W E D N E S D A Y OCTOBER 15, 2003
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Volume CXXXVIII, No. 92
An independent newspaper serving the Brown community since 1891
www.browndailyherald.com
Assualt causes less conflict than past biasedrelated events BY ZACH BARTER
There were no placard-toting protesters at the Queer Alliance-sponsored camp-out on the Main Green Thursday night — no provocative chants, no confrontational slogans. Instead, there was only the sobering air of a community determined to reclaim its sense of security. Campus response to the Sept. 6 homophobic assault of a student has generally been free of the antagonism that followed bias-related incidents in the past. In its place, administrators and students said, has been an intense process of inquiry and introspection as people struggle to come to terms with the presence of hate at Brown. University Chaplain Janet Cooper Nelson, who has been at Brown for 14 years, said the assault differs from past incidents that have split the campus along political lines. “There’s no debate to be had if someone in our community is being beaten up,” Nelson said. “People of goodwill of every identity must stand together against that. “Every one of us could be walking around at night with an identity that someone disapproves of,” she added. Members of Brown’s LGBT community have taken the lead in responding to the crime, wearing T-shirts with the phrase “hate crimes have happened here” and staging Thursday’s camp-out. But Meg Caven ’06, pride coordinator of the Queer Alliance and the organizer of the camp-out, said she and others were initially unsure of how to react. Anger has its place, but it can also be alienating, Caven said. “This sort of event is based in positivity and community building,” Caven said, referring to the camp-out. “A lot of people felt that to ground this in our love for each other and in our strength was more important than making someone feel as if they’d been called out.” Caven said it would be impossible for the Queer Alliance to find a target for its anger without stereotyping and making
Sara Perkins / Herald
The new, currently unoccupied Providence Police neighborhood substation on Brook Street does not yet have a permit for internal construction — only demolition.
LGBT Israelis are making progress, El-Ad says BY JUSTIN ELLIOTT
Four thousand people marched under rainbow flags in downtown Jerusalem on June 17, 2002. The event, “Jerusalem Pride — Love Without Borders,” was the city’s first ever gay pride parade. Hagai El-Ad, the executive director of Jerusalem Open House, which
see ASSAULT, page 8
Foreign language study increasingly popular; on par with other Ivies BY LISA MANDLE
From Akkadian to Zulu, Brown undergrads study foreign languages at a comparable rate to other Ivy League schools — even though they don’t have to. Unlike most peer institutions, Brown has no University-wide language requirement, said Associate Director of the Center for Language Studies Merle Krueger. “Language enrollments are strong and continue to be strong,” Krueger said. “At any one time, more than a quarter of Brown undergraduates are registered in a
language course on campus per semester,” he said. Over the past four years, foreign language enrollment has increased by approximately 10 percent, Krueger said. The last academic year saw a record number of students enrolled in language classes with 3,075 distinct foreign language enrollments between the fall and spring semesters, he said. This number did not include students studying a language while abroad, he said.
organized the parade, spoke Tuesday afternoon about the challenges of promoting an LGBT agenda in Israel’s most religiously conservative city. Friends of Israel organized the lecture, held in the Ratty, for a group of about 20 during the lunchtime rush. El-Ad said the parade organizers faced much opposition, but the event provides an opportunity for Jerusalem to make news in a positive way. He said it was a day to “put fear, hate and suspicion aside — just for a while” and to “give hope and optimism a chance.” At a time when several suicide bombings had emptied the streets of the capital, the parade “brought life back to the center of the city we love so much” El-Ad said. El-Ad described Jerusalem Open House, the only LGBT center in the city, as “an organization on the front lines of the fight for an open, tolerant, diverse, pluralistic Jerusalem.” Hannah Lantos ’06, who spent last year in Israel, said she attended because she was tired of only hearing news of the intifada. El-Ad agreed, noting there are 600,000 people in
Enhanced police presence is coming to College Hill. Brown reached an agreement with the Providence Police Department last month to create a new Providence Police substation in a Brown-owned building on Brook Street. The substation — which will contain offices and small meeting rooms— will occupy two vacant spaces in the shopping center behind New Dorm on Brook Street, wrote Vice President for Administration Walter Hunter in an e-mail. Hunter wrote that the new substation would enhance police presence in the area of campus near New Dorm. But Department of Public Safety Chief Paul Verrecchia said the substation itself is not the biggest change to policing on the East Side. “What changes policing is the neighborhood policing concept,” he said. Providence Police Chief Dean Esserman’s plan to move toward neighborhood-based policing calls for the creation of substations in each of Providence’s nine police districts, Hunter said. The Brook Street substation will serve all of District 9,
see RUTH, page 8
see POLICE, page 8
Prof. Chudacoff of the campus student life task force finds Brown facilities are lacking page 5
BY PHILISSA CRAMER
see LANGUAGE, page 9
I N S I D E W E D N E S D AY, O C T O B E R 1 5 , 2 0 0 3 “How to be gay” class at Michigan schools sparks a statewide controversy campus watch, page 3
Creation of substation takes police officers off “pinball patrol”
Kim Jong Il’s regime is greatest threat to American security says McAuliffe ’05. column, page 11
TO D AY ’ S F O R E C A S T Toumanoff ’06 thinks Americans should be less critical of their government. column, page 11
Women’s soccer defeats Hartford but suffers a loss to No. 23 Princeton sports, page 12
wind high 63 low 40