Tuesday, October 21, 2003

T U E S D A Y OCTOBER 21, 2003

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Volume CXXXVIII, No. 96

An independent newspaper serving the Brown community since 1891

www.browndailyherald.com

Grad student TAs train in classroom

Simmons says DPS arming decision to be made soon

BY LISA MANDLE AND ELLEN WERNECKE

BY CARLA BLUMENKRANZ

After two years of debate and delay, the University has not decided whether to arm the Department of Public Safety or set a time frame for that decision, according to President Ruth Simmons.

“I, myself, am positively inclined, but that is not a decision,” said Simmons, who has maintained this position for the last year. No decision will be made until the University resolves a number of jurisdictional questions and determines the fitness of DPS officers to bear arms, Simmons told The Herald in April. But the University has given the issue “as much consideration as we need to on campus,” Simmons told The Herald this month.

Deliberations stalled last spring when Mayor David Cicilline ’83 asked Simmons to “hold up the arming discussion,” she said.

The University complied with the request, which Simmons said was due to the reorganization of the Providence Police into community-based substations and a number of jurisdictional questions raised by the city.

Now that the reorganization of the PPD is nearly complete, Simmons said she intends to move ahead as quickly as possible with a decision and any subsequent preparations for arming.

In the absence of a conclusive statement from the administration, preparations have yet to be made at DPS, according to Michelle Nuey, assistant manager for Special Services.

“We’re not making any preparations for arming because that decision has not been made,” Nuey said. DPS Chief Paul Verrecchia has discussed the status of the decision with the administration, but those discussions have not led to procedural changes in his department, she said.

Neither Verrecchia nor PPD Chief of Police Dean Esserman responded to repeated requests for comment.

Sara Perkins / Herald

American Indians deal with many of the same racial identification issues they faced in centuries past, said Boston College professor Eva Garroutte.

Professor discusses racial identities of American Indians

BY JOANNE PARK

Three-quarters of a century after an infamous American Indian journalist lost his status for having African ancestry, Native Americans continue to grapple with racial identification, according to Boston College Professor of Sociology Eva Garroutte.

In her lecture “Real Indians: Identity and the Survival of Native America,” based on her book of the same title, Garroutte related the story of Chief Buffalo Child Long Lance, a wellknown journalist, war hero and silent film star, whose later-discovered multi-racial ancestry destroyed his career.

Long Lance’s autobiography, which

Herald staff writer Carla Blumenkranz ’05 edits the campus watch section. She can be reached at cblumenkranz@browndailyherald.com.

Possible satellite fitness center gift

BY MICHAEL RUDERMAN

The University is in the process of securing a gift for the construction of satellite fitness centers around campus.

President Ruth Simmons is “continuing to speak with an individual who has expressed a willingness to consider supporting a satellite fitness facility, but a final decision has not been made,” Assistant to the President Marisa Quinn wrote in an e-mail.

No public announcement has been made as Simmons is waiting for a final decision from the donor, Quinn told The Herald. Once the gift is secured, the Development Office will work with the donors to determine how and when to make any formal announcement, she

said.

“A donation to support satellite fitness facilities would allow us to better meet the considerable demand for fitness equipment while continuing our longerterm planning for fitness and recreation facilities,” wrote David Greene, interim vice president for Campus Life and Student Services, in an e-mail.

He could not specify how the gift will change campus fitness centers, but Greene wrote that planning for the construction of such fitness centers is just beginning.

The University hired the architectural and planning firm Venturi, Scott Brown

detailed his childhood as an American Indian in the Great Plains, increased his publicity, said Garroutte, who is part Cherokee. Eventually, Long Lance gained the opportunity to mingle with socialites and actors, she said.

As his profile grew, rumors arose over Long Lance’s ancestral roots.

Although Long Lance had become famous for being one of “the few, real 100 percent Americans,” researchers discovered he was of mixed ancestry, Garroutte said.

Long Lance, who had risen to fame in journalism and the movie industry by proclaiming himself a Blackfoot chief, had African ancestry as well, she said.

After the discovery of his past, Long Lance’s fame quickly dwindled. He committed suicide at the age of 41, Garroutte said.

Long Lance’s life provides a template for American Indians today who question the extent to which they belong in American Indian communities, Garroutte said.

In the ensuing discussion audience members raised the question of whether Long Lance was entitled to call himself an American Indian.

“He contributed to the exotification of the (American) Indian people, where he was seen as an object of curiosity,” said a member of the crowd, referring to Long Lance’s effect on the perceptions of American Indians today.

Long Lance’s tendency to report inaccurate information regarding

They’re called graduate students, but most of them are teachers, too.

The specifics of graduate school teaching requirements are set by each department, though nearly all doctoral candidates have some required teaching component, said Alyssa Lodewick GS, a doctoral candidate in history.

It would be nearly impossible for an undergraduate student to pass through Brown withthe out encountering a grad GRADUATE student in the classroom.

SCHOOL But sometimes they at 100 almost don’t know it.

Michael Joyce GS, a graduate student in the Department of Mathematics, said his undergraduate students were surprised at how young he looked and didn’t realize he was their instructor until he began leading class.

But age differences don’t get in the way of having an effective class, he said.

Joyce said being relatively young makes him more approachable and makes it more likely students will come to his office hours.

Gina Rourke GS, a graduate student in the Department of American Civilization, said she does not find it strange to be both a teacher and a student. When you teach, you are always learning as well, she said. Rourke said she doesn’t expect it to be any different as a professor.

The true difference between graduate student instructors and professors “comes down to cash prizes and years of experience,” Rourke said.

At 36, older than the average graduate student, being close in age to her students isn’t an issue, Rourke said.

But, based on workshop discussions held by the Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning, Charlotte Biltekoff GS, a graduate student in the Department of American Civilization and a Graduate Fellow at the Sheridan Center, said issues of age differences and authority in the classroom are important ones for graduate student teachers. “(Undergraduates) don’t always know what to make of us,” said Lacee O’Brien GS, a fourth-year graduate student in the Department of English. “Sometimes you have to say, ‘I’m your instructor. I give you the agenda.’”

“My first year I read that students thought TAs were useless and that they knew more than us,” said Lea Allen GS, a fourth-year graduate student in the Department of English. “That made me nervous.”

Many graduate students are drawn to Brown because of its emphasis on teaching experience. “Teaching is a big part of the job market” for people with math degrees, Joyce said. “It’s nice to get that experience (at Brown) earlier than other people,” he said.

“Teaching is my passion,” said Daniel Ehlke GS, a third-year graduate student

see FITNESS, page 4 see GARROUTTE, page 4

I N S I D E T U E S D AY, O C T O B E R 2 1 , 2 0 0 3 Swearer Center program loses place in Providence school due to city cutbacks page 3

U. drops funding for Brown racecar team, forcing it to miss spring competition page 5

Transfer students deserve more respect from the school, says Sarah Green ’04 column, page 11

see GRAD, page 4

TO D AY ’ S F O R E C A S T W. soccer defeats Harvard 3-2 in exciting weekend play at Cambridge sports, page 12

With one win and a 6-5 loss to No. 1 St. Francis, M. water polo ends successful weekend sports, page 12

rain/wind high 65 low 43

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

THIS MORNING TUESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2003 · PAGE 2 Coup de Grace Grace Farris

W E AT H E R TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY

High 65 Low 43 rain/wind

THURSDAY

High 54 Low 36 showers

FRIDAY

High 54 Low 35 showers

High 54 Low 34 partly cloudy GRAPHICS BY TED WU

Three Words Eddie Ahn

MENU THE RATTY LUNCH — Vegetarian Black Bean Soup, Beef Barley Soup, Grilled Tuna Sandwich with Cheese, Pasta Spinach Casserole, Corn Cobbets, Cherry Tarts with Bavarian Cream, Chocolate Cake, with Chocolate Sour Cream Icing, Lemon Meringue Pie, Lamb Stir Fry.

V-DUB LUNCH — Vegetarian Liz’s Great Vegetable Soup, Chicken Gumbo Soup, Chicken Fajitas, Vegan Taco, Vegan Refried Beans, Mexican Succotash, Cherry Tarts with Bavarian Cream.

DINNER — Vegetarian Black Bean Soup, Beef Barley Soup, Fiery Beef, Sesame Chicken Strips with Mustard Sauce, Garden Vegetable Lasagna, Sticky Rice with Edamame Beans, Cherry Tarts with Bavarian Cream, Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Sour Cream Icing, Lemon Meringue Pie.

