Thursday, April 24, 2003

T H U R S D A Y APRIL 24, 2003

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Volume CXXXVIII, No. 58

An independent newspaper serving the Brown community since 1891

www.browndailyherald.com

University presidents are serving shorter terms; Brown is no exception

Kurji ’05 wins UCS presidency with highest voter turnout in Brown history

BY PHILISSA CRAMER

BY JONATHAN ELLIS

Being a university president has gotten more difficult over the years, and presidents now are serving shorter terms — with mixed results.

For evidence, one need only look as far as the Main Green. Many prominent University buildings are named after presidents from Brown’s past — Faunce (who served a 30-year term) and Manning (26 years). Yet a building named after Gordon Gee — who served as Brown’s president for two years before departing for Vanderbilt University — is notably absent from College Hill.

Currently, universities retain presidents for an average of only about seven years, requiring frequent administrative adjustment, said Richard Ingram, president of the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges.

Ingram said the job of a university president is more challenging than in past decades because of an increased emphasis on fund-raising and coping with a growing number of special interest groups.

“Everyone suffers when there is too much turnover,” he said. “No organization likes to be without a leader for very long.”

While presidential transitions can be difficult, Greg Moffitt ’02, faculty programs coordinator for alumni relations, said they offer opportunities.

“Any time there’s a change in administration, it gives students and the University a chance to talk about what’s going on and what needs to change,” he said.

But Moffitt, who has experienced

Smiling wider than ever, Rahim Kurji ’05 won the presidency of the Undergraduate Council of Students Wednesday with 49.62 percent of the vote.

Shortly after midnight, an eager crowd erupted into cheers and smothered Kurji with hugs as UCS officials read his name from atop the steps of Faunce House on the Main Green.

“It’s a complete shock to me,” Kurji said. “It’s such a strange feeling right now. … It’s one of the best feelings I’ve ever had.”

For the second consecutive year, no presidential candidate earned a majority

see PRESIDENT, page 8

Summer BOLT trip saved by anonymous contribution

BY MERYL ROTHSTEIN

The annual Brown Outdoor Leadership Training wilderness trip will continue in August with the aid of a recent anonymous donor, said Fran Lo ’97, coordinator of leadership programs.

BOLT leaders were informed Wednesday night after hearing last week that the trip would be moved as a result of financial challenges and the subsequent scheduling conflicts, Lo said.

Enthusiasm and relief were the see BOLT, page 12

Jonathan Ellis / Herald

Three Brown alums cover the war with Iraq and bring back stories, experience

BY ADAM STELLA

A Brown education will take you places.

For three alumni, those places include war zones.

At least three Brown alumni — David Filipov ’84, Michael Corkery ’97 and Marcella Bombardieri ’99 — reported from Iraq during the war.

Corkery was embedded with the 2nd Battalion 7th Infantry Regiment, while Bombardieri traveled the cities and villages of southern Iraq and Filipov covered the war from northern Iraq.

Filipov and Bombardieri write for The Boston Globe and Corkery writes for the Providence Journal. As the war wound down, Corkery returned to Providence, Filipov returned to Moscow, where he is stationed, while Bombardieri remains in Iraq. Filipov and Bombardieri responded to e-mailed questions about their experiences, and Corkery spoke with The Herald.

War and Journalism War reporting has traditionally been a way for reporters to prove their abilities and advance through the journalistic ranks. Reporters must straddle the line between being aggressive and enterprising enough to get the story without unduly compromising their safety. But sometimes the line is not all that clear.

“I never felt totally safe — one never does in these things,” Filipov admitted.

He described an attempt to blow up a hotel occupied by CNN, which happened to be next to his hotel.

“We carried (nuclear-bio-chemical) suits in the car everywhere we went, as well as duct tape, flak jackets, all sorts of medicines, IVs, syringes, atropine pens, plenty of gauze and bandaging, helmets,

and all sorts of other paraphernalia,” he wrote.

But no matter how stringent the precautions, danger was also lurking around the corner, Filipov wrote.

One of the most dangerous places Filipov ventured into was Mosul after its surrender. “You’d drive down an open road, then next thing you know, you’re in

Brown looks at ways to boost its image both domestically and overseas page 5

Adam Weinstock ’00 wonders if Brown is the best destination for his donations opinions, page 17

a ‘kill box,’… a piece of territory that is getting bombed that day,” he wrote.

Corkery, who saw the most fighting, was caught off guard by its intensity.

“I didn’t expect to come under that much fire,” Corkery said.

Corkery said he was surprised the see IRAQ, page 14

Photo courtesy of Boston Globe

David Filipov ’84 rides horseback along the Kokcha River between Dashti-Qala and Koruk in Afghanistan in November 2001. Filipov spent several weeks in Iraq.

I N S I D E T H U R S D AY, A P R I L 2 4 , 2 0 0 3 The Supreme Court is expected to rule on affirmative action this summer campus watch, page 3

see ELECTION, page 11

Onlookers swarmed recently elected UCS president Rahim Kurji ’05 Wednesday night.

TO D AY ’ S F O R E C A S T Jaideep Singh ’03 thinks Brown is close to abandoning study of South Asia opinions, page 19

In preparation for Penn Relays, men’s track finishes second at UConn Invitational. sports, page 20

mostly sunny high 59 low 37

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

THIS MORNING THURSDAY, APRIL 24, 2003 · PAGE 2 Pornucopia Eli Swiney

W E AT H E R TODAY

FRIDAY

High 59 Low 37 mostly sunny

SATURDAY

High 58 Low 40 showers

SUNDAY

High 51 Low 40 showers

High 58 Low 43 mostly sunny

GRAPHICS BY TED WU

A Story Of Eddie Ahn

CALENDAR LECTURE — “Are You Feeling Anxious?,” Daniel Weiner, Brown, Training and Development. Main Lounge, Inn at Brown, noon.

LECTURE — “Zen and the Brain,” James Austin, M.D., University of Colorado Medical Center, The Francis Wayland Collegium. Room 106, SmithBuonanno, 8 p.m.

LECTURE — “An Illustrated Report on the 2003 Season of the Brown University-Cairo University Joint Expedition to the Abu Bakr Cemetery at Giza,” Edward Brovarski, Department of Egyptology. Room 001, Salomon Center, 8 p.m.

CONCERT — Boston Musica Viva performs works by Shirish Korde featuring soprano Elizabeth Keusch, Balinese dancer/singer/puppeteer I Nyoman Catra, tabla virtuoso Samir Chatterjee, Balinese virtuoso Desak Made Suarti Laksmi and Bethany Collier, Department of Music . Grant Recital Hall, 8 p.m.

Coup de Grace Grace Farris, Rachel Farris, Libby Farris

CROSSWORD ACROSS 1 Lighting job?

6 Mouse manipulator 10 Grate 14 Slowly, in music 15 Double Delight snack 16 End of some lists 17 Victor Vasarely’s genre 18 Appearance 19 Pro __ 20 Pound 22 Neglect to name 23 Fruity dessert 24 Corn-based Southern dish 25 Pound 32 Stash away 33 Follow closely 34 Colorado River city 35 Constantly 37 One of a pair 41 Tree fruit 42 Storage structures 43 Pound 48 Diets, with “down” 49 Hosp. area 50 Layered skirt 51 Pound 58 Wallet stuffers 59 Foot part 60 Square-jawed detective 61 Fairy tale monster 62 Mob scene 63 Lawn tool 64 More alternative 65 Grant’s opposite 66 “Ransom” actress DOWN 1 Baseball family name 2 Demo presenters 3 Kind of judgment 4 Another, in Andalusia 5 List site 6 Food prep course

7 Painted Desert site: Abbr.

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27 Warship projection 28 S&L offering 29 In __: incubating 30 Managed 31 Unburden 35 Originally named 36 Blockhead 37 It came down in March 2001 38 In the style of 39 Slinky, e.g.

40 First of six?

41 Office purchases

42 Speaker’s concern 43 Dive 44 Soda sizes 45 Charms 46 Roger Clemens or Pedro Martinez 47 UCLA is one 48 Seat sometimes straddled

51 Guardian’s charge 52 Lake in four states 53 AOL’s mailbox, e.g.

54 Pakistani language 55 Pesters 56 Chills 57 Newbie

My Best Effort Andy Hull and Will Newman

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THE RATTY LUNCH — Vegetarian Eggplant Vegetable Soup, Chicken Mulligatawny Soup, Chicken Fingers, Grilled Chicken , Stuffed Shells with Sauce, Sticky Rice, Green Peas, Frosted Brownies

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DINNER — Vegetarian Eggplant Vegetable Soup, Chicken Mulligatawny Soup, Italian Sausages with Sauce, Vegan Stuffed Peppers, Risotto Primavera, Belgian Carrots, Green Beans with Tomatoes, Focaccia with Mixed Herbs, Apple Pie

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CAMPUS WATCH THURSDAY, APRIL 24, 2003 · PAGE 3

Affirmative action ruling expected soon

BY JULIAN LEICHTY

Julia Zuckerman / Herald

Students at NYU made little use of the duct tape and plastic sheeting administrators purchased in case of a terrorist attack.

Study abroad programs struggle with SARS

BY JAMAY LIU

With the number of cases of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome rising daily across the world, universities have been struggling with the question of how to handle study abroad programs in SARS-affected regions.

Some schools recalled students already abroad, while others cancelled summer programs. Some schools chose to leave the decision to students after sending advisory letters and in some cases, face masks.

Syracuse University was one of the first to cut short its program, recalling 30 students from China and Hong Kong in early April because “it was a situation we couldn’t control,” said Ryan Williams, assistant director of admission at Syracuse. Students completed the first two parts of the threemodule program — fieldwork and class time — but missed out on the internship component, “the most see SARS, page 6

Duct tape, plastic sheeting goes unnoticed at NYU

BY AKSHAY KRISHNAN

When the Department of Homeland Security raised the national terror alert level to “orange” in February, New York University purchased thousands of rolls of duct tape and packages of plastic sheeting to protect students living in residence halls. But students didn’t share the university’s concern, and the stockpiles remain unclaimed, the Washington Square News, NYU’s student-run paper, reported March 31.

NYU student Russell Berman told The Herald students received an e-mail from President John Sexton at the time the terror alert was raised.

“The president said in his e-mail that NYU had stocked up on duct tape and water in case of an emergency,” Berman said. “He also told us in the e-mail that NYU had organized two days of food provisions in the cafeterias across campus, in case of a terror attack.”

NYU Vice President for Student Affairs and Services Beth Morningstar told the Washington Square News she “hasn’t noticed any interest among students.”

“There’d be a greater possibility of my

picking it up if it were available the way toilet paper is (in residence halls), but I might pick it up for other reasons,” NYU student Nick Marian told the Washington Square News. “I might just need duct tape.”

“It seems more like a safety formality than actually useful,” Ilana Holmes, another student, told the Washington Square News.

But Morningstar told the Washington Square News, “The fact that we have them has been very comforting to parents.”

NYU’s Protection Services declined to comment on why the duct tape was provided and why students refused to claim the duct tape from their resident advisors.

Hardware stores in Harvard Square had only empty space where duct tape was usually kept during the orange-level alert.

The Harvard Crimson reported that Dickson Brothers, the Square’s major hardware store, sold out of duct tape and plastic sheeting immediately after the terror threat level was raised.

Columbia students have also bought

The Supreme Court is expected to release its decisions in June on two cases that involve the constitutionality of the University of Michgan’s policies on affirmative action in admission to its undergraduate college and law school.

The cases have drawn a record number of amicus curiae briefs, including one Brown joined in filing.

The plaintiffs in the current cases are white students denied admission to the two Michigan schools, who say they were treated unfairly because Michigan’s affirmative action policy resulted in their rejection and the admission of black and Latino applicants with similar or weaker academic records.

Gratz and Hamacher v. Bollinger and Grutter v. Bollinger have drawn so much attention that the Supreme Court made an immediate audiotape of the arguments publicly available for the first time since the 2000 election case, Bush v. Gore.

The tapes revealed a divided court, with Justice Sandra Day O’Connor “widely seen as holding the likely swing vote,” according to the Washington Post.

It is likely “neither side will have all of its arguments totally embraced,” said Beverly E. Ledbetter, vice president and general counsel for Brown and former president of the National Association of College and University Attorneys.

The case has been seen as the most important affirmative action case since Regents of the University of California v. Bakke in 1978, in which the court said race could be used as a factor in admission but quotas could not be used. According to Jacob Appel ’95, a visiting instructor in the community health department who attended law school at Harvard, “Bakke kept affirmative action legal, but in a very muddled way.” He said the case resulted in “nine separate opinions from nine separate judges.”

Julie Peterson, spokesperson for Michigan, said “the most important part of this is upholding the Bakke decision.”

The decision “justifies the consideration of race as one factor in a competitive admissions system,” she said.

