Thursday, February 12, 2004

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T H U R S D A Y FEBRUARY 12, 2004

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Volume CXXXIX, No. 12

An independent newspaper serving the Brown community since 1891

Advisor to Palestinian government says end of occupation will stop violence

Keefrider ’04 named “Mr. Brown U.” BY ALEXANDRA BARSK

It was quite a spectacle in Salomon 101 Wednesday night, as 10 men from the Class of 2004, each representing a different student group, competed for the coveted title of Mr. Brown University. The winner of the 2004 Mr. Brown University Pageant was audience favorite Michael Keefrider ’04, while first runner-up was Lance Rubin ’04 and second runner-up was Christopher Yee ’04. Along with the honor of being named this year’s Mr. Brown University, Keefrider’s organization — the track team — will receive 10 percent of the proceeds from the event’s ticket sales, the rest of which will go to the fund for Senior Week. The event, sponsored by the Class of 2004 and hosted by Nicole Morris ’04 and Julian Jordan ’04, began with a choreographed dance set to “It’s Raining Men.” The audience cheered as the contestants, two of whom were clad in spandex bike shorts, leapt across the

BY SARAH LABRIE

Nick Neely / Herald

Clockwise from top left: Christopher Yee ’04, Joshua Biber ’04, Glenn Riddlespurger ’04 and Mr. Brown University Michael Keefrider ’04 performed in Wednesday’s competition.

see MR. BROWN, page 5

Author draws on experience with hate mail in writing novel BY STEWART DEARING

“Writing about medical training while you are doing it isn’t something you plan. It just happens,” said Dr. Perri Klass at a Wednesday night reading of her novel “The Mystery of Breathing.” The author of three novels and several collections of essays and short stories, Klass is a practicing pediatrician and medical director of Reach Out and Read, a program that promotes youth literacy. During her time at Harvard Medical School, Klass used writing as an escape from the intense medical training, she said. “Anyone who has a full life includes writing in it,” she said. When Klass graduated from medical school in 1986, one-third of her classmates were women, she said, making her one of the first female medical writers who didn’t have to focus on being a pioneer. This experience made her literature more interesting, she said. In “The Mystery of Breathing,” Klass writes about a young female neonatologist. “I wanted to imagine myself in the head of someone like that,” she said. see KLASS, page 4

UCS approves new groups after intense debate BY KRISTA HACHEY

The Undergraduate Council of Students welcomed a new member and delved into issues of objective decision-making and accessibility to the student body at its Wednesday meeting. Campus Life Chair Ari Savitzky ’06, who is also a Herald opinions columnist, clarified the current status of tableslips in dining halls. Table-slipping is back permanently. The Brown Events Magazine will continue as a pilot program until the end of the semester, but the magazine’s fate in coming semesters has not yet been decided. George Mathews ’05 from the Brown Daily Jolt attended the meeting to request feedback about the online textbook exchange and the possibility of removing it now that book-buying period has passed. Council members praised the Jolt for the collaborative effort and for the site’s success. “The site is amazing — I managed to pay $130 for all my books for five classes,” said Class of 2006 representative Natalie Schmid ’06. Luke Meier ’04, UCS coordinator of appointments, urged Mathews to maintain the site throughout the semester. “I just sold a book yesterday, and I buy books in the middle of the semester all the time,” he said. UCS President Rahim Kurji ’05 addressed two key issues in his weekly Executive Board report. Kurji praised

the turnout and content of President Ruth Simmons’ Monday address, which he said will likely become a biennial event. “Simmons’ speech also gave greater legitimacy to UCS by including that fact the student body has brought the issues she spoke about to the forefront,” he said.

Student Alliance discusses misuse of lab fees, studio closing hours risd news, page 3

The White House could be within reach of the Dems, thanks to Dean column, page 11

The wall the Israeli government is building between Israeli and Palestinian settlements can only lead to more violence, which will not cease until Israel ends its occupation of Palestinian land, said Diana Buttu, legal advisor to the Palestinian negotiating team, in a Wednesday night lecture in Starr Auditorium. Buttu, whose speech was titled “The Wall: Dead End or Road to Middle East Peace?”, said its construction has hurt the Palestinian economy by killing a large percentage of local olive trees. Now 145 kilometers long, the wall is part of an attempt by the Israeli government to confine Palestinian movement while increasing the volume of its settlements, Buttu said. Palestinians living behind the wall must rely on the Israeli military to allow them access to the fields and water they depend on for survival, she said. “They are basically living in an openair prison,” Buttu said. Buttu suggested an end to the occupation is dependent on increased international awareness of its severity. “What really frustrates me is when I read in the New York Times that there’s no longer an occupation,” she said. The situation in Israel is “neither a dispute nor a conflict,” but “an occupation,” she said, and encouraged Brown students to push the media toward using such ter-

see UCS, page 5

see BUTTU, page 6

Study abroad applications to be available online this week BY JANE TANIMURA

Students interested in study abroad will soon be able to apply to programs from their own rooms. Application materials for Brown’s study abroad programs should be available on the Internet by the end of the week, said Mell Bolen, associate director of international programs. Students will be able to enter all personal information, essays and course choices online and to print out other forms, such as professor recommendations. Though OIP initially feared that providing applications online would discourage students from visiting the office to seek advice about programs,

I N S I D E T H U R S D AY, F E B RUA RY 1 2 , 2 0 0 4 RISD community members discuss the role of fine arts in the presidential campaign risd news, page 3

www.browndailyherald.com

administrators recognized that “online applications are the way of the future,” Bolen said. The office also wanted to facilitate the process for students away from campus, she said. Because submitted information feeds directly into the office’s databases, the online process will ultimately improve communication between students and the office, Bolen said. Students will be able to log into their accounts to confirm their applications have been processed. Under the old system students had to inquire in person at the OIP office. see OIP, page 4

TO D AY ’ S F O R E C A S T Gymnastics falls in Pittsburgh meet, losing to Cornell, Rutgers and Pitt sports, page 12

Men’s and women’s swimming teams both lose matches over weekend sports, page 12

partly cloudy high 35 low 25


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