DINNER — Vegetarian Liz’s Great Vegetable Soup, Chicken Gumbo Soup, Roast Pork Jour Ouvert, Vegan Baked Polenta, Wild & White Rice Pilaf, Broccoli Cuts, Mashed Butternut Squash, Onion & Dill Rolls, Chocolate Cake with Sour Cream Icing.

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CROSSWORD ACROSS 1 Chris Matthews’s TV station 6 Texas city, familiarly 10 Expressed, as a farewell 14 __ Gay: WWII plane 15 Author Buchanan 16 Yoked team 17 Access the Internet 18 Prepared state 20 Double parking area?

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By Nancy Kavanaugh (c)2003 Tribune Media Services, Inc.

10/21/03

Nick lightly rubbed the ambulance against a brick wall

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

CAMPUS NEWS TUESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2003 · PAGE 3 METRO SPECIAL

Swearer Center program cut from area school

BY SARAH LABRIE

Sara Perkins / Herald

Vines — still with vibrant foliage — climb the John Hay Library on Prospect Street. Monday’s clear and sunny day brought crisp, fall air to College Hill.

Times are tough in Providence schools, with budget cuts and curriculum changes shaking up classrooms.

One Brown initiative is feeling the effects.

Communities in Classrooms, designed to expose middle school students to arts and experiential learning, was left out of Bridgham Middle School’s schedule. The program has been a part of the school’s curriculum for the past 10 years, according to Arthi Sundaresh ’05, student coordinator for CIC. Because federal guidelines dictate schools’ curriculums to a large extent, activities that don’t pertain specifically to state curriculums have been scaled down. Curriculum changes at Bridgham bumped CIC out of the schedule, Sundaresh said.

“Budget crunches and increasing numbers of kids make teachers less amenable to creative work,” said Kerri Heffernan, senior associate director of the Swearer Center. Heffernan oversees youth and adolescent development programs at the Center.

But the Rhode Island Debate League, one of the Swearer Center’s programs most lauded by students and teachers, is not struggling against cutbacks this year. The league gives public high school students the chance to learn debate skills and compete against each other.

“It’s part of a national movement to bring debate to inner-city kids,” said student coordinator Kevin Narag ’05.

Volunteers from Brown meet with high school students once or twice a week to help them develop thinking and analytical skills. see SWEARER, page 6

PAGE 4 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD TUESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2003

Garroutte continued from page 1 American Indian traditions also indicated his own ignorance of the culture, the audience member said.

But another member said the journalist’s knowledge of the Cherokee language gave him credibility in speaking on behalf of American Indians. “(Long Lance’s) story leads smack into a discussion of Indian-ness,” Garrroutte said, as participants debated the genetic and cultural foundations to racial identification.

“We are the only minority required to provide legal documentation of our racial identity,” she said. “There is a reason for this — American Indians enjoy rights in health care, education. These are provided as compensation,” she said.

Garroutte explained that the federal government’s definition of “American Indian” relies on a “blood quantum standard,” which calculates ancestry based on what fraction one’s parents are American Indian.

“Such calculations can

“We are the only minority required to provide legal documentation of our racial identity,” she said. become infinitesimally precise,” she said, while current ancestry records are based on records dating as far back as several centuries “that are not always accurate.”

The numerical value the federal government places on one’s racial identity as an American Indian has its pros and cons, Garroutte said. “We probably can’t do without legal definitions because the government has a right to know who receives federal benefits,” she said. “But they are far from perfect.”

The numerical standard, along with the native communities and the perceptions they form, often serve as important shapers of American Indian

identity, Garroutte said.

Garroutte’s research led her to question the role of academics in the debate over racial identification. She said she asked herself, “Is there a role for people who have a role in the native communities and also have a role in the scholarly community?”

In studying modern American Indian culture, “there is a lot of emphasis on ceremonial behaviors as methods of inquiry,” Garroutte said. Such ceremonies lead to greater insight of the culture, she said.

Garroutte said it is important for American Indians to be viewed “not merely as objects of curiosity, but as tools for the further discovery of knowledge.”

Through careful study, resources in academia could be used to produce results relevant to present American Indian culture, she said.

The lecture was part of Multiracial Heritage Week and co-sponsored by Native Americans at Brown.

Herald senior staff writer Joanne Park ’06 can be reached at jpark@browndailyherald.com.

Grad continued from page 1 in the Department of Political Science. “I really like the public service element of imparting knowledge I’ve been given and making connections. I really thrive in the atmosphere” created by sections, he said.

But individual experiences vary by department. “The experience in the sciences and the humanities is pretty different,” Biltekoff said.

Grad students often serve as teaching assistants in large, introductory undergraduate classes. Because of the number of calculus courses needed in the math department, a professor will run the largest section and graduate students will teach the others, Joyce said.

Ehlke said getting a position as a TA in political science is “very easy” because the department is “undergraduate-heavy,” though, he said, he doesn’t always get much of a choice in classes.

“We go where we’re needed,” he said of himself and his fellow political science TAs. Still, he

said, assistant teaching for courses like Professor of Political Science James Morone’s PS 22: “City Politics” course would continue to supplement his dissertation research.

Graduate students in such departments as English and American civilization create their own seminars.

O’Brien and the other graduate students teaching sections of EL 20 this year, started designing their courses last fall.

They were required to present their proposed courses to a committee “just like professors do,” she said.

“It forces you to look at your work from a different perspective,” O’Brien said. “You don’t get too narrowly focused.”

“TAs don’t have to make as many decisions,” O’Brien said.

“The professor does all that. It’s fun to put stuff together” for your own class, she said.

When graduate students lead their own seminars, they are in charge of everything from the syllabus to grading, Rourke said.

“We really are in charge and not answering to anyone,” she said.

O’Brien said she had to take classes on teaching as well as a broad spectrum of literature courses before creating her own class. “The (English) department is more interested in developing grad students. You’re not just thrown to the wolves,” she said.

But some graduate students are frustrated that individual departments don’t offer enough training to teach, Rourke said.

Some graduate students would like more training built into the program, she said.

Not all grad students teach, however.

Some science departments allow grad students to serve as research assistants instead, Lodewick said. Kristina Davitt GS, a third-year graduate student in the Department of Electrical Engineering, chose to be a research assistant instead of a TA. “As an undergrad, I had some tutoring experience,” Davitt said. “Although I believe it can be rewarding, it can also chew up a lot of research time.”

Fitness continued from page 1 and Associates to recommend ways the school can improve campus life facilities, including fitness centers.

“Students have made it clear to us that fitness activities are a regular and important part of their life,” Greene wrote. The University renovated the Bear’s Lair fitness center last semester, and those renovations served as a pilot project for other construction efforts to fitness facilities on campus, he wrote.

Herald staff writer Michael Ruderman ’07 can be reached at mruderman@browndailyherald.com.

support the fresh air fund.

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

CAMPUS NEWS TUESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2003 · PAGE 5

Lack of funding keeps racecar team from entering competition

BY SCHUYLER VON OEYEN

Members of the Brown racecar team, Brown Formula Society of Automotive Engineers, will not be attending their annual spring competition in Pontiac, Mich., next May as a result of cutbacks in University funding to the team.

The Division of Engineering plans this year to reduce the amount of money allocated to Brown Formula SAE because of budget restrictions and concerns team members’ participation distracted them from their schoolwork, said newly appointed Dean of Engineering Clyde Briant.

“We felt that we’re still supporting the team, and I think it’s going well, but we did feel trying to race every year was just distracting to them,” Briant said.

Instead of preparing for the spring competition, Formula SAE members will spend the entire 2003-2004 school year developing their technical skills and working on preliminary design in preparation for the May 2005 competition.

Racecar team leaders said the decision will prompt the team to aggressively market itself to private companies for sponsorship.

Until now, the team relied on the University for two-thirds to three-quarters of its funding, said team member Lars Kanter ’06.

“The issue here is that everyone is run-

ning into financial trouble,” said design team member Joshua Dunford ’06. “This year is going to be a year in which we transition from University funding to private sponsorship.”

But it won’t be easy.

“We have had a lot of trouble getting sponsors in recent months due to the poor economic climate,” said team member Larsen Plano ’05.

The outgoing dean of engineering, Professor Rodney Clifton, met with Briant and other engineering department administrators over the summer and determined students had trouble completing a racecar in nine months while balancing academic workloads.

“I was extremely pleased with the presentation made by the racecar team this past week in our discussions,” Briant said.