If the court overturned the decision, see AFFIRMATIVE, page 4

see TERROR, page 6

PAGE 4 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD THURSDAY, APRIL 24, 2003

Affirmative continued from page 3 the effect on colleges and universities across the country would be devastating, she said. Peterson said there are no plans in place to make changes if the court rules against Michigan. “We don’t have a specific alternative waiting in the wings,” she said. “There is a wide range of things the court could decide. It doesn’t make sense.”

Thousands protested in favor of affirmative action when the court listened to oral arguments on April 1. Maureen Mahoney, an attorney for Michigan, told the court the government has a “compelling interest in having an institution that is both academically excellent and racially diverse.”

During oral arguments, one of O’Connor’s concerns was whether the Michigan policy was a temporary or permanent solution.

Mahoney said the policy could end if “the number of high-achieving minorities will continue to grow, and the Law School will (someday) be able to enroll a sufficient number … without having to take race into account,” or if we “reach a point in our society where the experience of being a minority does not make such a fundamental difference in (people’s) lives,” according to the Michigan News Service.

Justice Antonin Scalia said the law school’s policy, which calls for a “critical mass” in minority enrollment, amounted to a quota. “Once you use the terms ‘critical mass,’ you’re in Quota Land,” he said, according to The Washington Post.

Kirk Kolbo, an attorney for the Center for Individual Rights, argued for the plaintiffs against Michigan.

In response to a question from Justice Stephen Breyer, he accepted that recruiting minority students would be constitutional but argued that affirmative action is not. The Constitution provides “individuals with the right of equal protection,” he said, according to a transcript of his oral arguments, “and by discriminating on the basis of race at a point of competition, innocent individuals are being injured in their constitutional rights.”

“We’re confident that the court will strike down the admission policies at issue,” said Curt Levey ’84 Sc. M. ’87, director of legal and public affairs for the Center for Individual Rights. He also responded to Justice O’Connor’s question about the rejection of the white student in the law school case.

O’Connor asked, “How are we to be certain that there is an injury to your client that she wouldn’t have experienced for other reasons?” and also said, “I think we have given recognition to the use of race in a variety of settings,” according to The Washington Post.

“It’s not quite clear what she was saying,” Levey said. “All you need to show is that (the plaintiffs) were treated differently because of their race.

“We’re certainly hoping the court will rule that race should never explicitly be used to achieve diversity,” he said. “The question is not ‘is diversity good?’, but is it so vital that it can overcome the constitutional and moral prohibition against treating people differently,” he said.

Levey also suggested the use of percentage systems as a possible alternative. “There are plenty of ways to seek diversity,” he said. He rejected the argument that percentage systems don’t work for smaller, more selective institutions. “Brown could say, we’ll take

anyone who finishes in the top two percent of their class,” he said. He said this wouldn’t cause a problem because “obviously not everyone who can go to Brown will.”

Peterson said Michigan’s demographics are different from Texas and California. “We don’t believe that some of the substitutes are really the answer,” she said. “If there was another way to do it, we’d already be using it.”

“Percent plans select high school students solely on the basis of their comparative ranking with classmates,” according to a Michigan News Service document.

“These admissions programs fail to see students as whole people, and reflect a completely impoverished way of evaluating their capabilities and potential contributions to the classroom experience or society,” according to the document.

Ledbetter said she thinks “universities, including Brown, believe there is a valid and viable role” for the consideration of race, gender and ethnicity, among other factors, and that it’s “very important to do that in a legally defensible way.”

She said she believes the court’s opinion will “sustain the efforts of institutions to obtain positive results with regard to diversification, but will set decision-making” procedures. “I think the court will probably affirm that there is some role for consideration, under certain factors that reflect diversity, and that they will probably clarify the limited set of circumstances that might be used,” she said.

Appel said, while there’s a 50 percent chance he is wrong, he thinks at least four justices — Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, David Souter and John Paul Stevens — will vote to uphold Michigan’s policies in both cases.

It’s “equally clear,” he said, that at least three justices — Scalia, Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Clarence Thomas — will “vote to strike down anything they think won’t be completely colorblind,” he said, and predicted Justice Anthony Kennedy will probably join them. He said the late Justice Lewis Powell was the deciding vote in the Bakke decision, and was Justice O’Connor’s mentor.

“I would be very surprised if she overtly overturned Powell’s decision,” he said, “but not very surprised if she phrased her decision in a way to make another twenty years of confusing litigation possible.”

Frank Newman ’47, director of The Futures Project: Policy for Higher Education in a Changing World, sees this all as part of a larger issue. Polls, he said, “show the public is against quotas but in favor of programs that help out the least advantaged.

“It’s a question of whether or not we’ll have an active effort in trying to provide opportunity for the least advantaged and racial minorities,” he said. “The broad case, in my mind, is that we have a huge problem in this country trying to find the way to extend social mobility to a broader part of that population.”

Newman said a large segment of the population doesn’t get the same quality of elementary and secondary education that the middle and upper class gets. “We’ve got to create a new approach to affirmative action and do a better job with the students coming in. I believe that’s (higher education’s) obligation and I don’t think we’re doing a good job with that,” he said.

Herald staff writer Julian Leichty ’06 can be reached at jleichty@browndailyherald.com.

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

CAMPUS NEWS THURSDAY, APRIL 24, 2003 · PAGE 5

U. working on ways to raise Brown’s profile

More e-mail controversy in UCS elections

BY MONIQUE MENESES

BY JONATHAN ELLIS

From India to California to Keeney, the University wants the world to take notice of the new Brown.

A fresh approach may be necessary in countries that only know Harvard and Yale, international students told The Herald.

“Basically, there are not many people that know about Brown because Yale and Harvard are the names out there,” said Taimoor Sobhan ’06 from Italy. “Honestly, before coming here I had no idea where Rhode Island was.”

The Office of Public Affairs and University Relations is currently working on a new way to broaden and deepen the global perception of Brown as a leader among America’s preeminent research universities.

The program will include a global publicity blitz and international faculty recruitment, as well as standardizing the Brown logo, said Laura Freid, vice president for the Office of Public Affairs and University Relations.

“Brown (is) an institution of excellence in education — we are looking for ways to project this to the world,” she said.

Mark Nickel, the director of the Brown News Service, pointed out that one of the biggest misperceptions about Brown concerned its curriculum.

“It is said that Brown does not have the required courses many other places have that people may expect of an institution of higher education,” he said. “There are people outside the University that perceive this as less than rigorous, which is not the case.”

The plan will be able to address this “misconception” and others similar to it, Freid said. The plan will explore ways to support faculty recruitment, the Graduate School and research expansion. The University will also coordinate and streamline communications with key audiences like the media, institutional donors and parents.

Freid said a “focused and targeted” media relations campaign will ultimately assist in persuading top scholars and teachers to accept and even seek out jobs at Brown.

She added that communicating the introduction of smaller classes, freshman seminars, the establishment of need-blind admission and other aspects of the Initiatives for Academic Enrichment to potential students and to college counselors in secondary schools, would support the University’s efforts to recruit the “world’s finest undergraduate students.”

Other changes to Brown’s image will occur closer to home. Freid said there was a lack of consistency in the way Brown presents itself on campus, be it the variety of designs of Brown items in the bookstore or faculty and staff business cards.

“We want to look into: ‘What is our graphic image on business cards?’” she said.

“We suggest everyone use the coat of arms on their business cards in the same way.”

Nickel said the plan will definitely change the way Brown is perceived.

“Bit by bit, taken as a whole, people will begin to see more of some of the exciting things happening at Brown,” he said.

In the coming weeks, members of the University involved in implementing this plan will produce a single statement that distinguishes Brown in the academic arena.

The positioning statement will identify Brown to the outside world as it is now, Freid said. From this statement, the University will be able to craft a standard paragraph about Brown that will appear on

The controversy over e-mail use in the Undergraduate Council of Students elections continued Wednesday, as the UCS Election Board met for the third time in a week to discuss possible infractions of campaign policy.

The latest e-mail to come under investigation, apparently sent to large portions of the student body, encourages members of the Third World community to vote in UCS elections.

A copy of the e-mail obtained by The Herald reads in part, “We have a lot at stake here. We have fought hard for everything that we have at Brown — Let’s move forward instead of going backwards. Go out and support our (minority peer counselors) and other fellow members of the Third World Community!”

The Third World Center received the email from a student, and a TWC employee then forwarded the e-mail to TWC members, MPCs and the community of students of color, said Associate Dean Karen McLaurin-Chesson ’74, director of the TWC. The e-mail did not originate from a candidate in the elections, she said.

McLaurin-Chesson would not identify the staff employee who distributed the email, but The Herald’s copy shows that Anne Marie Ponte, administrative assistant for the TWC, forwarded the message.

Ponte confirmed she sent the e-mail but refused to comment further.

The e-mail appears to originally have been written from a Hotmail account.

“The UCS Election Board and the current candidates agree that these e-mails did not specifically name official candidates, nor were they initiated by candidate encouragement,” the Election Board wrote in a statement to all undergraduates Wednesday evening, before the close

see BROWN, page 13

Photo courtesy of John Forasté

Sebastian Ruth ’97 considers his program “a radical experiment in education.”

Stringing the community together with music

BY DANA AYOUB

For Sebastian Ruth ’97, music is a form of service.

After receiving a $10,000 fellowship from the Swearer Center five years ago, Ruth founded Community Music Works, an organization that offers instrumental lessons, plans trips and brings famous musicians to urban students.

Ruth said the idea for the project first started to take shape in high school. He said his violin teacher stressed an “approach to music (that was) more than performing for an audience.

“It could help the world,” he told Ruth.

A double concentrator in music and education, Ruth came to Brown to pursue the idea his teacher had instilled in him, but without a clear plan about what course to follow.

“Brown did not give you a lot to start with,” he said. “You really had to find the path. Once you find that path, the doors open.”

He did an independent study in both education and music, interning at a new charter school in Massachusetts where he helped establish a music curriculum. From this point on, Ruth said he knew he wanted to pursue a career that integrated music with social change.

Ruth said he considers Community Music Works “a radical experiment in

education.” The foundation of the organization is the members of the Providence String Quartet, who provide lessons in violin, viola and cello to the 60 students within the program. The only other staff member is an administrative volunteer.

The lessons take place at community centers and schools, though the effects of Community Service Works reach far beyond the classroom. The broad goal is to “have kids thinking critically about their community and their world,” Ruth said. He said wants to stimulate their imagination and have them begin to conceive of their futures broadly.

A book Ruth said has had a large impact on him is “Pedagogy of the Oppressed,” by Paulo Friere, which discusses oppressed populations in Brazil.

It argues that education is the path to freedom. Ruth said he feels music is a part of this path and he firmly believes in the “power of the arts to set a mind free.” Community Music Works helps the urban children of Providence find that path, Ruth said.

The children’s families are also incorporated into the program as much as possible, from trips to the Boston Philharmonic to “performance parties,” which are performances by the students and faculty followed by potluck dinners.

The influence of Community Music

see E-MAIL, page 13

Big changes in the works for Brown medical school

BY MERYL ROTHSTEIN

The Brown Medical School has commissioned a faculty task force to restructure its currently “old-fashioned” curriculum, said Interim Dean of Biology and Medicine Richard Besdine.

As proposed by President Ruth Simmons’ Initiatives for Academic Enrichment, the Medical School plans to add new faculty, expand support for the library and increase funding for financial aid and scholarships, said Ann Paton, executive dean for biomedical advancement at the Medical School.

Changes in the Medical School are partly aimed at giving Brown the “best possible opportunity to bring a very top-notch candidate to the (permanent) dean-ship at the Medical School,” Paton said.

Besdine said the curriculum restructuring is part of a nationwide movement among medical schools. More than a dozen medical schools already use such a curriculum, he said. “Brown should be in the forefront, not in the tail of this process,” he said.

An integrated curriculum simultaneously covers topics such as anatomy, phys-

see RUTH, page 8 see MED SCHOOL, page 13

PAGE 6 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD THURSDAY, APRIL 24, 2003

SARS continued from page 3 interesting part of the abroad experience,” Williams said.

Last Wednesday, the Education Abroad Program for the University of California campuses decided to recall 44 students studying abroad in Beijing, said Bruce Hanna, director of communications for EAP. Hanna said the EAP made its decision after two staff members on site in Beijing recommended the suspension of the program based on two concerns — “emerging news that the Chinese government was systematically withholding information and deaths among a younger population.” A confirmed case of SARS at Peking University and cases rumored in surrounding neighborhoods also contributed to the decision to recall students, Hanna said.

Though students abroad were asked to leave immediately, “they are adults, and we can only advise and recommend,” Hanna said. But he predicted that, unlike situations in the past where students decided to stay in politically unstable countries such as Israel despite advice to leave, most students would probably heed the EAP’s recent advice because of the “unknown” nature of the disease. If students do decide to stay, they will have to sign a contract acknowledging they will be on their own, Hanna said.

