T U E S D A Y MARCH 11, 2003
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Volume CXXXVIII, No. 33
An independent newspaper serving the Brown community since 1891
“Stan’ up for your Rights” at Caribbean convocation
Ratty food is good enough for the pigs BY LISA MANDLE
For those worried about the fate of uneaten Ratty food, the leftovers’ destiny is straightforward — uneaten food from plates at dining facilities is processed to remove liquids and then goes into dumpsters and eventually a landfill, said Director of Food Services Gretchen Willis. But waste produced during food preparation might end up in a number of different places. A pig farmer comes daily to pick up scraps from preparation at the Ratty. Peter Rossi, associate director of food services, said he estimated the pig farmer removes between 25 and 30 55-gallon barrels each week. Rossi said he did not have figures for the amount of waste that goes to dumpsters. The V-Dub lacks refrigerated space necessary for storing scraps until they can be picked up, so all the waste there goes to dumpsters, Willis said. Scraps from food preparation that cannot be fed to pigs are also landfilled, she said. UFS sends fat trimmings to a company that renders them into other fat-based products, said Kurt Teichert, coordinator of Brown is Green, a University conservation program. Brown follows a “pretty standard procedure” of dealing with food waste, said Executive Chef John O’Shea. Most schools must pay to have waste taken away, though some schools have composting programs, he said. The University has considered composting waste from dining facilities, but it is not currently feasible, Teichert said. The Urban Environmental Lab, West House, Watermyn and Finlandia compost on a residential scale, Teichert said. Composting waste from dining facilities would require trucking it to Charlestown, the location of the only company in Rhode Island that composts institutional food waste, he said. A study Teichert did with a student a few years ago found UFS’ options for more environmentally friendly disposal were “just disappointing,” Teichert said. UFS has no current plans to change its waste disposal system, O’Shea said. In the past, Rhode Island Community Food Bank provided UFS with pans for freezing leftover prepared food, O’Shea said. Large batches of food were frozen at Brown and then picked up by the food bank, he said. This practice stopped when it was no longer cost effective for the food bank, but the food bank still occasionally picks up excess canned see UFS, page 4
BY LOTEM ALMOG
The speakers at Monday night’s Caribbean Heritage Week Convocation resonated the week’s theme: “Get Up, Stan’ Up, Stan’ Up for your Rights.” “We have reclaimed the strength of this phrase and hope to infuse Caribbean Heritage Week with the same hope and strength that revolutionaries in the Caribbean inspired,” said Andre St. Clair Thompson ’05, who coordinated Caribbean Heritage Week with Dania Davy ’05. Between 60 and 70 students and faculty gathered in Salomon 101 to mark the beginning of the week’s events. Robert Glave M.F.A. ’98 gave the keynote address entitled “Whose Caribbean? An Allegory in Part.” His remarks, which included some original short fiction, emphasized the ideals of political activism, cultural identity and dealing with problems of poverty, violence and discrimination plaguing Caribbean nations. Glave, who grew up in the Bronx and in Kingston, Jamaica, is an assistant professor of English and Africana studies at the State University of New York at Binghamton. He also wrote a book of short stories entitled “Whose Song? and Other Short Stories.” Kimberly Insel / Herald
see CARIBBEAN, page 4
Caribbean Heritage Week was inspired by the strength and hope of revolutionaries.
UCS passes paper provider resolution BY JONATHAN ELLIS
The Undergraduate Council of Students passed a resolution urging Brown to shred ties with paper giant Boise Cascade at its meeting Monday night. The Council also learned details of the Brown Alumni Association’s refusal to sponsor alcoholrelated off-campus Senior Nights. The Boise resolution, introduced by Representative Ari Savitzky ’06, coauthored by Representative Ferve Ozturk ’04.5 and aided by members of the Brown Environmental Action Network, “asks the administration and purchasing departments of Brown University to purchase paper products not from Boise Cascade and to switch from Boise to other suppliers with all due and deliberate speed.” According to the resolution, Boise has been the largest logger of “old growth” and endangered forests around the world in the past decade, and the company fails to use third-party monitoring of its practices. The resolution says a variety of other companies, like Staples, offer environmentally friendly paper products at comparable prices. The University’s contract with Boise expires in November, with bidding for the next contract scheduled for this summer. “A switch in Brown’s supplier … does
not constitute a fiscal or budgetary problem, according to the purchasing department,” the resolution states. The resolution also urges the University to switch from partially post-consumer recycled paper to 100 percent recycled. Senior class Co-President Benjamin Dalley ’03 was also on hand to update the Council about the future of Senior Nights and Senior Week. The BAA will no longer sponsor off-campus events that involve alcohol, such as bar and club nights, due in part to a November fight involving Johnson and Wales students and a subsequent minor automobile accident. Dalley told UCS, “Our class, namely me and my Co-President (Mumal Hemrajani ’03), will continue those Senior Nights without the help of the University, which means that it’s going to be hard for us to provide a safe environment for seniors to go to our events, and … all liability will be on me and (Hemrajani).” Representative Rajiv Aggarwal ’05 asked Dalley how the two would be able to afford such a liability. “We can’t,” Dalley said. “But we feel personally that we have to.” The BAA is completely independent from the University. Dalley said he preferred the senior class officers separate from the BAA’s control and become a
I N S I D E T U E S D AY, M A RC H 1 1 , 2 0 0 3 Panel sponsored by CSREA discusses the term “whiteness” and its evolution page 3
www.browndailyherald.com
Centenarians are fastest growing segment of U.S. population, expert says page 3
Nate Goralnik ’06 says Bush needs to get his priorities straight opinions, page 11
Category III student organization, which would allow them to solicit funding and transportation and security services from the University. “We were told, quite frankly, ‘no;’ (the BAA doesn’t) want to do that,” Dalley said. “We’re working very hard with the BAA to redefine what senior class events look like,” Dalley said. “We’re working on ways to not ruin senior year.” Currently, the BAA is doing “nothing” to build class spirit, Dalley said. UCS President Allen Feliz ’03 recapped the UCS executive board’s Friday meeting with President Ruth Simmons. “We learned that the current status of the Underground, as being 21-and-over and serving alcohol two nights a week, is a short-term means of opening up the place, and President Simmons and (future interim Vice President for Campus Life and Student Services) David Greene are eagerly waiting to work with us so that we can come up with a better long-term solution,” Feliz said. UCS also approved Students in Free Enterprise as a Category I group. Herald staff writer Jonathan Ellis ’06 covers the Undergraduate Council of Students. He can be reached at jellis@browndailyherald.com.
TO D AY ’ S F O R E C A S T Democrats dangerously low on new ideas for improving the country, says Stephen Beale ’04 opinions, page 11
Men’s icers beat Tigers 2-1 and advance to second round of ECAC playoffs sports, page 12
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