“They have done a very good job of developing a fairly detailed financial analysis of the fabrications and development of the car. It was very encouraging to see.”

Despite reassurances from the Division of Engineering that the rationale for withdrawing Brown’s participating in the May 2004 competition was not entirely financial in nature, some members of the racecar team remain skeptical.

“I’m still pretty convinced that it is due to budgetary reasons,” Kanter said. “It see RACECAR, page 6

Sara Perkins / Herald

Before winter rids the campus of most bicycles locked to posts in front of buildings, this bike is one of many still visible on the Hill. dons a cartoon-like devil on its handlebar.The two-wheeler dons a cartoon-like devil on its handlebar, one that may be seen to mock passersby and other bicycles.

PAGE 6 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD TUESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2003

Swearer continued from page 3 “We teach kids not to submit and to communicate effectively,” Narag said.

Coaches work with students from area high schools, including Hope, Classical and Central as well as Textron Academy and the Met, two charter schools.

Most of the students involved in the program come from disadvantaged backgrounds, Narag said. Coaches develop year-long relationships with students and encourage them to think beyond high school and plan for college.

“The debate team brought the students who don’t always have the best grades and taught them they can achieve and think well on their feet,” said Kristen Dehertogh, a guidance counselor at Textron Academy, one of the first schools in Providence to join the league.

“It’s a terrific program,” added Rick Landau, head of Textron.

“Brown has done an excellent job. It’s been a very positive experience for the school.”

The program also benefits Brown students, giving them the chance to fight “the general stereotype of people never leaving College Hill,” Narag said.

“Providence has one of the most compromised public school systems in the country,” Heffernan said. She said she understands why people who live in Providence might see Brown students as uninvolved.

“So few Brown students are from Providence,” she said, adding that the transient nature of students hurts their ability to become a part of the community.

Robert Pilkington, head of the Rhode Island League of Charter Schools, agreed that the presence of so many college students has little influence on students at public high schools.

“Most kids arrive in ninth grade wanting to go to college already,” Pilkington said. But he said he does believe student volunteer tutors and coaches help effect change.

College prep classes and tutoring services, most of which are founded and organized by student volunteers, help to bring the college culture closer to Providence students. While rising rates of college enrollment

Racecar continued from page 5 should not be the administration’s responsibility to decide how much time we put into this.”

Both the Division of Engineering and the racecar team itself agree the extra time will allow the team to be even more prepared for the 2005 competition and that the delay of one year would be to their benefit.

“We are currently in a two-year trial period,” Briant said. “At the end of the two years, we will see how we stand and make an appropriate move from there.”

Brown Formula SAE recruits will have the opportunity to work in the machine shop and learn engineering skills including metalworking, welding, computer

among area high school seniors may not be directly related to the high number of college students in the city, individual student volunteers do help to prepare students to succeed after high school.

“The most important thing is the one-on-one relationship.

Students provide a role model and show them what they can do,” Pilkington said.

Although Sundaresh’s program does not specifically focus on promoting college after high school, volunteers set an example.

“We’re only there because we go to Brown. This sends the message that college is a good thing,” she said.

But CIC’s main focus is community building.

“The nature of the work we’re doing acts to break the barrier” between College Hill and the inner city, Sundaresh said.

Charly Adler GS, an adviser and head of professional development at the Met, said his school makes a special effort to connect with Brown through volunteers and tutors.

“It can only have a positive effect,” said Adler about the College Hill culture.

Students from Brown often bring Met students to the campus to show them that “even cool kids go to college,” Adler said.

The school also pairs students with interests in specific fields of education with Brown professors.

“We use every resource possible,” Adler said.

While Providence area schools agree the Swearer Center provides a strong bridge from the school to the community, there is also a general sentiment that Brown doesn’t do all that it could and that students tend to stay on College Hill.

“For lots of volunteers at the Met, it’s their first time coming into the city,” Adler said.

Landau agreed. Although he finds the Swearer Center “excellent,” he said the University itself should have more of a presence.

“I think that Brown has an influence, but I think they could be more visible. I would like to see Brown do more,” Landau said.

Herald staff writer Sarah LaBrie ’07 can be reached at slabrie@browndailyherald.com.

animated design graphics, systems design and other important skills.

“We are doing suspension research to possibly replace the unique suspension design we have implemented over the past three years,” Plano said. “With the extra time, we may even build a test vehicle.”

The possibility of entering another small competition or pursuing other engineeringrelated areas not directly linked to the racecar fabrications remain options open to the team.

Briant said he would remain in close communication with the team to potentially explore these options as well, but that the team will already have plenty to accomplish this year.

Herald staff writer Schuyler von Oeyen ’05 can be reached at svonoeyen@browndailyherald.com.

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

WORLD & NATION TUESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2003 · PAGE 7

Sniper suspect takes over his own defense VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (L.A. Times) — Serial murder suspect John Allen Muhammad took over his own defense Monday, denying guilt during a rambling monologue that came after a prosecutor somberly traced the alleged sniper’s path through the suburbs of Washington, D.C., a year ago.

Muhammad’s hands shook slightly as he faced the jury like a novice lecturer and insisted that Prince William County prosecutors had no proof of his involvement in the monthlong rampage that killed 10 people in the Washington area. “Good evening,” he blurted out at the start of his opening statement. It was just past noon.

For nearly a half-hour after a Virginia judge agreed to allow him to act as his own lawyer, Muhammad, 42, meandered shakily through a discourse on the uncertain nature of truth. He quoted Jesus, he referred to Allah, he even launched into a long tale about his daughter’s snack of forbidden chocolate cookies as he tried to show that authorities could not definitively link him to any of the sniper slayings.

“They wasn’t there,” he said. “I was, and I know what happened.” Muhammad said that “the evidence will show I had nothing to do with these crimes, directly or indirectly.”

In opening remarks that preceded Muhammad’s statement, Assistant county Commonwealth Attorney James A. Willett said the defendant and the 18-year-old alleged to be his accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, had aimed to “terrorize and demoralize” the public. Narrating poignant thumbnail portraits of those killed, Willett said the prosecution would speak for the terrified “nameless and faceless” residents of the entire District of Columbia area.

Muhammad’s early morning move to replace his court-appointed defense lawyers appeared to come as a surprise to Circuit Court Judge LeRoy F. Millette Jr. and trial lawyers in the case. Millette’s reluctant decision to grant Muhammad’s request plunged the detailed strategies of his defense team into a freefall. The decision came quickly at the start of the session, and the judge offered no explanation.

Criminal defendants have a constitutional right to represent themselves, although judges can deny such requests under certain narrow circumstances.

Defense lawyers Peter D. Greenspun and Jonathan Shapiro were reduced to acting as “standby attorneys” allowed only to advise Muhammad. They whispered with him at times, but spent much of the day slumped in their seats at the defense table, watching dejectedly as the defendant stumbled on.

Muhammad’s wandering line of questioning and his legal inexperience could distance the jury and potentially undermine some of his post-trial legal appeals, courtroom observers said. “This turns what should have been a serious legal case into a circus,” said Lisa B. Kemler, a veteran defense lawyer in Alexandria.

Muhammad, a Gulf War veteran turned drifter, could face the death penalty if he is convicted of killing Dean Harold Meyers, a 53-year-old civil engineer who was gunned down at a northern Virginia gas station last October. Felled by a longrange rifle blast as he pumped gas in the town of Manassas, Meyers was the seventh victim.

Muhammad provided no evidence beyond his own assertion of innocence. But he asked the jury to listen closely to the facts, because “my life and my son’s life is on the line.” Muhammad was apparently referring to Malvo, who is not related to him. After repeated references, Millette ordered Muhammad to refer to Malvo by name only.

The judge at one point warned Muhammad that he reserved the right to restore Greenspun and

see SNIPER, page 9

Washington Post

“It’s like starting over when you’re a kid, learning how to tie your shoes again,” says Army Sgt. Matt DeWitt, who was injured in Iraq. State-of-the-art prosthetics sense electrical impulses and transmit them to microprocessors that power motors in mechanical wrists and hands.

‘Bionic’ advances a boon to amputees WASHINGTON (Washington Post) — Every now and then, when he flexes the muscles in his forearm and picks up something such as a fork or a car key, Army Sgt. Matt DeWitt thinks he is using his own arm again.

“You still feel, for a second, like you have a hand,” DeWitt said in an interview at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

It was, for DeWitt, an amazing revelation, given that he lost both his arms below the elbow three months ago when he was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade as he manned a machine gun atop an armored Humvee in Iraq.