According to William Quandt, vice provost for international affairs at the University of Virginia, state institutions have a harder time than private ones because decisions are more “political.”

UVA cancelled its four summer programs in China and Hong Kong after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Department of State put a travel warning on China in early April recommending all U.S. citizens defer non-essential travel to the country. Earlier in the year, UVA

Terror continued from page 3 large quantities of water and duct tape. Columbia student Katie Goldstein told The Herald hardware stores around the main campus have run out of water and duct tape.

“Although the students are not really worried, they have responded to the administration’s call to stock up on these supplies. In addition, the University also told us in an email that it is stocking up on water and energy bars,” Goldstein said.

Columbia officials also closed one of the main thoroughfares on campus, Goldstein said.

Besides stocking up on duct tape and other supplies, university officials in New York and Cambridge made other policy changes to address security threats.

At NYU the administration enforces a strict ID policy.

“It’s impossible to enter any NYU building without showing a recognized ID. The university is enforcing an extremely strict

determined new policy that stated it would heed any travel warnings placed on specific countries.

“I hated doing it — it was a terrible disappointment to the students,” Quandt said.

“However, if something had happened, the university could be accused of being negligent of State advice. For private universities, this isn’t as much of a concern.”

Quandt said he thinks the reaction to SARS has been a bit “overrated.”

“I don’t think it’s necessary to put a travel warning on all of China,” he said. “We had students who wanted to go to Tibet.

There hasn’t been a single case of SARS in Tibet. But we had to tell them that they can’t go on university funds.”

While most schools are deferring decisions regarding fall programs until more information about the disease is known, the University of Michigan decided to allow students, for the first time, to submit two study abroad applications — one to a SARS-affected country and one to another location.

“This gives the students additional time to assess the situation and decide what they want to do,” said Inge Herman, the overseas program manager at Michigan.

Herman said the university sent letters to students abroad recommending that they follow precautions when the initial outbreak was first reported, after consultation with the CDC, the World Health Organization and other authorities. They sent students face masks with the letters.

Harvard undergraduates were told they will not receive credit for courses taken in SARSaffected countries should they choose to go while the advisory is in existence, said Bob Mitchell, director of communications for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard.

“Because of the concern for the students and the concern for the general population when the students return, the university has requested that students

refrain from traveling to these areas,” Mitchell said.

For students returning early from programs this spring, credit is also a complicated issue, often requiring negotiations on a case-by-case basis. At Brown, students returning early would most likely receive reduced credit — for instance, credit for three courses instead of four — said Kirstin Moritz, director of the Office of International Programs.

Brown sent letters to students abroad immediately after the emergence of the disease, though it did not recall any students, Moritz said. But the six students currently in China are leaving early because of program cancellations, she said.

Other students in Hong Kong and Vietnam have chosen to leave voluntarily because of SARS. Though Moritz said she is “confident that the health system is working very positively,” citing improved recovery rates as reason to believe the disease will soon be under control, she said it was appropriate for students to leave their programs early because SARS would have hindered their abroad experience anyway.

“Regardless of whether or not the students would have gotten ill, the level of concern about the disease meant that the experience remaining would not have been positive,” Moritz said.

“If the student and parent anxiety is high, the study abroad experience would not be as fruitful.”

The six students who planned to study in China in the fall are watching the situation to see what the CDC and WHO advise, Moritz said.

SARS, a respiratory illness that spreads via close personto-person contact, was recognized in late February and has caused 251 deaths worldwide as of yesterday. There have been 239 known cases in the United States.

guest policy, which was not in force before 9/11,” Berman said.

At Harvard, The Crimson reported that Cambridge police increased patrols on the campus.

The Crisis Management Plan at Harvard also created an Incident Support Team to handle multischool emergencies.

At Brown, the University’s core crisis management team met in response to the raised terror alert, Walter Hunter wrote in an e-mail late February.

The University also worked with local and federal agencies, Hunter wrote.

“Police Chief Verrecchia is a member of the U.S. Attorney’s Anti-Terrorism Task Force and has regular conversations with members of other law enforcement agencies,” Hunter wrote.

Several DPS officers — including DPS Captain Emil Fioravanti — received training in responding to weapons of mass destruction, hazardous material incidents and blood-borne pathogens, Hunter wrote.

As is the case with other schools such as Columbia, Harvard, NYU and Cornell University, Brown created a Web

site containing details about emergency preparedness. The Web sites include information on what students should do in case of an emergency and how students must remain vigilant in noting unusual activities.

Harvard University Police Department and Cornell Police deferred requests for comment to the Web sites.

Cornell faces a unique security challenge, as it is home to a nuclear reactor and has a branch of its Weill Medical College in the Middle East. The Ward Center for Nuclear Sciences has been closed since June 30, 2002, the Cornell Daily Sun reported. The Sun also reported that Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., sent a letter on Feb. 28 to Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham requesting the fuel be removed from the Ward Reactor as soon as possible.

Cornell University officials have since confirmed that the fuel will be removed at some point this spring or summer, The Sun reported.

Herald staff writer Jamay Liu ’05 can be reached at jliu@browndailyherald.com.

Herald staff writer Akshay Krishnan ’04 can be reached at akrishnan@browndailyherald.com.

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

CAMPUS NEWS THURSDAY, APRIL 24, 2003 · PAGE 7

IN BRIEF Students silently protest war through ongoing silent fast For the last several weeks about 80 students have protested the war in Iraq in a quiet but consistent way — through a “rolling fast.”

Each day, one person vows to fast while wearing a sign reading “Fasting for Peace,” said Chloe Root ’06, who fasted about two weeks ago for 24 hours.

Claire Caleshu ’06 organized the protest and was the first person to fast. She did not eat for 48 hours.

People have been fasting for 12, 24 or 36 hours, she said.

The idea for a fast was born during a meeting of Not Another Victim Anywhere, when “we were thinking about actions we could take” in the event of war.

“We didn’t need another rally,” she said.

The group decided on a fast, which has “long been a sign of civil disobedience,” Caleshu said.

Fasting is a way of taking “direct action” and “standing in solidarity with people who are suffering” she said.

NAVA helped promote the fast, said Elizabeth Cespedes ’05, co-founder of NAVA. As a result,“Someone is fasting until the end of the year,” Cespedes said Cespedes fasted for 48 hours before she passed the sign along.“It creates conversation and political discussion,” she said.

The fast is a way to take away an integral part of everyday life — food — to contemplate and protest the war, Root said.

Root said she wanted a way to focus her energy against the war, and fasting proved a successful way in which to focus that energy. Root’s day of fasting turned into “a way to take time for personal reflection about the war,” she said.“The entire 24 hours, that’s what I thought about.”

Root said she and a Brown mailroom worker had an interesting and spirited discussion about her decision not to eat.

Ultimately, fasting gave Root the opportunity “to think about what’s going on worldwide,” she said.

Fasters originally carried a fake torch during their designated day of fasting. The torch, which is made from a broom, was taken away by police during an antiwar rally, Caleshu said. Police were concerned it would be used as a weapon, she said.

—Zoe Ripple

Commencement weekend an expensive proposition for parents Parents of Brown seniors are anticipating tightly packed schedules — and, for some, quickly emptying wallets — during commencement weekend this coming May. “The weekend’s going to be very exciting,” said Fred Kemmerling P’03.5.“It’s also going to be very expensive.”

The Campus Dance, sponsored by the Brown Alumni Association, is a chance for Brown graduates, families and alumni to celebrate their participation in the University community as they frolic through a transformed Main Green. Tickets are $20 for Brown students and their families, $25 for alumni and $30 at the gate. Sitting down at the Dance requires the purchase of a table, which seats ten and costs an additional $75.

Fees continue to accrue with the choice to attend Saturday evening’s Pops Concert on the Main Green, which this year will feature Harry Connick, Jr. (Uncooperative weather will move the concert to the Providence Performing Arts Center downtown.)

Individual tickets for the Pops Concert run from $60 to $150; full tables run from $600 to $1,500.

Accommodations on the days before Commencement are both rare and costly. All major hotels in and around Providence have significantly raised their prices for the weekend, with the price of a deluxe room at the Westin going from $249 to $439 see BRIEFS, page 8

Jonathan Ellis / Herald

Rahim Kurji ’05 smiles broadly after his victory in the UCS presidential elections was announced as Justin Sanders ’04 looks on Wednesday night.

Fulbright scholarship winner plans to study trauma and faith in Israel

BY LISA MANDLE

Unlike most fourth-year medical school students, Zev Alexander ’98 M.D. ’03 will not be spending his next year in residency. Instead, Alexander will use his recently awarded Fulbright grant to study trauma, resiliency and the role of faith in Israel.

Beginning in October, Alexander will conduct research among the rescue workers of ZAKA, a volunteer group of “ultra-Orthodox” Jewish men who provide medical treatment to the injured and recover and identify the bodies of the dead after disasters in Israel.

Alexander said he plans to study the incidence and prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder among members of ZAKA and how religious and cultural factors affect their mental health.

“I realized that rather than look at those struggling with symptoms of PTSD, I should focus on those who are resilient and see what accounts for their success,” Alexander said.

Though Dr. Ivhak Levav, an epidemiologist at the Ministry of Health in Jerusalem and Dr. Robert Kohn, associate professor of psychiatry and human behavior at Brown, will be available as advisors, Alexander will primarily be on his own in Israel, he said.

Alexander said he hopes to publish his results in psychiatric journals and possibly write a book about his experience.

The Fulbright Program is sponsored by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State. It was created in 1946 immediately after World War II to “increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and other countries through the exchange of persons, knowledge and skills,” according to the Fulbright Web site.

Associate Dean of the Graduate School Michael Diffily said 24 students applied this year to the program from the Graduate School. Of the 24, 14 were recommended to receive grants to study in countries including Italy, Iceland, Bulgaria, Nepal and Thailand, said Diffily, who handles graduate student applications to the Fulbright Program.

Last year, the program received 4,114 applications worldwide for 960 available grants. Brown’s graduate school usually has five or more scholars every year, Diffily said. As many as 15 students have received grants in a single year, he said.

Only Alexander’s grant has been confirmed so far from this year’s batch, but other students are still waiting to hear back from the program, Diffily said. Grants are usu-

ally confirmed between January and May, but, given the economic and world situation, the program is running late, he said.

Alexander’s research on PTSD will be “a milestone in the field if he publishes,” Diffily said.

His intention to combine interdisciplinary — religious, social and political — issues with medicine “exemplifies what Brown Medical School is about,” said Calvin Goldscheider, professor of Judaic Studies at Brown.

President Ruth Simmons was also a Fulbright Scholar; she received a grant to study at the University of Lyons in France.

Herald staff writer Lisa Mandle ’06 can be reached at lmandle@browndailyherald.com.

Lack of conservative viewpoints at Brown a problem, GISP says

BY ELLEN WERNECKE

Exposure to one ideology alone is an indoctrination, not an education, said Robert Sand ’05.

That’s why the political science concentrator created “Knowing Right: Contemporary Conservative Thought,” a group independent study project on conservatism currently under review by the College Curriculum Council.

Sand said he considers the dearth of conservative viewpoints at Brown to be a University-wide problem. “Brown is obviously a liberal school,” Sand said.

“Compare the number of times we read ‘The Communist Manifesto’ to the number of times we read (Adam Smith’s) ‘Wealth of Nations.’”

Sand said he considers himself “extremely liberal” and said he hopes the GISP will help him better defend his own beliefs.

Associate Professor of Political Science John Tomasi, who is sponsoring the GISP, said he was see GISP, page 16

PAGE 8 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD THURSDAY, APRIL 24, 2003

Ruth continued from page 5 Works is reflected in its re-enrollment rate. Approximately 85 percent of students re-enroll in the program, and half of the original 15 students are still involved.

“Long-term relationships are important for what we are trying to accomplish,” Ruth said.

The popularity of his group is evident; its waiting list is larger than the number of enrolled students.

The program does what it can to continue promoting its sense of a tight community. After a student has been with the program for three years, he or she can become a part of Phase II. This aspect of the organization involves more advanced musical activities and weekend trips where students have the opportunity to discuss issues or concerns pertinent to their lives.

But everything offered to the students and their families comes to them free of charge, so fund-raising is an ongoing process. The program is funded

President continued from page 1 administrative transitions at Brown from Gee to interim president Sheila Blumstein to Ruth Simmons, said problems arise when leadership changes too often.

“To (reflect) all the time instead of letting the good things happen or trying new things is problematic,” he said.

“You can’t launch new initiatives or programs because you’re not sure where they’re going to fit in with the new vision of the leadership.”

