Thursday, December 4, 2003

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T H U R S D A Y DECEMBER 4, 2003

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Volume CXXXVIII, No. 123

An independent newspaper serving the Brown community since 1891

Ogletree: 50 years after Brown, segregation persists

www.browndailyherald.com

UCS discusses arming, decision to remove student parking BY KRISTA HACHEY

BY MERYL ROTHSTEIN

Fifty years after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled segregated schools unconstitutional, our society is more segregated than it has ever been, said Harvard Professor of Law Charles Ogletree, a well-known legal theorist and Constitutional scholar. Ogletree’s keynote address, “All Deliberate Speed: Reflections on the Legacy of Brown v. Board of Education,” opened the University’s year-long symposium examining the historic 1954 decision. Half a century later, segregation’s persistence in the United States is “an indictment of our society.” That is why it is important to critique and analyze the decision and not merely celebrate and “romanticize” it, Ogletree said Wednesday night in Salomon 101. Brown v. Board of Education was important because it ended legal segregation, he said. “But it was flawed from the start because the court didn’t have the moral courage to come up with a meaningful remedy to make the right very effective.” By insisting that schools desegregate with “all deliberate speed,” Ogletree said the ruling essentially told the South to “take your precious time.” Ogletree cited historical and personal examples of segregation to help the audience understand “what (Brown) cost and what it continues to cost.” His hometown of Merced, Calif., for example, did not have signs declaring water fountains specifically for black or white people. Instead, a railroad track in the city separated the white community from his mostly black and Hispanic community, which lacked quality schools or recreation-

Marissa Hauptman / Herald

Coming to terms with AIDS was a struggle, said AIDS educator Scott Fried, who is HIV positive. He said he felt alone and afraid, almost “invisible.”This feeling, he said, is not unique — everyone has felt invisible.

Love is all we need, AIDS educator Fried says BY MONIQUE MENESES

The best thing you can do for people is to love in them what they can’t love in themselves, AIDS educator Scott Fried told an audience of 50 students Wednesday evening in a lecture titled “AIDS, Love and the Secret Lives of College Students.” To be needed by someone, to be the most important person in someone else’s life and to be remembered are the three needs humans attempt to fulfill in their interaction with others, Fried said. His anxiety over these needs, Fried said, contributed to his encounter with AIDS. “I got AIDS the first time I had unprotected sex,” he said. Fried said he met his first male partner when he was working for an offBroadway production in New York. Fried said he used his body as a communicator for his insecurities.

see OGLETREE, page 10

“My body was saying, ‘Please see me, please love me,’” he said. When his partner told him he liked his abs, Fried said he heard him saying, “I see who you are.” When he said “I like your smile,” Fried said he heard, “I love you.” Fried’s inability to understand that he was not being loved, but exploited, was the ultimate sexually transmitted disease, he said. After he realized the nature of his relationship, Fried went to a hospital and was tested for HIV. In June 1988 he learned he was HIV positive. At that moment, Fried said he pictured his mother’s eyes full of tears and heard his dad’s voice asking him, “Scottie, what have you done? I can’t take this one away.” But, “by some miracle, by God’s grace or my father’s prayers” Fried said, he see AIDS, page 11

Reflections on the legacy of Brown v. Board of Education BY MARSHALL AGNEW

Panelists personalized the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case, which struck down the precept, “separate but equal,” by recounting their experiences in segregated schools in a discussion Wednesday night in Salomon 101. In honor of the 50-year anniversary of the Supreme Court decision, which found segregated public schools in Topeka, Kansas “inherently unequal,” the University inaugurated a yearlong symposium with Wednesday’s panel. Moderator William Simmons emphasized the momentous nature of the case and pointed out that many panel attendees are living legacies of the decision. William Cox, president of Cox, Mathews and Associates Inc., recalled that black schools in Alabama had, in fact, been “very much unequal.” Cox said it was difficult for him growing up in the South because he wanted nothing more than independence and the freedom to make his own decisions. But independence was hard to find as a young, black man, he said. see BROWN, page 11

Marissa Hauptman / Herald

Panelists (from left) Warren Simmons,William Cox, Beverly Ledbetter, Naeema Nuriddin recounted their experiences in segregated schools.

The Undergraduate Council of Students discussed arming Brown Police and the recent decision to eliminate all student parking on campus at its final meeting of the semester Wednesday night. Council and audience members debated the Ad Hoc Transportation Management Advisory Committee’s decision to prohibit students from parking in on-campus lots. Through the decision, Committee members said they were recognizing faculty and staff complaints about having to move their cars every two hours on nearby streets. Congestion caused by student parking and the tension it creates with the University’s neighbors were also cited as reasons for revamping the parking system. According to Council member Jason Holman ’04, UCS’ liaison to the transportation committee, students currently pay a $325 parking fee and will soon have to pay somewhere between $600 and $1,000 for spaces off campus, including lots in East Providence and Providence Place. The Committee is looking to establish shuttle systems to transport students from campus to these lots. Holman said the University would be willing to make parking accommodations on campus for students who work and highly depend on using a car. “I don’t have constructive criticism, but I do have criticism,” said Council member Joel Payne ’05. “What’s the point of banning students from lots while at the time upping the parking fee? This doesn’t make much sense to me.” UCS Treasurer Tilli Dias ’05 said she was concerned that the Committee’s decision is premature. “We need to develop our current shuttle and transportation systems before we take away students’ mobility around and off campus.” Representative Natalie Schmid ’06 said the decision was not wise for the wellbeing of the University. “Taking shuttles everywhere would remind me of a boarding school atmosphere,” she said. “I can also see this turning into a political game of who do you know in the administration that can help your kid get a spot on campus.” UCS President Rahim Kurji ’05 also reflected on the Council’s efforts to strengthen school-wide notions of community and advocate student needs and campus improvements this semester. “We made a lot of progress this year in defining a new vision for the Council and the community has seen that as well,” he said. “We have been active and successful in bringing the community together and have been passionate about representing student voice to the administration.” During scheduled community time, members of the administration, including Dean for Campus Life Margaret Jablonski and Vice President for Administration Walter Hunter answered student inquiries regarding the recent decision to arm camsee UCS, page 9

I N S I D E T H U R S D AY, D E C E M B E R 4 , 2 0 0 3 RISD faculty reach tentative contract agreement with the administration RISD news, page 3

Austrian-born Prof. Friedrich St. Florian designs D.C.’s national WWII memorial RISD news, page 3

Alex Carnevale ’05 says the Geneva Accords showcase a series of diplomatic errors column, page 15

TO D AY ’ S F O R E C A S T M. icers win six straight games, rising to the top of the ECAC and No. 12 ranking sports, page 16

W. squash drops season-opener to No. 2 Harvard; men also lose to the Crimson 9-0 sports, page 16

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