DeWitt, 26, has been experiencing this sensation as he learns to use two state-of-the-art prosthetics that sense electrical impulses from muscles in his forearms — the same muscles he once used to move his real hands and wrists — and transmit them to microprocessors that power motors in his new mechanical wrists and hands.

These devices are known as “myoelectric” arms — myo is the Greek word for muscle — but a better and more descriptive term might just be “bionic.”

“You’ll find people, when they hear the word bionic, will turn and run,’’ said Harold H. Sears, a PhD bioengineer. His company, Motion Control Inc. — a 25-employee firm partly funded through grants from the National Institutes of Health — manufactures the world’s most complex myoelectric arm. “Bionics actually had a scientific meaning,” Sears said, “and then there was the ‘Six Million Dollar Man’ (television) program that kind of corrupted it, so no one knows what ‘bionic’ means anymore.”

But it is the right word, he says, to describe myoelectric prosthetics inasmuch as these robotic arms are driven by “biologic signals.” DeWitt’s ability to flex the remaining muscles in his forearms and move his electric hands and wrists powerfully makes that case.

Myoelectric prosthetics were pioneered in the late 1940s by a German scientist, and have been in use in the United States since the 1980s. But recent technological advances in plastics, microchips and miniaturized electronics have made myoelectric arms far more capable and lifelike.

Electronic hands and other “terminal devices” that resemble robotic hooks or claws now feature ‘proportional control.” A slight flex of a muscle closes the devices slowly, with only a light grip, so amputees can grasp delicate items such as eggs or sandwiches without crushing them. A faster, harder flex closes a hand or a hook much more quickly — with enough strength to hold a 25-pound object.

The devices work because, just like the heart, every muscle emits electrical signals that can be sensed

through the skin, much the way an electrocardiogram monitors the heart. Sensors on the outside surface of the myoelectric arm, embedded in tight-fitting rubber prosthetics, detect this tiny “electromyographic” signal.

Analog amplifiers then amplify it and send it to microprocessors that operate motors in the joints and hands.

Amputees are taught to open their myoelectric hands by contracting the extensor muscles in the forearm, which normally flex the wrist out or up. By contracting the flexor muscles, which flex the wrist in or down, they close the hands. And by contracting both muscles together, they rotate their mechanical wrists.

A recent advance in the technology — featured in an artificial hand developed by Otto Bock HealthCare, a German manufacturer, and soon to be replicated by Motion Control — has added sensors in the fingertips of an artificial hand that can tell when an object is about to slip out of its grasp — and automatically tighten the grip.

Motion Control, meanwhile, has just come out with what it calls the Utah Arm 3, a myoelectric limb for people who have lost arms above the elbow. It contains two microprocessors that enable amputees, through biceps and triceps contractions and shoulder movements, to move electronic elbows, wrists and hands, including simultaneous elbow and wrist or hand movements.

“The technology is going to accelerate,” said Sears, Motion Control’s general manager. “Because the devices work better now, we’re less prone to be dismissed as experimental. I think myoelectric arms are here to stay.”

Despite all of the recent advances, many people unfamiliar with amputees do not even know the devices exist. DeWitt did not as he lay in a combat hospital and tried to come to terms emotionally with losing both his arms. Part of the reason the devices are little known is that far more people lose legs than arms. Artificial arms represent only about 5 percent of all prosthetics fitted in the United States, Sears said.

Part of the reason is that insurance companies typically pay for just one type of prosthesis per patient.

Other alternatives — passive cosmetic devices that look like arms and “body-powered” hooks that amputees operate by manipulating cables that stretch across their backs — are far cheaper.

Myoelectric prosthetics are pricey. The Utah Arm 3 costs about $70,000; below-the-elbow arms cost about $35,000.

But cost is not an issue for the Army when it comes to caring for amputees from the war in Iraq, where frequent Iraqi attacks on U.S. troops with rocket-propelled grenades have led to a sharp increase in the number of arm amputees, particularly now that Kevlar body armor is helping to eliminate torso injuries and saving the lives of troops who might otherwise have died.

PAGE 8 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD TUESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2003

Student charged in airport security scheme (Washington Post) — The U.S.

government Monday charged a 20-year-old Maryland resident with carrying concealed weapons on an aircraft after investigators said he admitted he took box cutters and other dangerous items onto six flights in a scheme to prove that weaknesses remain in the nation’s air security system.

Nathaniel Travis Heatwole of Damascus, Md., told investigators that he was able to take the items through security checkpoints in his carry-on bag and on his body on six occasions at Raleigh-Durham International and Baltimore-Washington International airports this year without being stopped by security screeners, according to an FBI affidavit filed in court Monday.

The affidavit was filed with the U.S. District Court in Baltimore by federal prosecutors. It details the information Heatwole provided in an interview with FBI agents.

Heatwole, a college student, allegedly told investigators he stashed the items aboard four planes and then left a paper trail for authorities, through notes left with the items and in an e-mail to security officials, which they used to identify him.

He said he believed his actions were “an act of civil disobedience with the aim of improving public safety for the air-traveling public,” according to the

affidavit.

Heatwole, appearing in court Monday to hear the charges against him, was not offered an opportunity to enter a plea, and his attorney declined to comment on the case. If found guilty, Heatwole could face up to 10 years in federal prison.

The discovery of the box cutters, matches, bleach and simulated explosives aboard commercial aircraft last week sparked a national debate and a congressional inquiry into the quality of the nation’s air security system since the government took over screening at airport checkpoints in February 2002.

The Transportation Security Administration was created in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, in which terrorists are believed to have used box cutters to commandeer four commercial aircraft.

The TSA has said that it has confiscated more than 8 million dangerous items at the nation’s airports, but the items in Heatwole’s bags demonstrated that the system can be penetrated.

When asked how a college student was able to pass through security at two airports with prohibited items, apparently easily and on several occasions, TSA Deputy Administrator Steven McHale acknowledged the security system’s imperfections.

“We do not expect ever to

have 100 percent screening at the checkpoints,’’ McHale said, pointing out the multiple “layers” of security beyond the checkpoint, such as reinforced cockpit doors and undercover air marshals. “Amateur testing like this does not in any way assist us or show us where we have flaws in our system.”

The TSA said that it is conducting an internal review to determine how the dangerous items got on the planes and that it will change how its contact center responds to messages from the public.

“TSA will require contact center staff to flag messages that discuss illegal activity even if it does not contain threatening information, as in this case,”said Yolanda Clark, spokeswoman for the agency.

Thomas M. DiBiagio, U.S. attorney for Maryland, called the actions that Heatwole is charged with “dangerous.”

“This is a very serious case,” DiBiagio said. “This was not a prank. This was not poor judgment. This was a crime. This was a very foolish and dangerous act.”

Appearing in court Monday, cleanshaven and wearing khaki pants and a collared shortsleeve shirt, Heatwole readily participated in the proceedings, answering “Yes, your honor” several times. His parents, who see AIRPORT, page 9

Israel strikes Gaza Strip in series of air raids JERUSALEM (L.A. Times) — In one of

Israel’s most intense waves of airstrikes in more than three years of fighting, helicopters and warplanes hammered the Gaza Strip Monday in five separate raids that killed 11 Palestinians and injured nearly 100 others.

Most of the casualties were believed to be civilian bystanders, rather than the Palestinian militants Israel said it was targeting in the raids. The injured included several elementary schoolchildren who were leaving class just as one of the missile attacks occurred on a busy downtown street in Gaza City.

The airborne attacks came a day after the Israeli army’s worst one-day loss in months, the ambush deaths of three soldiers patrolling a West Bank village outside Ramallah. On Monday, a controversy erupted over whether a small, lightly armed squad should have been out after dark in a hostile area.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, speaking to lawmakers at the start of the legislative session, blamed Yasser Arafat for the latest upsurge in violence and the breakdown of the Americanbacked peace plan known as the road map.

Branding the Palestinian leader the “greatest obstacle to peace,” he renewed calls — which his government had muted in recent weeks — to deprive Arafat, at the very least, of his position of authority.

“The withdrawal from the peace plan has a clear address — Arafat is the man who foiled and continues to foil any progress,” said Sharon. “Israel is resolved to lead to his removal from the political arena.”

The day’s five strikes over a 14hour period marked the fiery end of a brief hiatus in Israel’s campaign of “targeted killings” of leaders and senior field operatives of Hamas, or the Islamic Resistance Movement.