Simmons told The Herald getting acquainted with Brown’s existing programs and groups was a major focus of the time she spent transitioning into her position.

Simmons said the University attempted to make the transition smooth by giving her a ninemonth consultation period before she took office. During this period, which Simmons called “a most valuable exercise,” she met with as many groups and administrators as she could, including two former presidents.

“I heard much more unguarded views probably than I will ever hear again,” she said.

The biggest challenge for any administrator during a transition is to understand the school’s culture, Simmons said.

“Every university has its own distinct values and culture root-

Briefs continued from page 7

and an average room at the Biltmore shooting up from $200 to $350. Many parents and alumni have held hotel reservations for a year or more. Anyone still trying their luck at the Old Court Bed & Breakfast on Benefit Street will be sorely disappointed.

When asked whether he still has availability for rooms during commencement weekend, the

through grants and individual donors, and must operate on a tight budget, but it is still growing.

Ruth and his colleagues are in the process of establishing an advisory counsel of professional musicians to raise awareness about the organization’s work nationwide. The first to join this committee is the Borromeo String Quartet, which will hold a workshop and panel discussion for the students.

Ruth noted that there has always been a distinction between community artists and professional artists. A high level of performance is associated with concert artists, while community artists are thought to place more emphasis on teaching and not so much on performing, he said.

Ruth, however, said he believes professional artists bring passion to the music.

The students get a chance to literally rub elbows with performers playing at a very high level, but more importantly students have the opportunity to gain a “greater sense of possibility” about their futures, he said.

ed in its specific history,” she said.

She said transitions are made easier by the fact that incoming presidents usually are attracted to the school’s existing values.

“The idea is not to bring your own culture and values but to serve as an interpreter” of existing ones, she said.

But Ingram said incoming presidents typically fill administrative positions with like-minded professionals to advance their visions.

“Most presidents are respectful of many of the priorities of their predecessor,” he said. “But it’s never a wholesale acceptance.”

Moffitt said new administrations often work so vigorously to craft a vision for the University that they overlook issues that need to be dealt with immediately.

“There are ideas you don’t need to have a task force for,” he said, pointing to Brown’s need for enhanced student-administration communication and student performance space.

Simmons said forming her vision for the University’s future, as well as assessing its current state, have occupied most of her first two years in office.

“I’m far from being in a place in my presidency where things are up and running,” she said.

Herald staff writer Philissa Cramer ’05 can be reached a pcramer@browndailyherald.com.

Innkeeper, Dolby, just laughed.

“For which year?” Dolby wondered.“We’re booked for five.”

Most families can plan to spend anywhere from $500 to $5,000 for the weekend’s events, depending on event plans, accommodations, the number of heads to cover and, for many, the price of airplane tickets. Some prefer not to make price estimates.“I don’t even think about that part,” said Brenda Malepeai P’03.

—Pria Sinha

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

WORLD & NATION THURSDAY, APRIL 24, 2003 · PAGE 9

Iraqis use looted materials to build their dream homes BASRA, Iraq (L.A. Times) — Jasem Mohammad was an honest man, he says, who had never stolen anything in his life. So he feels a little ashamed of whatever it was that clicked in his head these last few days and made him a thief, like so many others in this southern Iraqi city.

But he can’t stop now. These are golden days, with no government and no rules. He sees it as the one chance he’ll have to drag his family of eight out of miserable poverty, leave behind their one-room hovel and build a dream house with two stories, four bedrooms, two bathrooms and orange walls.

“Who doesn’t like orange walls?

Everyone likes the color orange,” Mohammad said. Grinning happily, the 45-year-old sailor waved a plan of his house, which he had drawn up by an engineer for about $8.

In Basra there is an atmosphere of teeming industry and frantic activity. Trucks piled high with bricks race around; donkeys drag carts laden with huge metal pylons and rods; people chalk out plans for foundations on the dirt and throw up walls for houses as fast as they can — before a new authority materializes to tell them to stop.

Basra’s building boom has a crazy, surrealistic air. Virtually everything is stolen: the bricks, the mortar, the tiles, even the land. Some houses are striped, with a lower stripe of honestly purchased prewar bricks topped by stolen post-Saddam bricks of another color. Once these illegal dwellings are built, the squatters plan to hook their own wires into the electricity lines, tap into phone lines and connect pipes to the water system.

In the meantime, they can use firewood to cook: the trees in the parks and along traffic islands are being chopped back to ugly stumps by locals looking for fuel.

There’s a name for this wave of collective kleptomania. Locals call the looters “Ali Babas,” and you hear the cry echoing hilariously around the streets. “Ali Baba! Ali Baba!”

To people such as Jasem Mohammad, this new kind of freedom is dizzying.

“It’s the best opportunity I ever had in my life. This is a good chance to do anything, because everything is cheap and you can do it without permission, explaining he had taken a piece of land in the south of the city. “I knew no one would come and stop me because there’s no government.

Don Bartletti / L.A. Times

An Iraqi teen-ager heaves a brick into a truck Wednesday at the site where a large Basra mosque had been planned.

I’m hurrying to finish it before a new government comes.”

Some looters who took to the streets after British troops captured the city earlier this month were so ashamed that they returned stolen items to the mosques. Some mosques resemble big parking lots, full of buses, ambulances, tractors, forklifts, digging equipment, and other government vehicles, all returned

in the last few days after being stolen.

But the looting goes on day and night. After the wild early days, when every last fitting was stripped from public buildings, people have become a little more creative and are systematically plundering the factories on the outskirts of the city.

In the Rasheed Bank, people drilled narrow holes into floor

vaults and lowered children in to hand out the money. Two children suffocated because looters set the bank on fire when the children were still below.

The Central Bank manager here declined British military offers to remove the money in the vault — about 87 million dinars — for safety, insisting his vaults were impregnable. A huge explosion early Saturday proved him wrong.

PAGE 10 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD THURSDAY, APRIL 24, 2003

SARS panic mounts as migrant workers flee city BEIJING (L.A. Times) — In front-page

reports in Wednesday’s newspapers, officials insisted that there was no truth to the rumor that the capital would be sealed to prevent the spread of the SARS virus.

Those reassurances failed to prevent a wave of panic buying of food and basic goods, nor did they ease the worries of out-of-town students and migrant laborers who scrambled to get out of the city.

The growing alarm among Beijing residents follows the government’s abrupt lurch from a dearth of information on severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, to a glut. That change in policy shows a government struggling to respond to its fearful people in ways China has not thought necessary.

“Whether because of floods, earthquakes or man-made disasters, panic is a normal reaction among citizens,” said Professor Du Gangjian of the National School of Administration. “For the next month or two the government has got to keep in constant contact with the citizenry, providing upto-date, accurate information, while monitoring public opinion and prices.”

The People’s Hospital of Beijing University was shut down for two weeks and emptied of patients.

Beijing has designated six hospitals to handle SARS cases and this one was not among them.

“The hospital will be closed for two weeks. All the clinics are shut down and the doctors have all left,” said a staff member by telephone.

Beijing announced seven more deaths, and 105 new SARS cases, bringing the city’s statistics to 35 fatalities and 693 infected, and 782 suspected cases. Many of newly confirmed SARS cases come from those who were previously suspected of having the virus.

Nationwide, the death toll stands at 106, with 2,305 infected.

Worldwide, SARS has claimed about 250 lives and infected an estimated 4,288 people.

In Geneva, the World Health Organization added Beijing, northern China’s Shanxi province and Toronto to its travel advisory list, cautioning against any nonessential travel. The locations join Hong Kong and neighboring Guangdong province, which are already on the list.

The new advisories will be in effect for at least three weeks — roughly twice the virus’ incubation period. With 157 cases and seven fatalities, Shanxi province is third in official SARS statistics, after Beijing and Guangdong.

In Hong Kong, where there are indications that the incidence rate is leveling off, the government Wednesday unveiled a $1.51 billion emergency relief package.

Presented by Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa at a midday news conference, the proposals included a mix of tax relief, waivers of government license fees and loan guarantees for businesses in the hardest hit sectors of tourism, catering, entertainment and retail trading.

THURSDAY, APRIL 24, 2003 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD PAGE 11

Election continued from page 1 of the vote. UCS Campus Life Committee Chair Justin Sanders ’04 received about 40.6 percent of the vote.

The UCS constitution requires the top two candidates to square off in a run-off election in the event neither wins a majority vote. Without knowing the election returns, the three candidates, including Ahmad Rehmani ’04, agreed behind closed doors to accept the results as final.

Allen Feliz ’03 won the presidency last year with 38 percent of the vote under a similar arrangement. The last actual run-off occurred in 1998.

With students anticipating a tight race amid a campaign environment outgoing UCS Vice President Deepa Kumaraiah ’03 called “insane,” voter turnout hit 52 percent, far exceeding last year’s record 42 percent. For the fourth straight year, turnout increased.

“I’m really pleased with the campaign,” Sanders said. “We focused on issues and our platforms. I’m just pleased that we were able to get out there and get so many people to vote. I don’t mind that I lost because I know we’re going to have a really great president.”

Kurji was expectedly overjoyed by the results but remained humble. “I’d like to thank the other candidates, especially Justin — he’s a really good friend of mine and I respect him a lot,” Kurji said. “I just want to thank everyone on campus for their support.

Whether they voted for me or not, I plan to work with them, and hopefully we’ll really make Brown a much better place next year and for years to come.”

Sanders said he will begin thinking about writing a thesis.

He also hopes to continue his involvement on UCS next year, he said, hinting he might make a run at one of several unfilled representative positions.

Sanders said he plans to offer Kurji plenty of advice next year, as the two will be living across the hall from one another.

Kurji will work alongside Diana Jeffery ’04, who earned the UCS vice presidency with 52.68 percent of the vote, beating out fellow UCS representative Rajiv Aggarwal ’05. Jeffery did not comment on her victory but thanked all students who cast their ballots in the election.

In Undergraduate Finance Board elections, UFB Associate Chair Dan Le ’04 amassed 64.5 percent of the vote to become the next UFB chair, defeating UFB Representative Wilfred Codrington ’05. “There were so many things that I want to do, and I’m really happy that I’m going to have the chance to get them done,” she said.

UCS Representative Sonia Gupta ’06 survived a tight race against Associate Member Marisa Hernandez-Stern ’05, winning 52.12 percent of the vote and the position of UCS Admission and Student Services chair.

Rob Montz ’05 beat back two fellow UCS members with 51.78 percent of the vote to capture the UCS Student Activities chair.

Some results came without surprise. Charley Cummings ’06

“I’m really pleased with the campaign,” Sanders said.“We focused on issues and our platforms. I’m just pleased that we were able to get out there and get so many people to vote. I don’t mind that I lost because I know we’re going to have a really great president.” will be UCS Academic and Administrative Affairs Committee chair, Ari Savitzky ’06 will be UCS Campus Life Committee chair, and Thilakshani Dias ’05 will be UCS treasurer. All three UCS representatives ran unopposed for their positions.

Following the trend of few candidacies this year, only two sophomores ran for five available Class of 2005 representative positions. UCS Associate Member Katharine Shuster ’05 and Herald staff writer Schuyler von Oeyen ’05 were easily ushered into office.

Similarly, Tim Bentley ’04, UCS Representative Sam Hodges ’04, Jason Holman ’04 and UCS Secretary Luke Meier ’04 earned spots as senior class representatives without opposition.

UCS will have to fill four open spots next year because no write-in candidates earned the five percent of the vote needed for election.

Herald listings editor Ilena Frangista ’06, UCS Associate

Member Faizah Malik ’06, Melba “Hannah” Melton ’06, Ramel Murphy ’06 and UCS Representative Kelly Tigera ’06 defeated four other contenders to represent the Class of 2006 next year.

UFB Representative Anoop Raman ’05 won 55.16 percent of the vote and a promotion to UFB associate chair.

Herald comic artist Eddie Ahn ’05, Gabriela Gargano ’05, Xaykham Khamsyvoravong ’06 and Herald staff writer Stefan Talman ’05 were elected as UFB at-large representatives.

“I just want to thank all the students for having faith in student governance,” the outgoing Feliz said. “A 52 percent turnout shows that all our great accomplishments have paid off,” he added.

Feliz will transfer power to Kurji at a Monday ceremony.

Herald staff writer Jonathan Ellis ’06 covers the Undergraduate Council of Students. He can be reached at jellis@browndailyherald.com.

PAGE 12 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD THURSDAY, APRIL 24, 2003

BOLT continued from page 1

As part of budgetary cutbacks in student life, BOLT leaders were told last week that Lo, who has overseen the trip since August 2002, would have to take on duties formerly belonging to Assistant Dean Amy Graham, who may be leaving the University. predominant emotions among BOLT leaders, said Nadav Carmel ’04, BOLT leader.

“We’re all really excited,” said BOLT Leader Karl Hanson ’04.

