend
TO D AY ’ S F O R E C A S T Poli Sci Prof. Alan Zuckerman examines Bush’s reasons for war with Iraq guest column, page 11
Hockey teams look toward playoffs, as wrestling falters in final home matches sports, page 12
sunny high 40 low 23