While previous Israeli airstrikes have caused more casualties, Monday marked the first time in the 37-month intifada that so many back-to-back airborne raids had been launched at targets associated with Palestinian militant groups.

Israel described the day’s actions as part of an ongoing effort to dismantle the infrastructure of Palestinian terror groups,

The deadliest of the Gaza strikes was a chaotic nighttime attack with helicopter-fired missiles in the crowded Nusseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. but the immediate impetus for such wide-ranging strikes against Hamas was unclear. It was not Hamas, but another Palestinian militant group — the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Bridge, affiliated with Arafat’s Fatah faction — that claimed responsibility for ambushing the Israeli patrol.

The deadliest of the Gaza strikes was a chaotic nighttime attack with helicopter-fired missiles in the crowded Nusseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. Dozens of people were hurt.

According to witnesses, the first missile struck a car carrying several Palestinian militants. As a crowd of people rushed forward to try to help the men, another missile hit, sending body parts and shrapnel flying in all directions.

Doctors at nearby Palestinian hospitals said they were overwhelmed by the casualties that poured into their ill-equipped emergency rooms.

Among those injured in an earlier raid, at midday, were several elementary schoolchildren who had just left class and were crossing a busy street when the Israeli helicopters swooped in to fire on a truck that had stopped at the intersection.

The two Hamas men inside the truck were killed, along with a civilian man in a nearby car. Even before the day’s final raids had taken place, the group was vowing to exact revenge.

In a statement, Hamas specifically declared the United States to be complicit in the Israeli strikes — an ominous accusation in light of a roadside bombing in Gaza last week that killed three American security men traveling in an official U.S. convoy.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2003 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD PAGE 9

M. polo

Plaintiffs sign settlement in church sex abuse case

continued from page 12 BOSTON (L.A. Times) — Lawyers for hundreds of

goals, in spite of the fact it is a highly offense-oriented team.

“We are very proud of how everyone played,” Sandys said.

“We were not afraid of the size and age of our opponents, and it was probably our best game of the season.”

Brown’s final contest before the Northern Championships will be the UC Davis Shootout in California next weekend, where the Bears will face some of the best teams in the nation including UC San Diego, a team ranked in the top 10.

“Each game is going to present different challenges, and we will have to work on consistency and executing the defense and offense that we’ve been doing in practice,” Clapper said.

“This is a great launching point for the Northerns,” Sandys said. “It will be good to get some tough competition before heading into the tournament the next weekend.”

Herald staff writer Jinhee Chung ’05 can be reached at jchung@browndailyherald.com.

W. soccer continued from page 12 Pincince said. “It’s a great feeling. The team is very resilient and continues to find ways to get the job done.”

Brown’s potent offense forced the Crimson to make a goalie change, exchanging starter Katie Shields for Maja Agustsdottir after Shields surrendered two goals to the Bears in the first half.

Brown, currently running third in the Ivy League, is in good shape with four games left to play.

“We have a lot of work cut out for us, and hopefully we’ll come out with the same kind of vigor as we did against Harvard,” Roberts said. “We were unlucky to lose the Princeton game, but the last five games we’ve played really well.”

Brown continues its season Saturday at Cornell and will come home for the last game at Stevenson Field against Penn on Nov. 1.

alleged clerical sexual abuse victims said Monday that enough plaintiffs had signed off on an $85 million settlement with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston for the deal to take effect.

The agreement, reached in early September, required signatures from 80 percent of the 552 plaintiffs. If enough signatures had not been obtained by Thursday’s deadline, the agreement would have been voided.

Mitchell Garabedian, an attorney representing about 120 clients in the case against the archdiocese, said Monday he was submitting 114 signed agreements to mediators and church lawyers.

“I was told that if I submitted my 114, we’d be beyond the 80 percent threshold,’’ said Garabedian, who served on a task force of lawyers representing victims and the church; that panel negotiated the consolidated agreement.

Individual awards for those who have signed

Airport continued from page 8 were in the courtroom, declined to comment on the case.

According to the affidavit, Heatwole carried weapons on flights while traveling between his residences in Montgomery County, where he lives with his parents, and Greensboro, N.C., where he attends Guilford College. He allegedly carried dangerous items aboard six flights from February to September and left items on four planes.

It took a repairman working on a clogged airplane lavatory to launch a federal investigation.

Last Thursday in New Orleans, a Southwest Airlines mechanic discovered three zipped plastic bags and an anonymous note. The bags, hidden behind a panel near the toilet, were filled with three box cutters, a small container of bleach, a claylike substance and strike-anywhere matches.

The note said the items had been taken through security at the Raleigh-Durham airport on Sept. 12 and noted the flight number. The note was signed ‘”3891925.”

A few hours after the discovery in New Orleans, a Southwest Airlines repairman in Houston came across a similar package containing the same items. It also contained a note, which said the items had been taken through

off on the deal will be determined through arbitration beginning Tuesday. Those judgments will range from $80,000 to $300,000, depending on the nature and duration of abuse, according to the agreement’s guidelines. Those who opted not to sign the agreement can take their cases to trial.

From Rome — where he had attended the beatification of Mother Teresa over the weekend — Boston Archbishop Sean Patrick O’Malley said he was pleased that the agreement had been ratified by the required number of plaintiffs.

“I hope that in the next few days, even more of the plaintiffs will agree to enter into the process,” O’Malley said in a statement issued by the archdiocese. However, O’Malley continued, “I realize, of course, that much work remains to be done.”

Plaintiff Gary Bergeron, 41, said the agreement was merely an acknowledgment by the church that it had erred in dealing with pedophile priests in the past and was now

security at BWI on Sept. 14, and mentioned the flight number. It was signed, “Sincerely, 3891925.”

Investigators later learned that the signature was Heatwole’s birthday, May 29, 1983, written backward.

Southwest notified the TSA, and overnight the agency, the airline and the FBI decided to search the airline’s entire 385-plane fleet.

The next day, the TSA ordered every airline to search every commercial aircraft — more than 6,500 planes.

DiBiagio said two other packages with dangerous items were recovered on Southwest planes in April, in Tampa and RaleighDurham, but he did not elaborate on how they were found.

On Friday, the TSA searched a database of e-mails it had received from the public and found an indication of who might be responsible for the packages.

In a message received on Sept. 15 with a subject line saying “Information Regarding 6 Recent Security Breaches,” the writer said he had smuggled several items onto planes and referred to the notes he had left behind.

“The e-mail author also stated that he was aware that his actions were against the law and that he was aware of the potential consequences for his actions,” according to the FBI affidavit.

The writer of the e-mail, which was signed, “Sincerely, Nat Heatwole,” said his actions were “an act of civil disobedience with

Sniper continued from page 7 Shapiro to the case if the trial plunged into chaos. During his opening remarks, Muhammad tried haltingly to explore the nature of truth, insisting that the government’s facts could not stand up to his own. He said he would be found innocent, “praise to Allah,” and quoted Jesus, saying, “Ye shall know the truth.”

Muhammad spoke calmly as he cross-examined a British Army sniper expert. “Have you ever seen me shoot anyone?”

Muhammad asked Sgt. Major Mark Spicer, a prosecution expert.

“willing to make some changes.”

Bergeron said he anguished before signing the agreement last week.

“It was a very, very hard decision for me,” Bergeron said, “because I don’t like the process.

To go through all this to get this symbolic amount — and now to have to sit through arbitration, telling your story once again. I’ve told my story hundreds of times in the past two years. But now I am going to do it for money, and that thought makes me nauseous.”

Bergeron said he felt his only alternative would have been civil litigation, “and I don’t know what I would have been able to accomplish by that. It is no longer about placing the blame. We know where the blame lies.”

Ann Hagan Webb — a psychotherapist who serves as head of the Massachusetts chapter of SNAP, or Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests — said many plaintiffs told her they were signing the agreement “not because they are delighted and it is wonderful, but because they feel they have no other choice.”

the aim of improving public safety for the air-traveling public.”

The e-mail also provided a telephone number.

Authorities quickly contacted Heatwole, who was interviewed

by FBI investigators at his home in Damascus on Friday with his mother present. Several attempts to interview his parents for this article were unsuccessful.

Heatwole was not taken into custody after his court appearance, through an agreement between his lawyer and the U.S. attorney. As a condition of not being held, he agreed Monday not to set foot in an airport or board a flight until after his next court appearance on Nov. 10.