The gift of $5,000 to $6,000 will be used to hire two people — one from the outdoor leadership community and the other hopefully a BOLT alumnus — to help prepare for, lead and wrap up the trip, Lo said.

As part of budgetary cutbacks in student life, BOLT leaders were told last week that Lo, who has overseen the trip since August 2002, would have to take on duties formerly belonging to Assistant Dean Amy Graham, who may be leaving the University.

Because Lo will coordinate the Women’s Peer Counseling Program in August — the date of which conflicts with BOLT’s trip — administrators announced that the wilderness excursion would be moved, potentially to Columbus Day weekend.

It is necessary for an administrator to attend the trip for liability reasons, Lo said.

But BOLT leaders expressed concern that such a move would work against the group’s mission — to create a stable social environment for rising sophomores, The Herald reported.

Despite the last-minute donation this year, plans for future BOLT trips are unclear, Lo said.

They plan to evaluate the upcoming trip and make decisions based on feedback, she said.

“We’ve been really sitting down and reflecting on how we operate and thinking of new and creative ways to keep the mission and philosophy of BOLT alive, but thinking of maybe perhaps better ways to do it in the future,” she said.

BOLT leaders and administrators agreed Columbus Day weekend in October was the best time to reschedule, said Cameron McClure ’03, BOLT student manager. But it’s unrealistic to expect the trip could be restructured for this upcoming October, he said.

“To be able to finish what we’ve started, and then work on something that will work in the future, is a great feeling,” McClure said.

Herald staff writer Meryl Rothstein ’06 can be reached at mrothstein@browndailyherald.com.

THURSDAY, APRIL 24, 2003 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD PAGE 13

E-mail continued from page 5 of the 48-hour election period.

“Thus, while inappropriate, these e-mails do not constitute a breach of UCS election rules.”

The rules prohibit candidates themselves from sending emails for any purpose in a campaign. The Election Board penalized Ahmad Rehmani ’04, a candidate for UCS president, for emailing student groups seeking their endorsement in the election. But the rules do not address e-mails sent by third parties.

The Election Board statement criticized administrators and staff for interference in student elections and called for better judgment in the future. “(Forwarding the e-mail) wasn’t done with any malice or negative intent,” McLaurin-Chesson said. “It was done quite innocently.”

TWC staff members are unaware of policies for student elections, McLaurin-Chesson said. “We do not make it a practice of getting engaged in student elections,” she added.

“It was an error of judgment,” McLaurin-Chesson said, adding that she takes full responsibility for the e-mail. “I, too, am disappointed,” she said.

McLaurin-Chesson said she would speak with the staff member who sent the e-mail about the appropriateness of her action.

A message encouraging students to vote would have been acceptable, but a message promoting students of the Third World community crossed the

Med school

The rules prohibit candidates themselves from sending e-mails for any purpose in a campaign.

The Election Board penalized Ahmad Rehmani ’04, a candidate for UCS president, for e-mailing student groups seeking their endorsement in the election. line, McLaurin-Chesson said.

“I would offer an apology to the candidates, if they feel — and they probably will — as though they’ve been unfairly left out of the option box, so to speak,” McLaurin-Chesson said.

“People have to sell themselves,” she said. “I do not believe that just because somebody is from the Third World community that their platform would necessarily be better than somebody else.”

Herald staff writer Jonathan Ellis ’06 covers the Undergraduate Council of Students. He can be reached at jellis@browndailyherald.com.

the majority of the University’s publications that communicate with the outside world, such as press releases.

After all, Freid says, “When someone in California can’t even pinpoint where we’re located,” something needs to be done.

sent a recognition that the Medical School, relative to Brown’s other schools, “has the most influence on what happens in Rhode Island,” Paton said, referring to the school’s role in the state’s health care.

It is time for Brown to “enhance its position as an eminent research university,” Besdine said, and “the life and medically-related sciences have to be a part of that growth,” he said.

“Brown has really become a research university-college,” he said. Subsequently, the Medical School can no longer be viewed as an “aberration that threatens the culture of Brown,” he said.

An external committee also made recommendations early in the year to improve the Medical School’s relation with affiliated hospitals, to enhance the status of faculty in clinical departments and to strengthen the Dean’s Office, Besdine said. No decisions regarding these recommendations have been made yet, he said.

The year also brought needblind admission to the Medical School, said Kathy Baer, director of admission and financial aid for the Medical School. “I am delighted that the University’s academic enrichment initiatives included the goal of need-blind admissions, which has long been embraced by the medical school as one of our most important goals,” she wrote in an e-mail.

Herald staff writer Monique Meneses ’05 can be reached at mmeneses@browndailyherald.com.

Herald staff writer Meryl Rothstein ’06 can be reached at mrothstein@browndailyherald.com.

continued from page 5 iology and pathology, rather than teaching each separately, which Besdine said is “less efficient.”

Besdine said the Medical School also hopes to recruit new faculty, but said the process is stymied by a lack of available space.

The planned Life Sciences Building will not be ready until 2005, thus failing to satisfy the school’s “immediate needs,” he said.

Development of a building in the Jewelry District, located roughly halfway between Brown’s campus and Rhode Island Hospital, is in the planning stages, Besdine said. He said he expects the building to be ready in a year.

The improvements also repre-

Brown continued from page 5

PAGE 14 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD THURSDAY, APRIL 24, 2003

Iraq continued from page 1 fighting began so far south and that his regiment faced less resistance in and around Baghdad. The 2-7 Infantry faced two to three days of intense firefights, he said.

Bombardieri has not been as close to fighting as Corkery, but she wrote that she must remain alert about the threat of danger, even in the supposedly subdued areas.

Stories of reporters being shot at and mobbed remind Bombardieri of the constant threat of danger.

“Things seem generally very calm now but you never know — we’ve heard shooting at night in Basra and Nasiriyah,” she wrote.

The process of embedding reporters with military units in the war was a new feature of military-media relations, and one Corkery found very successful.

Members of the press complained they were not allowed near the fighting in the first Gulf War or the war in Afghanistan.

“I think the Pentagon took a great leap … to give the press as much information as they can and let the press decide,” Corkery said. “The press, by and large, is pretty responsible.”

While Corkery said he enjoyed great access to information as an embedded reporter, Bombardieri was forced to rely on press officers from different branches of the U.S. and British militaries while in Kuwait.

“They were nice but I can’t say they gave us much information, which was really frustrating,” she wrote. “I’m not an expert, but I also have a sense that a lot of what came out of Doha (Qatar) was spin.”

Filipov wrote that he found the military authorities’ information to be “reasonably accurate,” though it carried a distinctive U.S. military slant. He described one instance in which spokesmen told of the “‘successful seizure’” of an airfield in northern Iraq, when, in fact, Kurdish allies had held the airfield for some time.

All three reporters mentioned logistical challenges, including finding capable translators, applying for visas and securing transportation, shelter and food.

Bombardieri said she ate tuna fish out of a can and went days without showering during her first days in Iraq.

Getting In Filipov arrived in Baghdad on Feb. 25, but was expelled March 14, about a week before the war began, for using his satellite phone from his hotel room. At the time, the Iraqi Information Ministry charged reporters $250 a day to report from Baghdad using satellite phones and stipulated that satellite phones could only be used from the ministry offices, Filipov wrote in an e-mail.

Iraqi authorities intercepted the signal using a transmitter and then confiscated the phone, he said.

“The information ministry official who personally informed me that I was persona non grata made a point of rubbing it in, telling me, ‘We aren’t a developing nation. We’re more developed than the United States.’ I was, like, ‘sure bud,’ until they told me they were taking my phone,” Filipov wrote.

Courtesy of Providence Journal

“It’s amazing how quickly you can destroy parts of a country … and how long it will take to rebuild it.”

Michael Corkery ’97 Providence Journal The expulsion turned out to be little hindrance to Filipov, who was planning to go to northern Iraq on an Iranian visa that was due to expire March 18, he said.

On March 17, he entered northern Iraq through Iran, where he did most of his war reporting.

Filipov stayed in northern Iraq from March 19 to April 17. He said he was “pretty much everywhere,” including Kurdish-held Erbil and Kalak, as well as Mosul, Kirkuk and Tikrit.

The fighting Filipov saw in the north was unlike fighting that was aired on television in the south, Filipov said. The U.S. military used small teams of Special Forces, allied with the Kurdish peshmerga militiamen. Filipov wrote that he was impressed by the professionalism of the Green Berets, a U.S. Army special operations unit.

“I had a lot of respect for the way they went about their job, and on one particular occasion they saved my bacon,” Filipov wrote. Filipov was chatting with some Green Berets at a position on the northern front when the Iraqis suddenly began shelling them from about two kilometers away.

The Green Berets joked with him about the danger, even humorously asking each other “‘Where’s the beer?,’” but allowed him to ride back to safety with them.

Corkery went to Kuwait in late February and waited there for several weeks before being embedded in the 2-7 Infantry, he said. The 2-7 Infantry traveled two days in Iraq before coming under fire.

The 2-7 Infantry was ambushed at Saddam — now Baghdad — International Airport when it arrived at the airport at around 2 a.m. on April 4. Though they were initially surprised by the lack of Iraqi resistance, and even joked about it, early that morning, the joking ended, Corkery said.

While much of the artillery and heavy combat troops had moved forward, looking for elements of the Iraqi Republican Guard, Corkery hung back at the tactical command center, he said.

Republican Guard soldiers had been snaking through the surrounding woods and attacked the command center from several

angles.

Corkery said he watched as a nearby Bradley fighting vehicle, a tank-like infantry vehicle, was ripped apart by enemy fire.

Twenty to 30 U.S. soldiers fanned out around the command center to repel the Iraqi soldiers.

“They themselves looked a little scared too,” Corkery said.

“I progressively got more and more nervous,” he said. Corkery said he crouched behind a cement wall in the command center, hoping the 2-7 Infantry would not be overpowered during more than two hours of tank and mortar fire. Corkery was relieved when U.S. troops were able to hold out.

Bombardieri arrived in Kuwait City on March 17, staying there for most of the next four weeks and making occasional, militaryescorted forays into the Iraqi territories of Safwan, Umm Qasr and the Rumaila Oil Fields, she said.

About 10 days ago, Bombardieri and a photographer from The Globe entered Iraq to stay. The two traveled in a sport utility vehicle around southern Iraq, including the cities of Umm Qasr, Basra, Nasiriyah and Najaf.

For the week after entering Iraq, Bombardieri lived out of her SUV, pitching a tent wherever she could find a safe spot and living off the food she had brought from Kuwait, she wrote in an e-mail.

Bombardieri has since moved into a guest house in Basra with about ten other reporters. She said she plans to stay as long as she can.

“I’d like to stay as long as I can because these opportunities don’t come around that often,” Bombardieri wrote. “But The Globe is going to rotate other people in soon so I’ll probably be here another week or two at the most.”

Images of War Corkery said the U.S. military superiority was staggering. The United States’ “overwhelming advantage of firepower and the ability to use that firepower” was a major reason why U.S. casualties were relatively low, he said.

“It was a total mismatch. (The U.S. army) just laid waste to the Iraqi army.”

While Bombardieri acknowledged the U.S. military is “obviously a thousand times superior,” she noted the technological superiority does not negate the disadvantages of fighting in enemy territory.

“There was really heavy street fighting, say in Nasiriyah, which killed a lot of civilians and ruined a lot of buildings and make it that much harder to put a civil society back together again,” Bombardieri wrote.

Low Iraqi morale contributed to the war’s mismatched nature, Filipov said. He said defectors told him almost no Iraqis wanted to fight. He described battles in which 10 Green Berets and 100 Kurds were able to drive back Iraqi forces 10 times as large or more.

Corkery’s unit received a wake-up call when a suicide bomber rocked 2-7 Infantry on March 29. Four soldiers from the 2-7 Infantry were searching a taxi at a checkpoint near An-Najaf, Iraq, when a car bomb exploded as they opened the truck, blowing a crater in the ground and killing the four soldiers, the taxi’s driver and a civilian, who may have see IRAQ, page 15

THURSDAY, APRIL 24, 2003 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD PAGE 15 before Baghdad was liberated, Filipov wrote.

“While the war set her family free, it killed her,” he wrote.

Iraq continued from page 14 been aiding the driver.

“It was a real turning point,” Corkery said. “(The U.S. soldiers) felt like they had been suckerpunched.”

Prior to the incident, the soldiers had been extremely cautious not to offend Iraqi civilians.

After the bombing though, the mood shifted to “defense at all costs,” Corkery said.

The 2-7 Infantry lost nine soldiers in total during combat, Corkery said. The constant threat of danger kept U.S. soldiers from completely mourning the loss of their fallen comrades, Corkery said. Death served as a constant reminder of the gravity of the situation, he said.

“It was a huge motivator to fight even harder,” Corkery said.

