Monday, February 24, 2003

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M O N D A Y FEBRUARY 24, 2003

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Volume CXXXVIII, No. 22

An independent newspaper serving the Brown community since 1891

No Brown connection in nightclub Nickel says

Brown plays host to Latino leadership conference BY SARA PERKINS AND MOMOKO HIROSE

Saturday’s “Brown at Brown 2003: The New England Latino Leadership Conference” brought Latino college and high school students to Providence from across the country and emphasized building a common Latino identity and goal-setting and leadership skills. Keynote speakers outlined these conference themes, which the students also explored in workshop sessions including “Issues of Transnationalism and Identity,” “Latino Entrepreneurship” and “Brown Power: Engaging the Political Process,” among other topics. Throughout the day-long event flowed a sense of empowerment, bolstered by the recent revelation that Latinos have become the United States’ largest ethnic minority group, said Armando Bengochea, Brown’s dean of freshman studies, who gave opening remarks. “We as a Latino nation may not yet be ready to take advantage of this historic opportunity,” Bengochea said. “We are charged with developing an identity in action … as Latinos.” Many community leaders reacted to the announcement of the demographic shift with trepidation, choosing to emphasize the racial, national and cultural distinctions within the Latino community rather than the “common language and thus a whole universe of common cultural traits,” Bengochea said. Salvador Mena, assistant dean in the Office of Student Life and the conference coordinator, said one of the goals of the conference was “to see if diversity in the Latino community will be a source of pride, of strength or a source of division.” “No matter what color you think you are, learn to be brown at Brown,” Bengochea said. The conference’s keynote speaker, National Community for Latino Leadership President Alfred Ramirez, advised students to “play big now for all those dreams that you’ve been deferring. “I don’t like the phrase ‘our children are the future,’” Ramirez said. “Don’t be in future mode. … You think ‘when I get there.’ You are our leaders now.” Ramirez, who described himself as “Cal Tex-Mex,” emphasized “the importance of having a mission. … Do not end this year without developing a mission statement. What do you stand for?” he said. “And not just against, it’s important to stand for something.” Students and presenters struggled see LATINO, page 4

BY LISA MANDLE WEST WARWICK, R.I. — Although no one

Zach Frechette / Herald

directly associated with the University was involved in Thursday night’s fire at The Station nightclub in West Warwick, its effects are being felt on College Hill. “So far, we have not had any word about Brown people involved in the fire in Warwick,” Director of the Brown News Service Mark Nickel told The Herald Friday evening. Because the show attracted a largely older clientele, the University was particularly worried about its staff and faculty, Nickel said. This does not mean that Brown is entirely removed from the incident. Lim Tang ’03, who attended Classical High School, has a friend who has been missing since the fire. “It was a big shock,” Tang said. “You know that Rhode Island is a small place, but it didn’t really hit me until I heard. “I don’t really think that people (at Brown) venture that far off the hill, but you can tell everyone here is affected,” Tang said.

A restaurant sign near The Station nightclub in West Warwick — the location of last Thursday’s fire — echoed the sentiments of people across the nation.

see FIRE, page 9

Zucconi ’55 remembered for his character, and car BY JULIETTE WALLACK

At the Saturday afternoon memorial service for David Zucconi ’55, there were almost as many tributes to Zucconi’s car as to the man himself. The car in question was an obtrusively large, white Cadillac convertible that was synonymous with the owner. The car had character — particularly when it was parked in a no-parking zone or when it was blocking traffic, both of which happened quite often. But perhaps it was the always-smiling, blond Zucconi who gave the car character. After all, it was he who disobeyed the parking rules on a regular basis, his friends reminisced at the memorial service. Quite often, it seemed, the rules were just a minor inconvenience. It was Zucconi who made up his own special information cards for prospective students at information sessions that he hosted. He distributed them and had interested high school students fill them out — complete with SAT scores and extracurricular activities — so that he could have the fun of “advising” hopeful applicants on what they needed to improve. And it was Zucconi who was chronically late to every engagement. Unless, of course, that engagement was giving his introductory speech about Brown to potential applicants. It was also Zucconi who still managed to attend every Brown home football game, even after more than 40 years of service to the University as an admission officer, executive director and founding member of the Brown Sports Foundation and develop-

ment officer. And it was also Zucconi who emerged as a “hero” of the University, managing to bring alumni back to their Providence roots, said Eric Widmer, former director of admission and a friend of Zucconi’s since 1969. Zucconi “was probably more full of life than anybody I had known,” Widmer later told The Herald. “He had a dauntlessness about him in everything he undertook.” It was in 1959 that Zucconi first undertook the work of the University. He had graduated four years earlier, entered the Air Force and worked briefly at the Taft School in Connecticut. But he returned to Brown after one year at the Taft School to become an admission officer, a position he held for years, even as he went on to found the Brown Sports Foundation and serve as its executive director. Eventually, Zucconi made a move to the development office, but his commitment to Brown athletics never faltered. Zucconi finally succumbed to liver and colon cancer on Jan. 22, but even as his illness progressed, he still managed to attend his beloved home football games, sitting through the final game of the season in bitter cold to see the Bears beat Columbia. But athletics weren’t entirely what led Zucconi to devote so much of his life to Brown and to promote giving and support among alumni. “I think it was because he felt the way I hope all students would continue to feel: that it’s a great privilege to be a student at

First annual Organization of Women Leaders Conference kicks off page 3

The many types of Brown drunks, according to Seth Magaziner ’06 column, page 11

Celebration of Zucconi’s life at Saturday service BY JULIETTE WALLACK

Hundreds of members of the University community gathered in Upper Salomon Saturday afternoon to celebrate the life of David Zucconi ’55, one of Brown’s “champions” who had “the tenacity to achieve” the impossible, according to President Ruth Simmons. Zucconi was “a man who loved Brown with a great passion,” Simmons said during her memorial speech in Upper Salomon, a theme that continued throughout the entire service, which drew students, alumni and Zucconi’s friends and family. Simmons reminisced about the first time she met Zucconi, saying he approached her without hesitation and hugged her. Zucconi was the first person at Brown to give her a hug, Simmons said. “It was the most wonderful hug,” she said. “And then he started to tell me what I should be doing,” something that was fairly typical of Zucconi. Simmons, who was almost moved see MEMORIAL, page 4

see ZUCCONI, page 4

I N S I D E M O N D AY, F E B RUA RY 2 4 , 2 0 0 3 Hookah bar run by Brown students opens at Louis last Friday to nearly 250 patrons page 3

www.browndailyherald.com

TO D AY ’ S F O R E C A S T Shirin Oskooi ’05 discusses the cons of health obsessiveness among students column, page 11

Men’s hoops sweeps to remain a halfgame back of Penn for first in the Ivies sports, page 12

mostly cloudy high 37 low 16


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Monday, February 24, 2003 by The Brown Daily Herald - Issuu