According to people who know him, Heatwole, a junior majoring in physics and political science, was not afraid to speak out about his political beliefs.

In an article about Heatwole published in the Guilford College newspaper during his freshman year, he explained why he did not register for Selective Service, as required by U.S. law, when he turned 18. He returned his draft card unsigned, he said.

“I wanted to let them hear the voice of dissent,” he told the newspaper, “just in case they were listening.”

The article cited “his belief in non-violence” and reported that he considered the punishment for not registering before he decided to take that action. “It’s the five years in jail that’s the big

one,” the Guilfordian quoted Heatwole as saying.

At Guilford, a 2,100-student college founded by Quakers in 1837, Heatwole is one of about 35 Dana Scholars, recipients of the school’s top academic scholarship for returning students. He was described by a professor Monday as “a deeply committed person of integrity.”

The professor, Max Carter, who teaches Quaker studies and serves as director of the Friends Center, said he has had many conversations with Heatwole, including some about Quaker philosophy. “He was asking questions about conscientious objectors. We had discussions about pacifism,” Carter said.

Heatwole had a two-hour rockand-roll program on the college radio station, according to the station manager. He was also an avid ham-radio enthusiast, and he and his father, Antony, are members of the Potomac Valley Radio Club.

Students at Guilford and neighbors in Damascus describe him as intelligent and well spoken but quiet. He acted older than he was, acquaintances said.

Neighbors in Damascus and at Guilford described him and his family as inscrutable.

Brad Stohr, a freshman who lives two dorm rooms down the hall from Heatwole, said: “I rarely saw him leave the room. ... He was always on his computer. He seemed like a nice kid.”

“Er, no sir,” Spicer replied, his eyes narrowing in confusion.

The defendant questioned Spicer’s claims that walkietalkies, maps and other items found in Muhammad’s Chevrolet Caprice after his arrest last year were typical of items used by military snipers.

At another point, Muhammad fleetingly locked eyes with Malvo after prosecutors ordered the young defendant brought into the courtroom. Malvo was led in, surrounded by deputies, to allow Linda Thompson, a Manassas bank manager, to provide identification for the jury.

Thompson testified that she saw both Muhammad and Malvo in the bank parking lot, a half-mile from the shooting scene, several

hours before Meyers was killed.

Malvo was not questioned and was quickly hustled out. He is scheduled to go on trial next month for another of the sniper killings committed last year.

Although Thompson placed the sniper suspects near the site where Meyers was shot, Willett acknowledged during his opening remarks that “there will be no eyewitness testimony” to the snipers in action. He added: “That’s how good they were.”

Instead Willett said prosecutors would present a wealth of circumstantial evidence, including ballistics matches to eight of the 10 Washington-area killings, DNA and fingerprint links and a stolen laptop believed to have been used to plot the killings.

Edit headline THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

EDITORIAL/LETTERS TUESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2003 · PAGE 10 S T A F F

E D I T O R I A L

Long overdue As crime continues to rise on College Hill, the need for arming Department of Public Safety officers becomes all the more pressing. During the last two years the University has debated this possibility, we’ve all heard countless stories of assaults and muggings. The scenario is posed time and again — what happens when a DPS officer responds to a call and is left defenseless, unable to protect himself or victims, because a criminal is carrying a weapon?

President Ruth Simmons has expressed her support for arming the Brown police. But Mayor David Cicilline ’83 requested that she delay any official decision while the Providence Police Department finished its recent reorganization.

Now that this process is nearly complete, Simmons said the University will make an arming decision. We encourage the administration to decide for arming DPS and to act quickly, but prudently, in implementing its decision.

Students have raised numerous concerns about arming DPS, and many are of merit. But the pros of arming ultimately outweigh the cons. There’s no sense in having police officers who have gone through training similar to that of their Providence counterparts, on campus without guns. DPS officers shouldn’t have to call their city colleagues if serious crimes occur.

At the same time, it is paramount that DPS become more transparent if officers are to be armed. As a private security force, the department, unlike public police forces, is not required by law to release crime reports. This has to change.

Such an oblique policy makes it impossible to scrutinize the actions of DPS officers should any suspect events take place.

Because the department does not have to release reports from a legal standpoint, the administration should make this policy revision a condition of arming. While DPS’ policy is certainly problematic now, the stakes rise higher when officers are armed.

The same people trained to serve out community should be the ones bearing arms to protect it. The administration, including President Simmons, has agreed.

Let’s prevent the arming issue from coming to a boil only to be cooled again.

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 Rachel Aviv, Arts & Culture Editor Jen Sopchockchai, Asst. Arts & Culture Editor Carla Blumenkranz, Campus Watch Editor Juliette Wallack, Metro Editor Jonathan Skolnick, Opinions Editor Philissa Cramer, RISD News Editor Maggie Haskins, Sports Editor Jonathan Meachin, Sports Editor

BUSINESS Jamie Wolosky, General Manager Joe Laganas, Executive Manager Joshua Miller, Executive Manager Anastasia Ali, Project Manager Jack Carrere, Project Manager Lawrence L. Hester IV, Project Manager Bill Louis, Project Manager Zoe Ripple, Project Manager Peter Schermerhorn, Project Manager Elias Roman, Human Resources Manager Laurie-Ann Paliotti, Sr. Advertising Rep. Elyse Major, Advertising Rep. Kate Sparaco, Office Manager

PRODUCTION Zachary Frechette, Chief Technology Officer Marc Debush, Copy Desk Chief Yafang Deng, Copy Desk Chief Grace Farris, Graphics Editor Andrew Sheets, Graphics Editor Sara Perkins, Photo Editor

POST- MAGAZINE Alex Carnevale, Editor-in-Chief Dan Poulson, Executive Editor Morgan Clendaniel, Senior Editor Theo Schell-Lambert, Senior Editor Micah Salkind, Features Editor Ellen Wernecke, Features Editor Abigail Newman, Theater Editor Doug Fretty, Film Editor Jason Ng, Music Editor Colin Hartnett, Design Editor

ANDREW SHEETS

LETTERS Smolenski’s letter is a gross distortion of conservative views To the Editor: Natalie Smolenski’s letter (“Conservative whining about intellectual diversity is hypocritical,” Oct. 20) reaffirms all too well the genuine need for intellectual diversity on this campus. Rather than allowing for the myriad of viewpoints that exist to the right-of-center on the political spectrum, she labels everything that isn’t liberal according to a preconceived stereotype that is as offensive as it is ignorant. In her eyes, the right is represented absolutely by an image of blind, unthinking hate-mongers and religious fanatics, depicted by means of such cleverly articulated phrases as, “We don’t like LGBT people! Support us! We accept oppression! Support us!”

While such careful and sophisticated argumentation as Smolenski presents in her stereotyping is admittedly difficult to counter, it is clearly based

entirely on the very principles of marginalization and exclusion that its author claims to be against. It effectively amounts to the argument of saying, “So what if there is a noted dearth of intellectual diversity? Anyone who doesn’t share my viewpoint is a closed-minded, ignorant exclusionist who wrongly stereotypes and judges people; I have a right to be closed-minded and to wrongly stereotype, judge and exclude them in turn. Ms. Smolenski seems to have missed somewhat the irony in her labeling the right as hypocritical.

As for anyone on the right who is concerned with more than hating gays and espousing religion?

Smolenski doesn’t so much as consider them. Is it really any wonder there are those who are questioning this university’s commitment to intellectual pluralism?