The nearly ubiquitous scenes of grateful Iraqis greeting U.S. forces as liberators that aired on American television only told part of the story, Corkery said.

The 2-7 Infantry encountered cheering crowds in An Nasiriyah, he said, but as the 2-7 Infantry pushed on into nearby villages it faced the opposite reaction from civilians.

In some villages, civilians ran from the U.S. convoy. Corkery said civilian crowds fired upon the 2-7, though he said they were unsure whether the fire came from Iraqi soldiers dressed in civilian clothing.

When the 2-7 Infantry arrived in Baghdad, most civilians remained inside their homes during the fighting, emerging en masse only after the combat was over to celebrate. But the celebrations were short-lived before widespread looting set in, Corkery said.

The looting was like nothing Corkery had ever seen before, he said.

“Literally, they were stealing anything and everything,” he said.

Corkery watched as civilians stole refrigerators, car parts, metal chairs, massive stocks of bananas and many other goods and loaded them into cars, trailers and even “donkey-pulled carts,” he said.

“It was pure chaos,” Corkery said. He added that during the first days the U.S. troops were powerless to stop looters and did all they could to protect themselves.

Bombardieri wrote that she is “surprised by the depth of the anti-Americanism.” Part of the distrust of the United States stems from the failure to protect Shiites rising up against Saddam’s regime after the Gulf War, she said. But Iraqis generally presume the United States’ motives are selfish, to the point that some suspect the United States helped Saddam escape, she wrote.

“Pretty much everyone agrees that we invaded because of oil,” she wrote.

The scene in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq was completely different, Filipov wrote.

“They were still partying in Erbil when I left,” he said.

“They’ve gotten rid of their tormentor, Saddam.”

But Filipov reported resentment among the people of Mosul, a center of Sunni Islam in Iraq. The people there, who enjoyed a higher standard of living than people in other parts of

Courtesy Boston Globe

“When I was in Nasiriyah there were graves everywhere, and the main hospital had run out of death certificates.”

Marcella Bombardieri ’99 Boston Globe Iraq, were incensed by recent shootings of civilians in the city, Filipov said.

All three reporters said the human impact of the war will linger longest in their memories.

Corkery said his most vivid memories from Iraq are the small details of everyday life. He remembers the texture of the Iraqi sand and sandstorms that hindered simple tasks like eating, sleeping and keeping clean. He said he will always remember “trying to work as the soldiers do, under difficult conditions.”

Corkery said he witnessed soldiers bonding over mutual peril and reliance and that he felt personal connections with many of the 2-7 Infantry’s troops. What struck Corkery was not only the soldiers’ determination, but their broad appreciation of the situation.

“The soldiers impress me because they understand that it’s not simple,” Corkery said. “Sure, they cleaned house with their guns, but they understand that that’s the easy part.”

Bombardieri was taken aback by the destructiveness of war.

“When I was in Nasiriyah there were graves everywhere, and the main hospital had run out of death certificates, after logging more than 700 dead, most of them women and children,” she wrote.

Bombardieri wrote that the image of a Shiite family burying its son — who died as a civilian — in the holy ground of Najaf, one of the biggest cemetaries in the world, stuck out in her mind.

But tragedy does not tell the whole story of the war in Iraq.

Bombardieri recalled the “gorgeous” memory of watching from a rooftop in Basra as 10,000 or 15,000 Shiite men bowed in unison at a prayer service last Friday, a practice banned under Saddam’s regime.

Filipov too found the personal aspect of the war to be the most fascinating part. He said he is most proud of a story he wrote about a young Kurdish woman who died because she could not get to a dialysis machine in Mosul. She was born on the day the Kurdish revolt collapsed in the 1970s, and she died the day

Iraq’s Future Rebuilding Iraq will be a substantial task, Corkery said.

“It’s amazing how quickly you can destroy parts of a country … and how long it will take to rebuild it,” he said.

Corkery said he believes that if Iraq is to become a democracy, the process will be lengthy.

“Right now, people just want their electricity turned on,” he said.

If the United States is to succeed in creating a democratic Iraq, it must commit more resources than it has to rebuilding Afghanistan, Corkery said.

Corkery reported from Afghanistan after the war there late in 2001. He said he was disappointed the Afghan government has little control outside of Kabul and feared that Iraq may suffer the same fate without sufficient support.

Bombardieri and Filipov, like Corkery, spent time in Afghanistan. Bombardieri said the Iraqis’ feelings toward U.S. forces are substantially more negative than those of Afghanis.

Bombardieri wrote that she agreed the United States needs to make a serious commitment to the reconstruction process, but she noted that controversy already exists surrounding the use of the U.S. military in reconstruction. The United States, the United Nations and other groups vying for a share in reconstruction all have flaws and deciding what is best for Iraq will be a difficult task, Bombardieri wrote.

“Iraqis pretty much all say they want foreigners out as fast as possible, but it’s hard to imagine how they could possibly run things at this point,” she wrote.

Though Bombardieri stressed she did not know what will happen with democratization, she pointed out that Iraq has many advantages over Afghanistan that could aid the transition.

“Iraq has a lot more infrastructure and a lot more experience with the nitty gritty of governance,” she said.

In his experience, Filipov wrote that he encountered many Iraqis who could provide vital roles in the reconstruction effort.

“I’d be standing on the street talking to someone, and within a few minutes a civil engineer would walk up. Then an irrigation specialist would come up and start lecturing me about the dam north of the city. Then a university professor would come up and start explaining it all by quoting Whitman and Blake.

Then a computer scientist would come up and explain to me how my satellite phone worked,” he wrote.

Like his colleagues, Filipov stressed he is “no specialist in the Middle East,” but he expressed doubt about the chances for lasting democracy in Iraq.

“In the long run, the ethnic and religious tensions that are often overlooked or glossed over by people talking about Iraq are a big concern. When I left Mosul, people were shooting at each other in the street. That wasn’t Saddam, but it didn’t look like democracy, either,” he wrote.

Herald staff writer Adam Stella ’05 can be reached at astella@browndailyherald.com.

PAGE 16 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD THURSDAY, APRIL 24, 2003

An outstanding performance came from Anna Willard ’06 in the 800-meter run. She ran away with first place with a personal record of 2:12.67.

“Anna really had a great competitive effort,” Johnson said.

The distance women also notched two second-place finishes, which came from Caci Cambruzzi ’04 in the 1,500-meter run and Rachel Kitson ’05 in the 10,000-meter run with times of 4:37.94 and 37:58.73, respectively.

Another personal record came from Meredith Crocker ’05 in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. She finished in third place with a time of 11:09.50, 14 seconds faster than her previous best.

“This was the first time I ran the steeplechase this season and I felt strong,” Crocker said, “The middle distance and distance squad really had good performances. The whole team is really showing an upward momen-

tum.”

The field events were not left wanting for strong performances either. A pair of seconds came from the vertical jumps, Katie Rowinski ’04 cleared 5’7” in the high jump, a personal record that qualified her for the NCAA regionals, and Lauren Contursi ’03 cleared 11’6” in the pole vault.

Brittany Grovey ’06 jumped 38’6” in the triple jump, good for fourth place.

“Katie had a big breakthrough in the high jump, and Lauren and Brittany continue to be consistent competitors for us,” Johnson said.

In the long jump Ashley Wall ’05 and Kim Fogarty ’03 jumped 18’00” and 18’01”, respectively, to capture fifth and sixth places.

“Kim and Ashley cranked it up another notch in the long jump this week,” Johnson said. “They had good solid performances for going into the Heps.”

Jill Lynch ’05 finished first in the shot put and fourth in the discus with throws of 43’3.25” and 136’01”, respectively. In the hammer throw, Jen Donahue ’05 fin-

Perlmutter

Cropp

continued from page 20

continued from page 20

Upon further analysis, the NBA Finals are generally closer than the NHL Finals. Since the NHL moved to a best-ofseven format, 20 of 64 finals, about 31 percent, have been 4-0 shutouts — in the NBA’s history, only 12 percent have been blanks. Only 17 percent of Stanley Cup champs won the series 4-3, with only four of the 11 occurrences in the last 32 years — the NBA, on the other hand, has had 26 percent of its finals won by a one game margin.

So what does this tell us? If a good, tight, competitive series is something you enjoy, the NBA Finals are probably your best bet. During the next several weeks of playoff heaven, if you only have time to watch one sport a week, watch the earlier rounds of the NHL Playoffs and switch to basketball once the finals roll around. Hockey is a much more exciting and entertaining sport than you may believe.

But then again, you could always watch some good, oldfashioned baseball.

more action than Snoop Dogg on “Girls Gone Wild” and has brushed with fate more than Fidel Castro. When the Cup went to New York in 1940, the Rangers, in true New York style, decided to urinate in it. In 1980, when the Cup went to Long Island, one player fed his dog from the cup and another slept with it in bed.

It was on the floor of an Edmonton strip club in 1987 (rumor has it, Mark Messier was the culprit), and then in 1994 it moved to the much classier

W. track continued from page 20

Eric Perlmutter ’06 thinks puns are the highest form of humor, so puck off. He can be reached at eperlmutter@browndailyherald.com.

GISP continued from page 7 “compelled” to help Sand with the project because of his commitment to “help students who want to be confused.”

“Confusion at a deep enough level allows one to hold strong convictions,” Tomasi said. “This is what Brown students want — they want to think, to be challenged.”

“We believe there is a great lack of studying conservatism at Brown and that this is injurious to our education,” reads Sand’s proposal, which describes the

M. track continued from page 20 men, finishing third, with Brendan O’Keefe ’04 coming in fourth and Patrick Tarpy ’05 coming in sixth.

Again, in the 1,500-meter run, Brown took three out of the top six spots. This time, the charge was led by Chad Buechal ’03 in first, Matt Crimmin ’04 in fourth and Chris Rigali ’06 in sixth. In the 5,000-meter run, the story was repeated again with three different runners. Matt Emond ’04 won the event, Erik Churchill ’03.5 placed third and Owen Washburn ’06 placed fourth. Brown finished

GISP as “a chance to read authors and ideologies rarely encountered at Brown.”

To encourage debate, Sand said students in the GISP were hand-picked to include equal numbers of liberals and conservatives.

Sand enlisted the help of Stephen Beale ’04, chair of Young Americans for Freedom and a Herald opinions columnist, to put together the syllabus for “Knowing Right: Contemporary Conservative Thought,” which Sand said provides a survey of conservatism from its foundations to its various forms today. Sand said the

ished in fourth place with a huge personal record of 149’00”.

“I feel good about my throw.

It’s really good motivation going into Heps as we all start to peak,” Donahue said.

The 4x100-meter relay recorded a good time, finishing in second place with a time of 47.76.

The 4x400-meter relay team finished sixth with a time of 4:01.88.

“We had a phenomenal day — the team is starting to show progress in performances as well as in focus and competitiveness,” said Captain Julia Devanthery ’04. “We are really having a general theme of improvement and excitement this season, and we’re looking forward to having a Heps performance we can be proud of.”

The team will be leaving for the Penn Relays on Thursday and will also compete at home on Sunday.

Sports staff writer Joanna Grossman ’03 covers the women’s track and field team. She can be reached at jgrossman@browndailyherald.com.

venue of Scores Nightclub in New York, a la Mark Messier. The cup has been drop-kicked into a canal in Ottawa, found in the bottom of Mario Lemieux’s pool and used to baptize players’ children.

I know most of us will never be graced with the presence of the Cup, but that should not stop you from fantasizing what you would do with it for a day. I hope, for your sake, you are hit by a highly contagious sickness, not one called SARS, but one called Cup fever.

Ian Cropp ’05 did shots out of the Stanley Cup for his 21st birthday.

fourth in both the 4x100-meter and 4x400-meter relays.

In the jumps, Ray Bobrownicki ’06 continued his stay at the top.

He won the high jump by clearing 6’9.75”. Also scoring in the high jump was Todd Kapostasy ’06 in fourth place. In the pole vault, Brad Bowery ’03 took first place and Aaron Salinger ’03 took third.

Kevin Ferrone ’05 placed second in the long jump, and Sean Thomas ’03 placed second in the triple jump.

The traveling squad will compete next at Penn Relays, starting Thursday, and will return to campus to join the rest of the team at the Brown Springtime Invitational on April 27.

group would also study “pop conservatism” works such as the writings of conservative radio talk-show host Michael Savage.

“It’s difficult to say whether Brown ‘needs’ a class on conservative thought,” Professor of Philosophy David Estlund wrote in an e-mail to The Herald.

“Many of these ideas are available in other courses.”

Estlund teaches a course on political philosophy this semester.

Herald staff writer Ellen Wernecke ’06 can be reached at ewernecke@browndailyherald.com.

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

OPINIONS EXTRA THURSDAY, APRIL 24, 2003 · PAGE 17

Where will our money go?