John DeWald ’06 Oct. 20 C

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Maksim Shabrov GS was mistakenly identified as female in Monday’s issue.

write letters. letters@browndailyherald.com

Alex Palmer, Night Editor Marc Debush, Copy Editor Senior Staff Writers Zach Barter, Danielle Cerny, Dana Goldstein, Lisa Mandle, Monique Meneses, Joanne Park, Meryl Rothstein, Ellen Wernecke Staff Writers Kathy Babcock, Hannah Bascom, Carla Blumenkranz, Robbie Corey-Boulet, Philissa Cramer, Ian Cropp, Jonathan Ellis, Amy Hall Goins, Bernard Gordon, Krista Hachey, Jonathan Herman, Sarah LaBrie, Hanyen Lee, Julian Leichty, Allison Lombardo, Chris Mahr, Jonathan Meachin, Sara Perkins, Melissa Perlman, Eric Perlmutter, Cassie Ramirez, Zoe Ripple, Emir Senturk, Jen Sopchockchai, Adam Stern, Stefan Talman, Joshua Troy, Schuyler von Oeyen, Juliette Wallack, Jessica Weisberg, Brett Zarda, Julia Zuckerman Accounts Managers Laird Bennion, Eugene Clifton Cha, In Young Park, Jane C. Urban, Sophie Waskow, Justin Wong, Christopher Yu Pagination Staff Lisa Mandle, Alex Palmer Photo Staff Gabriella Doob, Benjamin Goddard, Marissa Hauptman, Judy He, Miyako Igari, Allison Lombardo, Elizabeth MacLennan, Nicholas Neely, Michael Neff, Alex Palmer, Yun Shou Tee, Sorleen Trevino Copy Editors Emily Brill, Yafang Deng, George Haws, Katie Lamm

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

OPINIONS TUESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2003 · PAGE 11

Sharpen the focus on undergrads A few simple changes can help Brown live up to its reputation as an undergrad-friendly institution THERE ARE A FEW THINGS THAT SET the classes they are taking. This encourages this university apart from others: a liberal students to overlook mid-sized classes that environment with an open curriculum, a they don’t know about through word of laid-back yet proactive student body and mouth, and, as a result, people like me are very good-looking columnists. But the real forced to have their asses fall asleep sitting selling point for us (and no, believe it or on the ground in Existentialism every time they don’t get there 15 minutes not, it’s not the fact that we early to get a seat. have so much money) is the Bottom line: Make it University’s focus on undermandatory. All professors graduate education. But in should have to give out surveys some areas we are not given to all of their students; and stuthe full attention that this unidents, in order to receive credit versity advertises. While I for the class, must return the could sit here complaining survey and have filled it out about faculty size, etc., I won’t thoughtfully. Furthermore, the because I know that to some administration should look at extent that is a problem all the Critical Review carefully universities face and that it is ADAM NELSON when considering things like being addressed. What I am REBEL WITH A which classes they are going to going to talk about are two FRESCA offer and to whom tenure areas that, while often overshould be given. The student looked, could really be improved to the advantage of the under- review of professors should be the administration’s primary consideration in assessing graduate.

The first one for me is a no-brainer: How the faculty. I don’t care if you’ve won the is it that this university lets its professors God-only-knows-what prize for your work choose not to include their courses in the in some infinitesimal area of your field — if Critical Review? The Critical Review could you can’t teach me what I need to know (and be and should be one of the University’s preferably make me enjoy it) then Harvard most important tools for aiding students can have you.

A more difficult problem that affects studuring the extremely trying times of shopping week. But, as I recently found out, the dents more in our day-to-day lives is the TA Critical Review often finds that professors situation on this campus. I am a person don’t pass out the surveys and thus the stu- who has many interests and, as a result, I dents have no way of knowing the quality of have taken many intro-level classes in a diverse group of fields. Because of this (and my keen wit and general likeability) I should be the model student for a universiAdam Nelson '06 still rocks the party that ty that promotes a truly liberal arts educarocks the body.

I don’t care if you’ve won the God-only-knows-what prize for your work in some infinitesimal area of your field — if you can’t teach me what I need to know (and preferably make me enjoy it) then Harvard can have you. tion. But I have fallen through the cracks of our University system because the poor use of teaching assistants and sections have not given me the individual attention I should be getting. In all honesty I can say I learn more in the EN 9 section led by my roommate than I do in half of my sections led by graduate students, and that is a truly sad statement because, among other things, my roommate is an idiot.

In many classes, TAs have no idea how to lead a discussion or how to teach us the material we need to know. Now, I understand that often, due to the small size of our graduate program, the graduate students are forced to TA for courses they have no expertise in, and students often feel they have a better grasp on the material than their TA simply for having read the assigned material. Before they send graduate students in to give what for most of us is our only chance for a truly interactive education, the University should make sure he or she has the ability to lead a class and the skill to give us that extra bit of understanding that we need from section.

Unfortunately for most of us, section does not give us that understanding and, as such, it is just a mandatory hour of ADD time that could be much better spent wast-

ing our lives doing other things, e.g. playing Tiger Woods Golf.

In the same vein, while I really do appreciate that this university is a center for international learning and I think international students provide a necessary piece of our diverse educational puzzle, I also think people who do not have a firm grasp on the language should not be forced to try to teach a pack of already bored college students. This does not apply to all international TAs — in fact, I’ve had two who were very solid — but it applies to anyone who has a shaky grasp on the language, which is much more detrimental than having a shaky grasp on the material. Their inability to speak the language fluently causes the class to totally decentralize and become totally useless. Upon realizing that this was the problem in one econ section, I promptly moved to another section, only to encounter the problem yet again.

Sections are an important teaching tool, and the University just has to cowboy up and make sure students have TAs who can help them take advantage of section time.

This, along with improvements in course reviews, will help us to achieve the great undergraduate education I keep on telling tours about.

How the other one-seventh lives Improving Brown for transfer students, part one BROWN OWES ITS TRANSFER STUDENTS. people are not the kind of proactive overBrown owes us a better orientation pro- achievers who upend their whole lives on a gram, a better advising system and a uni- hope.

Transfers are smart. We’re creative. We form method for counting transfer credits.

Or, at the very least, Brown owes us the take chances. In other words, we’re Brown students. time of day.

We work so hard to get here.

Allow me to set the scene: And when we do, we get some It is the last week of May. I 25-year-old advisor in her first am at Connecticut College year at Brown who can’t answer and have just handed in the any of our questions, and we last final exam of my sophospend half the time talking more year when the phone about her boyfriend. rings. It’s my dad. “Sarah, a When we get here, we find letter from Brown came for out that although we took three you today … it’s a thick enveboring survey classes based on lope.” the Norton Anthology for the Brown graciously allowed Conn College English major, we me a whole week to make my SARAH GREEN have to take three more boring decision. After I enrolled, I BETTER THAN CATS survey classes based on the was bombarded by a spate of Norton Anthology to satisfy the other thick envelopes bearing Brown English department. We the University seal: an invitation to join freshman crew; a letter from find out that the English department won’t the Chaplain’s office assuring me the tran- accept Dostoevsky as a suitable topic of sition from high school to college was study because, well, he wrote in Russian. (I nothing to worry about; and a list of sup- guess Conn Coll must really be a terrible plies, reminding me to bring extra-long school to overlook such a glaring disqualification.) twin sheets and a hot pot.

And every time you want to declare a Brown admits about 200 transfer students each year. Is it too much to ask that concentration (a word which always conthe University at least know what year we jures, for me, an image of someone sitting are? Or at least that we’re not freshmen? We in the Rock, forehead wrinkling, lips purstransfer for a plethora of reasons — but the ing and eyes squinting, thinking really one thing we have in common is motiva- hard about modern culture and media) or tion. Lazy people don’t transfer. Lazy peo- get into a certain class or apply for a theple are content with the status quo. Lazy sis you have to wave a transcript around.

But you can’t photocopy the one in your file in University Hall. You can look Sarah Green ’04 never really liked at it in its pristine little folder. You can Dostoevsky anyway.

commit it to memory. You can spit on it or use it as a Kleenex. But you can’t copy it.

So you have to order extra ones (which cost money, by the way) from your old school. And like some peasant, like some serf living in oppressed gloom under some totalitarian regime, you must produce these papers on demand before you’ll be allowed entry to this ivy-choked ivory tower.

It’s not that they’ll never make an exception — I, for example, after producing a transcript from the registrar of Connecticut College and a syllabus for one of the aforementioned boring survey classes based on the Norton Anthology, was able to convince Brown’s English department that yes, the Beowulf taught in the world of the small liberal arts college is indeed the same Beowulf taught in these vaunted halls. Every now and then they throw you a bone. But the idea that transfers can get whatever they want simply by playing the “transfer card” is wrong.

So here’s an idea: How about an orientation program that actually results in students being oriented? Instead of one that results in drunkenness, debauchery and a closet full of stolen cans of Sprite and bags of pilfered cheese puffs? Here’s another idea: How about, instead of random associate assistant quaternary deans as advisors, giving us experienced advisers in our area of study? Many transfers have already declared their major at their old college — we shouldn’t have to go through the paperwork again, here.

Here’s yet a third idea: Let’s have a con-

sistent system of accepting transfer credits throughout the University. For those blessed among you who have never transferred, consider this: On Brown’s Web site, on the transfer page under admission, transferring your credits to Brown is so simple and stress-free that it takes almost 700 words to explain. And one chart. And although Brown will mail you a “Transfer Credit Estimate” at the time of your acceptance, they hasten to add that this “should not be interpreted as final or binding in any way.” Once here, you need only your constantly-at-hand transcript, a course catalogue from your previous school and a Transfer Credit Worksheet.