A Brown alum urges soon-to-be graduates to carefully consider which institutions they choose to support AS I APPROACHED MY GRADUATION cial decisions have broader social — and three years ago, the Brown Annual Fund environmental — implications. This solicited money from me for the first time, reflective process verified for me the slipping donation invitations into the potential to thoughtfully use our money Faunce House mailboxes of all Brown sen- to correspond to our values.

At Brown and other private institutions, iors. I needed to decide if and how much I would donate. The Annual Fund’s request a disproportionate percentage of individuals relative to society at large forced me to consider the enjoy financial security and broader institutional context in ADAM have access to more money which I thought about Brown. I WEINSTOCK than necessary for a comfortalso began to think about the GUEST COLUMNIST able survival. Consequently, as financial independence that we make more decisions about would soon hit me and many of my peers; monetary decisions and our money, collectively we control signifimoney’s influence became very real in my cant economic resources to help or harm the world. There is tremendous opportumind.

Should I give to Brown? Indeed, I had nity here.

My own financial privilege has allowed enjoyed an enriching four years; at the same time I considered less attractive ele- me flexibility to pursue activities and ments of the University’s money use. The vocations that I find most rewarding, outsweatshop issue had been a hot topic on side of monetary considerations. While I campus, and the administration had appreciate my financial comfort, I am wavered about contracting only with equally grateful for the personal discomcompanies manufacturing school appar- fort that has emerged in grappling with el under fair labor conditions. I thought my class status. While my grandfathers’ of other ways the University might business ventures and investments genimplicitly support corporate abuses with erated profits, my being born into relative its money. One obvious arena: the invest- wealth feels arbitrary, not a product of ment of the school’s endowment in com- efforts more noble or deserving than a panies that have the direct or serpentine blue-collar worker’s struggle to support effect of harming people or the environ- her family. Given this, how can I activate my financial resources to maximally benment.

As Brown asked me for money, I inves- efit the world according to my values?

Giving may be the most obvious way to tigated the complexities of choosing how to use my financial resources. How will have influence with money, and Brown my money really be used? I contemplat- asked me to do just that. But should an ed the world of ways in which our finan- elite institution with access to many wealthy alums qualify as an attractive target for my giving? Of his own philanthropy, William Upski Wimsatt writes in “No Adam Weinstock ’00 can be reached at More Prisons,” “I have a political agenda, adamweinstock@hotmail.com.

and my philanthropic ‘generosity,’ plus my sense of strategy, gives me more philanthropic power to change the world than people with 50 times my income.”

For him, it is essential “to support groups that work for ‘change not charity.’” Thus, we must concern ourselves with our deeper intentions when we give. What do we stand for? In thinking about giving to Brown, do I believe that Brown is working for the kind of change that I want to see?

“Americans only give 2 percent to charity across the board, whether they are rich, poor or middle-class” (Wimsatt). Is this selfishness? Could it be that ignorance about where and how to give paralyzes us? As I filed tax returns this month, I was shocked at how little the individual donations I made last year added up to collectively. I myself have little sense of how much money to give to whom, and I neglected to decide in advance to donate a certain percentage of my income. As I come to understand better how to ensure a secure present and future while maximizing my generosity and develop a giving plan that reflects my values, I can hope for increasing clarity about my giving.

In the long term, investing our money may provide for financial security and augment our future giving potential.

Socially and environmentally responsible investing may be taken on by institutions (like Brown) and individuals. We can invest to minimize the damage or maximize the benefits of our money use.

Screens against egregious activity, from weapons production to unsatisfactory labor conditions to environmental hazards, can help us keep our money away

from companies that engage in such harmful practices. Or, we might deliberately choose to support companies focusing on alternative energy or fair trade goods. Through shareholder activism we can use investor influence to push a company to improve its practices.

Given my own initial ignorance about the ins-and-outs of socially responsible investment, a financial adviser committed to investing according to progressive values is helping me account for my values with my investments.

Ultimately, I decided to make a small donation to Brown ($30) earmarked for the University’s support of diversity, an area that I thought needed increased attention. I believed in the thoughtfulness behind enough of what Brown provided for me to offer a financial token of appreciation upon leaving. Brown will likely continue to represent a tiny portion of my annual giving plan, but it will not be my priority in terms of giving to promote the justice and ecology that our planet urgently needs. Nonetheless, the Annual Fund’s solicitation did offer the impetus for a much deeper investigation of how we might use our money to support our values.

Wimsatt articulates another premise that motivated me to write this column: “It is important for people to talk freely about their personal demons with money, because a lot of times that’s what blocks you from being more generous with what you have.” With our money and lifestyle choices, how are we living our values? Good luck with these exciting decisions, Class of 2003 — and congratulations!

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

EDITORIAL/LETTERS THURSDAY, APRIL 24, 2003 · PAGE 18 S T A F F

E D I T O R I A L

Repackaging Brown There’s no question that Brown has an image problem. One need not look further than the ultimate arbiter of popular culture, “The Simpsons.” (Principal Skinner to Otto the bus driver: “Fine school that Brown. Didn’t you get in there?”

Otto: “I almost got tenure, too.”)

For many students outside of the New England/Northeastern loop, a decision to attend Brown is often met with a series of predictable responses. “Is that in Connecticut? That’s the school with no grades, right?” and, our all-time favorite, “Isn’t that the college for Harvard rejects?”

Wisely, along with President Ruth Simmons’ Initiatives for Academic Enrichment, Brown’s office of public relations is coordinating a long-overdue image overhaul. Simmons’ ambitions to attract top-notch faculty to the University are well-reasoned, but Brown’s reputation is an integral component of this effort. High-quality professors and students alike will no doubt find an alleged “slacker” and “Harvard reject” school less than appealing.

This isn’t to say that Brown doesn’t have its share of concrete problems, but many misconceptions about the University could be tackled with an aggressive image campaign. Sure, we have a small endowment. Most would agree that campus facilities are less-than-stellar. But Brown is in many ways unique among its peer institutions: The attention devoted to the undergraduate experience is unparalleled, and the open curriculum fosters a cherished brand of individualism and independence. Not to mention its population of creative, socially-conscious, and (gasp) hard-working students.

A little savvy marketing could go a long way toward higher faculty retention rates, more selective admission, and making the Brown degree count more in the marketplace. But Brown’s image must always encapsulate what made it great in the first place.

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

BUSINESS Jamie Wolosky, General Manager Joe Laganas, Executive Manager Lawrence Hester, Senior Accounts Manager Bill Louis, Senior Accounts Manager Joshua Miller, Senior Accounts Manager Midori Asaka, National Accounts Manager David Zehngut, National Accounts Manager Anastasia Ali, Local Accounts Manager Elias Roman, Local Accounts Manager Peter Schermerhorn, Local Accounts Manager Jack Carrere, Noncomm Accounts Manager Laurie-Ann Paliotti, Sr. Advertising Rep. Kate Sparaco, Office Manager

Adam Stella, Asst. Metro Editor Jonathan Skolnick, Opinions Editor Joshua Skolnick, Opinions Editor

PRODUCTION Zachary Frechette, Chief Technology Officer Ilena Frangista, Listings Editor Marc Debush, Copy Desk Chief Grace Farris, Graphics Editor Andrew Sheets, Graphics Editor Brett Cohen, Systems 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 Jason Ng, Music Editor Colin Hartnett, Design Editor 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

Emma Watson, Night Editor Mary Ann Bronson, Marc Debush, Copy Editors Staff Writers Lotem Almog, Kathy Babcock, Zach Barter, Hannah Bascom, Carla Blumenkranz, Dylan Brown, Danielle Cerny, Philissa Cramer, Ian Cropp, Maria DiMento, Bamboo Dong, Jonathan Ellis, Linda Evarts, Nicholas Foley, Dana Goldstein, Alan Gordon, Nick Gourevitch, Joanna Grossman, Stephanie Harris, Shara Hegde, Anna Henderson, Momoko Hirose, Akshay Krishnan, 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, Ethan Ris, Amy Ruddle, Emir Senturk, Jen Sopchockchai, Adam Stella, Adam Stern, Stefan Talman, Jonathan Thompson, Joshua Troy, Schuyler von Oeyen, Juliette Wallack, Jessica Weisberg, Ellen Wernecke, Ben Wiseman, Xiyun Yang, Brett Zarda, Julia Zuckerman Pagination Staff Joshua Gootzeit, Lisa Mandle, Alex Palmer, Nikki Reyes, Amy Ruddle Photo Staff Kimberly Insel, Nick Mark, Alex Palmer, Sara Perkins, Cassie Ramirez, Jason White Copy Editors Mary Ann Bronson, Lanie Davis, Yafang Deng, Hanne Eisenfeld, George Haws, Amy Ruddle, Jane Porter, Janis Sethness, Nora Yoo

ANDREW SHEETS

LETTERS For international Title IX is not to blame students, Brown is not for fewer male athletic need blind opportunities To the Editor:

To the Editor:

I repeatedly read that Brown is now “completely needblind” (ADOCH insert, April 22). Such claims are false. Internationals, one-tenth of Brown’s undergraduate population, are not admitted under a need-blind policy. As a result, promising applicants from all over the world do not apply or are denied admission to Brown for financial reasons.

Approximately 80 percent of international students who end up attending Brown do not receive any financial aid.

Denying aid to international students may seem like a pragmatic approach for some. After all, our school needs the money — both the tuition dollars and, more importantly, the financial donations that the wealthy families of many international students eventually give to Brown. Nevertheless, it’s hypocrisy. We proudly claim that Brown, a “global institution” with faces from all corners of the world, is needblind. At the same time, many internationals cannot apply to Brown because they simply cannot afford it. Others put their families through considerable hardship for having to finance the full cost of a Brown education.

It took years of pressure from the Brown community for the University to go need blind for U.S. citizens. More pressure is now needed to push Brown into allotting financial aid funds for all — not just American students. Until then, we cannot call ours a need-blind institution.

Re: “Title IX At Brown Leads to Fewer Men’s Walkons” (April 23): Once again people are missing the point about who to blame for diminishing opportunities for men in less popular sports like wrestling and skiing.

There is an unfortunate and ill-placed backlash nowadays against women’s teams that have in recent years finally seen their rosters swell to normal sizes thanks to Title IX. But Title IX only says that the number of opportunities in any one institution should be comparable for men and women — it does not dictate how many people should be allowed on one team.

The blame should really fall on the popular men’s sports, which siphon opportunities from other male athletes by hoarding roster spots andgiving them to far more men than are needed to field functional teams. The most obvious example of this at Brown is the football team, which this past fall had a roster of roughly 100 players. Even NFL teams, which average two backup players for every position, keep only about 60 men on their active rosters. With 30 or 40 fewer football players, Brown could field two or three whole teams for other men’s sports, or else allow current teams more walk-ons. So if male athletes are really interested in making some noise, tell Athletic Director David Roach to make the bigger men’s teams share the wealth.

Basim Khan ’02 April 23

Maia Weinstock ’99 April 23

COMMENTARY POLICY The staff editorial is the majority opinion of the editorial board of The Brown Daily Herald. The editorial viewpoint does not necessarily reflect the views of The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. Columns and letters reflect the opinions of their authors only.

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

OPINIONS THURSDAY, APRIL 24, 2003 · PAGE 19

Abortion essential to the liberty of women WHILE AMERICA IS FOCUSED ON THE EFFORT TO REBUILD Iraq, pro-life groups across the nation are trying to collaborate with conservative lawmakers to significantly weaken Roe v.

Wade, the Supreme Court decision upholding the right to seek an abortion. These advocates use graphic emotional appeals to sway their audiences, hoping to get Americans so riled up that they disregard the crucial constitutional issues at stake in the debate over abortion. Why is it that you never hear abortion advocates talk about the Constitution and the liberties that it is our government’s sworn duty to defend? Because if America actually had a serious conversation about abortion in the context of the values that underpin our free society, it would quickly become apparent why the NATE GORALNIK ORDERS FROM Supreme Court has chosen time and THE BOSS time again to uphold a woman’s right to seek an abortion, and why it must continue to do so at all costs.

The Supreme Court has established that the Ninth Amendment safeguards a woman’s right to make important decisions about her body and her life such as whether to have sexual intercourse, whether to use birth control and whether to have children. These rights are fundamental to the pursuit of happiness, and they are what distinguish our free society from those that oppress women by stealing their right to make the most important decisions of their lives.

The Right will say that an abortion ban preserves these rights: If a woman doesn’t want to have children, she shouldn’t conceive (as though it’s always up to her!. The problem with this reasoning is that many women who get pregnant never intended to get pregnant, and some never even intended to have sexual intercourse. Without the right to an abortion, a teenager who is persuaded to have sex while under the influence of drugs or alcohol loses her right to choose whether to have a child: Once the egg is fertilized, it’s all over. Thus, an abortion ban places a legal restriction on a woman’s reproductive freedom: It is no longer she who gets to choose whether to have kids. It’s up to a fragile condom or a rapist to decide for her. This restriction in turn would impose what lawyers call a “chilling effect” on the right to sexual expression. By making sexual intercourse cancel out a woman’s reproductive freedom, an abortion ban would deter women from exercising their right to have sex.

Both effects are unconstitutional and morally unacceptable.

The right to choose is not about the right to have an abortion.

It is about keeping sexual freedom and reproductive freedom separate so that both of these precious rights can be fully exercised. In short, birth control is not just a means of preventing or canceling a pregnancy. It is a crucial protection of a woman’s right to live as she chooses. That is why only the most sexist and totalitarian of regimes (Libya, Syria, Iran, Sudan and Iraq) side with President Bush in his efforts to limit United Nations birth control programs.

Imagine if Americans really took it seriously that abortion is murder. The government would have to give birth certificates to embryos and initiate murder investigations for miscarriages. Teenage girls would go to jail. No, I don’t think any of that will ever happen. Why? Because while abortion is emotionally disturbing to all Americans, nobody really believes deep down that a fetus should be given all of the protections that humans enjoy, and with good reason. Abortion is something that will continue to trouble us all (and many will even feel the need to protest it) but actually treating fetal life as human life would be not only oppressive but also patently absurd.

The Right will try to tell you that the right to an abortion is a barbaric institution for the murder of unborn children (as though no other issues are at stake). If we think this narrowly, the pro-life position is extremely compelling: Everyone agrees that abortion is a gruesome procedure that, ideally, no woman should undergo. But things aren’t that simple. The right to choose an abortion is not just about abortion: It is about the right of women to control their sexuality and to decide whether and when to have children. These rights are what make America a land of liberty, and they are rights that must be secured at all costs, for the living and the unborn alike.

Nate Goralnik ’06 is glad to have been born.

Put the “world” in world-class We must continue studies of South Asia to remain a top notch institution IF BROWN IS TRULY WORLD-CLASS, IT MUST they fit nicely into other areas of study. For example, examine the world. While our Watson Institute is a the Global Security track of the International remarkable place to study international relations, Relations would be better if students could study we leave one-sixth of the world’s people — those the Kashmir conflict and its history.

There are arguments to be made on in residing in India and Pakistan — out of this matter, to be sure — it’s fine to talk the curriculum. For the last few years, about all that we should offer, but finite Professor Sumit Guha taught the history resources mean we have to put some of South Asia, but he’s decided to leave areas of study ahead of others. I’m sugBrown. The administration should gesting South Asia should indeed be make sure Guha is not only replaced, high on the priority list for departments but, when the economy picks up and such as Political Science and History. budgetary pressures recede, they push Plus, the generous alum who donated for more faculty qualified to teach the the money for Guha’s teaching position politics and history of South Asia. wanted his money to be used specifiWe currently teach South Asian lancally for the study of South Asia. guages — Hindi and Urdu — and we JAIDEEP SINGH As the son of Indian-born parents, I’m have classes covering South Asia in the J-DEEP THOUGHTS no neutral observer. But the facts underReligious Studies and Anthropology score the argument. Last year, India and departments. But the current offerings Pakistan came dangerously close to a are few and far between. It’s a deficit war after a terrorist attack on India’s parliament in that should be taken seriously.

For all the talk of the threat of weapons of mass December 2001. The war in Afghanistan underscored destruction and global terrorism, American media the importance of Pakistan and brought to light the and policymakers only periodically devote serious precarious balancing act its president, Pervez attention to South Asia — where the presence of Musharaff, has to pull off between the radical Islamist WMD is a fact, terrorism eats away at both India and the moderate sections of Pakistani society.

Also, consider what the study of South Asia has to and Pakistan, and war drums bang often. And make no mistake: The Indian subcontinent is the world’s offer those not focused on the region for its own most likely nuclear flashpoint. It is a shame that sake. If you think studying Islam means studying Brown, which teaches some of the most inspired the Middle East, think again — there are more save-the-worlders, cannot offer its students a Muslims in India (140 million) than there are in course on the history that has produced today’s Pakistan and many Middle Eastern countries combined. And if you want to know something about unfortunate circumstances.

This is not to say students would immediately Muslims and democracy — you should, given all flock to classes in South Asian studies. But interest the talk about Iraq — consider that India holds elecwould grow if offerings were more consistent and if tions at least every five years.

If Brown addressed this gap in the curriculum, I would feel much more comfortable calling my beloved soon-to-be alma mater a world-class instiJaideep Singh ‘03 will be missed as a Herald columtution. nist.

Get the

off

fence.

only one more issue of The Herald left this semester.

express yourself.

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

SPORTS THURSDAY APRIL 24, 2003 · PAGE 20

Spending days with the Cup

NBA vs. NHL in playoff face-off

ON TUESDAY NIGHT I CAN PROUDLY say I saw a lot of rubber. As much as I was compelled to do my homework, I could not escape the allure of playoff hockey.

Even when I muted the television, I could not finish a single page of reading without looking up to check out the action. (I would not have been able to finish a single page even without the TV there, but the game at least gave me an excuse.)

Somewhere in the IAN CROPP third period I realCROPP GOES THE WEASEL ized I was watching a game in which one team had an adjective for a name (Minnesota Wild) and the other team had a natural disaster for a name (Colorado Avalanche).

Forgetting the original North Stars had left Minnesota a few years ago and the Avalanche, formerly known as the Nordiques, stormed down from Quebec, I became engrossed in the game. But I did not even know why. I didn’t particularly like either team I could not even name three players on the Wild and I wanted to tap the Rockies in the beverage form. As overtime began, I realized the next goal would in fact end the season for one of the two teams, and my heart jumped every time one team directed the puck toward the net.

In the end, the Wild knocked off the Avalanche and completed the comeback after falling down one game to three in the series. I am sure people in Colorado are disappointed, but I think the Avalanche would have been drawn and quartered had they still been in Quebec. Colorado was not the only favorite to take an early trip to the golf course — the Red Wings of “Hockeytown” somehow fell to a team from Disneyland. I find it hard to picture the Mighty Ducks beating the Red Wings, let alone the Ducks being coached by anyone other than Emilio Estevez. But I find it even harder to believe the Red Wings, who have a stronger cast than “2 Fast 2 Furious,” would bow out in four games.

Well, if they need a summer job, I hear Disney can help — they are casting for “Weekend at Bernie’s III.” These upsets are ironically not that uncommon in a league devoid of a team with an astronomical salary cup used to buy up the entire world (that’s just in baseball). Well, maybe it’s a New York thing, but to group the Rangers with the Yankees would be like saying going to Brown for a year and burning $35,000 are equivalent.

For those of you who did not do well on the SATs, let me elaborate: Both cost a lot of money, but one actually yields desirable results.

In the end, I think maybe there is something more than just the excitement of the game that drives me to watch the playoffs.

Some would call it an obsession, but doctors tell me it is only a fever. They also tell me the prescription for the fever is not more cowbell, but more hockey. As afflicted as I am by “Cup fever,” I do not think I compare to those who fight for and eventually win the Cup. After all, it is the oldest trophy competed for by professional athletes in North America. Being crowned the best team is alluring, but half the joy of winning is the mystique of carrying around the cup for a day.

In its long history, the cup has seen

cal, separated by less than an inch.

Glazier threw 48’06.25” and Golenor threw 48’05.50”. Walls also went on to finish third in the hammer throw, followed by Walker Duncan ’06 in sixth place.

In regards to the rest of the events, “it was a typical meet,” Johnson said.

“There were highs and lows. The sprints had a rough day, the distance squad used the meet as a training day, the jumps were about normal and the throws shined.”

In the 100-meter dash, only Brandon Buchanan ’03 scored, finishing in sixth place. Daveed Diggs ’04 was the only Brown man to score in the 100-meter high hurdles. He also finished in sixth place. Tri-Captain David Owen ’04 placed second in the 400-meter dash with a time of 48.60 seconds, followed by Eldridge Gilbert ’05 in sixth. Brown took three out of the top six spots in the 800meter run. Enda Johnson ’03 led the

THE NBA AND NHL PLAYOFFS ARE TWO big reasons why April is one of the best months in sports, if not the best of all.

What’s a shame, though, is that most people pay no attention to the NHL, despite the fact that its playoffs make for thrilling entertainment. I personally think the NHL playoffs are more fun to watch than the NBA playoffs at this point in the evolutions of each sport. You may love the NBA — you may even ERIC PERLMUTTER PERL MUTTERS make love to it — but if you were ever planning on doing me a favor, let it be this: Give the men on ice a chance.

For one, playoff hockey encapsulates the visceral emotions deep within all of us. It’s fast, physical, suspenseful and gritty — raw competition in its purest form. Who dislikes 100-plus mile-perhour slap shots, sprawling saves and hits Ron Artest wouldn’t even dish? Playoff hockey games are 60-minute rushes of primitive adrenaline. The NBA can’t come close to emulating that feeling, especially with the frequent timeouts and stoppages of play.

Playoff basketball is a very superficial sports experience. All of the glitz, celebrities and old-school fashion statements add up to nights of less sports and more show. Not to say that this is bad — it isn’t.

It’s just a different brand of sports from hockey, which is more focused on the action at hand and more true to the sport, something I personally happen to like.

I get the feeling that young NBA players want to win during the playoffs, not because they value winning itself so much, but because it extends their time on stage, so to speak. It’s almost as if they want to win to become more popular.

You think hockey players give a puck about any of that? Diving on the ice to block slap shots, with their genitals if need be, does not make the players cooler — they’re driven by the thirst of winning. A date with Lord Stanley and his pimped-out cup will suffice. (The Stanley Cup, by the way, is unquestionably the best trophy in sports.)

Additionally, you get to hear some of the best announcers in sports when you watch hockey. I would take Gary Thorne over Bill Walton any day. A couple weeks ago, Walton told me I was watching some of the best and most exhilarating basketball in the history of the NBA; meanwhile, it was an 8-6 game, early in the first quarter. What is this guy watching?

Maybe himself, sinking into mediocrity, while his son takes his place as the most likable member of the family.

One thought I had was that the NBA Finals are typically not as close as the NHL Finals. It makes sense on some level, just given that only a handful of goals are scored in a hockey game, whereas a couple hundred points might be scored in a basketball game. Therefore, it seems more feasible that a hockey team could pull an upset in any given game — by nature, NBA underdogs have less of a chance. But it turns out that this shoddy pseudo-science doesn’t necessarily hold true, at least during the finals.

see M. TRACK, page 16

see PERLMUTTER, page 16

see CROPP, page 16

dspics

The women’s track and field team will leave for the Penn Relays this afternoon.

Personal touch: W. track sets individual records

BY JOANNA GROSSMAN

Last Friday the women’s track and field team put together a solid effort at the University of Connecticut Invitational.

Under sunny conditions the team recorded a number of personal bests and came away happy with the day.

“We went into this meet really wanting to have some big individual performances,” said Head Coach Robert Johnson. “We got a lot of bright spots, which shows that things are really starting to click for us this season.”

Julia Stevenson ’04 had a standout performance in the 400-meter dash, finishing first with a personal record of 56.10. Stevenson also finished first for Brown in the 200-meter dash, running to third place with a time of 25.44. Right

behind her in sixth place was Jaylon White ’05 with a time of 26.00. Also in the sprints, Lauren Linder ’04 notched a sixth place finish in the 100-meter dash with a time of 12.43. In the 100-meter high hurdles Fara Kitton ’05 hurdled to third place in 15.02.

“The rewards from all our work and dedication in practice are really starting to show in our individual performances, and we just need to keep it up for Heps,” Stevenson said.

Switching up events to gain speed was distance runner Katherine Kosub ’04, who competed in the 200- and 400meter dashes. Kosub finished sixth in the 400 with a time of 58.56. see W. TRACK, page 16

At UConn, men’s track and field finishes second

BY KEELY THARP

The men’s track and field team took second place Saturday at the University of Connecticut’s Invitational. Head Coach Robert Johnson was pleased with the results.

“There were more teams there this year, and we scored more points among tougher competition,” he said.

In what appears to be a new Brown tradition, the throwing events provided some of the highlights for the team. Jake Golenor ’06 won the discus with a throw of 164’02.00”, the fifth longest in school history.

With that throw, Golenor qualified for junior nationals and the IC4A meet. Also contributing points in the discus were Dave Glazier ’05 and Kent Walls ’06.

Glazier placed third with his throw of 156’11.00”, and Walls placed sixth with his throw of 143’08.00”. Ever versatile, the throwers all competed in multiple events. Glazier and Golenor also placed fourth and fifth in the shot put, respectively. Their throws were nearly identi-