(If you’re reading this online and considering transferring to Brown, you’re also going to need syllabi for every class you’ve ever taken. Trust me.) Couldn’t be easier!

Aha, but there’s one more hurdle. Your department. Even though the University will accept all or most of your credits, each department gets to decide how many count toward your concentration.

Philosophy will only allow two classes to transfer; English will admit all your credits as electives, but they want you to take the requirements here; Psych will just take whatever you’ve got with a smile. A uniform system would ensure each student in every discipline matriculates with the same benefits. And then there’s the simplicity — a quality which Brown’s bureaucracy is notorious for lacking.

But making these reforms assumes Brown really wants its transfers to be here at all. But that, dear readers, will have to wait until next week.

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

SPORTS TUESDAY OCTOBER 21, 2003 · PAGE 12

The fan’s guide to helping your team FOR THOSE NOT BLESSED WITH PERVERTED amounts of speed, size or agility, the bleachers are it.

So we sit, stand and scream from metal benches, grassy knolls or undersized plastic folding chairs.

And, deep in our soul, where Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy still exist, we believe we matter.

Why else do teams win more at home? How else can you explain 12 false starts by the BRETT ZARDA visiting team? What other palSPORTS COLUMNIST pable explanation could be offered for why the man you lambasted with 13 straight expletives missed a free throw with no time on the clock. My backwards hat, your rally towel and my sister’s pompom clearly align the stars in our favor. In democracy every vote counts; in sports every fan matters.

But ponder this possibility, my fellow fanatics. I claim we’re not doing enough. We demand the extra mile, 110 percent and “everything you got” from our superheroes. Yet, we’re not willing to put forth that same effort.

I’ve been inspired by Steve Bartman (see Cubs/Marlins game six and an incomparable act of spontaneous stupidity) to try to do more. No longer shall painted faces or naked streaking warrant the label of “die-hard” fan. So find your sport of choice and raise your game to the next level.

Baseball. Fan interference is actually an accepted and expected part of our beloved pastime. But, is draping yourself, with glove extended, over a metal fence while your buddy holds your legs down enough?

I say no. We need to stretch the rules, and our range, a bit. I propose butterfly nets. Telescoping, Inspector Gadget, skipping through grassy fields, oversized butterfly nets. Sneaking them in should be easy.

Executing the unorthodox assist merely requires a seat in the first three to four rows (unless it’s really long).

Football. I’m gonna steal this one from Stanford.

First, you need to join the band. Don’t worry, you don’t need talent. Just play the triangle or cymbals.

Then you need to be patient. Your time will come. At halftime of each home game, the band waits out the last two minutes from the sideline. At least once (or more if you’re Brown) your team will give up what looks like a last-minute big play. With pride and with style march your ass onto that field and clothesline the intruder with your instrument of choice. Then quit the band.

Tennis. Besides the stabbing of Monica Seles by a crazed Steffi Graf fan, tennis fans don’t do squat to help their favorite player. You can’t even talk during the points. God forbid you do, and the entire stadium receives a scolding by the matriarchal umpire who politely and pompously whispers, “Quite please.” But just noise won’t do. You need balls, lots of them. Then on a crucial point — maybe even after your guy put up a weak lob — you throw all of them in the air and onto the court. Yes, you’ll be escorted out, but your job will be done. And I guarantee you a 10-second spot on SportsCenter.

Basketball. I’m stumped on this one but feel free to submit suggestions Hockey. Now this won’t be easy. People already throw sea creatures and hats but that doesn’t accomplish much. A unique aspect of hockey, in addition to interludes of ultimate fighting, is a movable net. In no other sport is the receptacle designed to dislodge under minor contact. So string it up (fishing wire, pulley, you get the idea) and yank it at the appropriate time. I’ve given you the outline, you work out the details.

Equestrian. Not horseracing, just equestrian. Two syllables, foghorn. Now you get why it won’t work for the Derby. What good is it if all of the equines flip out at the same time?

Golf. Simple. No fences, no walls, minimal security.

Steal the ball. Then run.

No need to thank me. I offer these suggestions free of charge. Now get out there and make a difference.

Brett Zarda GS hails from Gainesville, Fla.

write sports

Nick Neely / Herald

Katherine Moos ’07 scored two goals, including the game-winner vs. Harvard, earning her Ivy League Rookie of the Week.

Women’s soccer edges Harvard 3-2

BY BERNARD GORDON AND CHRIS MAHR

The women’s soccer team (8-3-2, 2-2 Ivy League) beat Harvard (5-4-4, 1-1-1 Ivy League) Saturday in a 3-2 thriller in Cambridge. The Bears made the most of their opportunities on offense, scoring three goals and forcing four saves on a mere eight shots.

Kathryn Moos ’07 scored two goals, including the eventual game-winner with five minutes left. Moos was named Ivy League Rookie of the week following the game.

“We were pleased with what we were able to get done, and how well it was executed on the final part of the field,” said Head Coach Phil Pincince.

Brown took the lead twice in the first half, with Meghan Schreck ’06 scoring just 6:17 into the game and again off of the first of Moos’ goals, assisted by Jill Mansfield ’07 and Michaela Sewall ’04, 29:32 into the game. Armed with a powerful flip throw-in, Mansfield turned throw-ins into corner kicks and, along with Julie Herrold ’04, leads the team in assists.

But each time Brown went on the offensive, Harvard responded to tie the game. Harvard’s first score came two

minutes after Schreck’s, on an unassisted goal by Alisha Moran. Moran would later tally another goal 15 minutes into the second half to net the score at 2-2.

Brown, which has played four overtime games this season, was not to be dragged into extra time on this occasion. With less than five minutes to play, Moos buried her second goal of the game off of a Herrold corner kick.

“We got pulled into OT too much this year. We wanted to take the initiative,” said Co-Captain Rachel Roberts ’04.

“It was a very back-and-forth kind of game, but we managed to put the ball in the back of the net.”

Coming off the heels of a difficult, 1-0 overtime loss to Princeton on Oct. 11, Pincince cited a week of excellent preparation and overall focus as a key contributor to Saturday’s victory.

“A win like this shows the rest of the league that we’re here to play,” Roberts said. “A win like this is great for (the team’s) confidence.”

“We had three freshmen make a contribution,” see W. SOCCER, page 9

M. water polo dominates Fordham, unable to topple no. 1 St. Francis

BY JINHEE CHUNG

The men’s water polo team had a successful day in Boston Saturday with a big win against Fordham but dropped a close 6-5 game to No. 1-ranked St. Francis. The weekend’s results bring the Bears’ season record to 8-7 with only two weeks left until the Northern League Championships.

Brown came out strong in the first game of the day against Fordham, grabbing a quick 3-0 lead in the first quarter and holding on tight the entire game. Alex Cripe ’07 led the offense with three goals, followed closely by Sean Tiner ’06 and Paul D’Avino ’05, each with two points.

Eight different Brown players got in on the scoring, including Alan Man ’07, scoring his first career goal in the fourth quarter, sealing the 15-2 win for Brown.

“We are a more experienced team,” said Head Coach Todd Clapper. “So we weren’t extremely challenged.”

Regardless of the lack of a contest, the team did not let its guard down, playing well in all four quarters.

“For the first time, we performed exactly what we had practiced and executed the plays perfectly,” said Pat Sandys ’05.

Goalie and Co-Captain Keith Stanski ’04 had a great game in goal, blocking many one-on-one shots, including

a four-meter penalty shot from the other team as well as seven other shots.

St. Francis proved to be much more physical and difficult.

“We came out intense from the beginning with our heads up, and were prepared for a very physical game,” Sandys said. “We dictated the game this time around, as opposed to the last game we played against them.”

Led by Thomas Payton ’07, Co-Captain Dan Spencer ’04 and Sandys, the defense denied the Red Flash an easy win, coming out in a press and refusing to let the St. Francis offense shoot from the outside. Paving the way for the offense was Co-Captain Doug Grutzmacher ’04 with three goals, and Tiner and Luke Samson ’07 with one each as well.

The Bears’ only downfall was their failure to convert man-up situations, following through on only two out of nine power-play opportunities.

Despite the final score of 6-5 in favor of St. Francis, the team is not disappointed with its performance. Brown is the first team to hold the No. 1-ranked team to a mere six see W. WATER POLO, page 9