Monday, February 16, 2004

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M O N D A Y FEBRUARY 16, 2004

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Volume CXXXIX, No. 14

An independent newspaper serving the Brown community since 1891

www.browndailyherald.com

Burst pipe causes flooding, damage in Minden Hall BY MONIQUE MENESES

itage,” until the city was “strangled by the highways,” he said. The opportunity to remedy history came when the Providence River Bridge reached the end of its life span. Intended to last only 40 years and carry half the

A bathroom pipe exploded in Minden Hall Sunday afternoon, flooding parts of the building and soaking students’ belongings. The pipe burst in the bathroom of room 707 at 3:50 p.m., causing water to spread through parts of the seventh floor and drip down as far as the basement, according to Mark Nickel, director of the Brown News Service. Gil Davis ’06, a resident of room 707, said that when he flushed the toilet, the pipe attaching the toilet to the wall broke. Corrosion had weakened the pipe, said Joe McDevitt of Facilities Management. After the pipe broke, “water started spraying horizontally,” Davis said. “I dodged it.” Davis said he called Facilities Management to inform them about the situation. During the 20 minutes before Facilities Management came, hall residents used towels and plastic containers to barricade the overflow in the bathroom. McDevitt said he replaced the pipe with non-corrosive brass fittings while custodians cleaned up the floors below. Workers will re-plaster the wall tomorrow, he said. Facilities Management shut down the water supply to Minden at 5:30 p.m. and restored it at 6:50 p.m., according to an email sent by Service Response to all Minden residents. Davis’ roommate, Cameron Colpitts ’05, said he was on a bike ride when the pipe broke. Although the carpet in his room was saturated by water, Colpitts said nothing was damaged. “It’s exciting. More drama,” he said.

see URBAN, page 4

see FLOODING, page 5

Nick Neely / Herald

A burst pipe in this Minden Hall bathroom started flooding that damaged student property in the building Sunday afternoon.

Memorial celebrates Vranek ’04 as serious student who valued friends BY KIRA LESLEY

Friends and family gathered in Manning Chapel Friday afternoon to celebrate the life of Francisco Metha Vranek ’04, who died in a car accident in his home town of Tenerife in the Canary Islands while returning to campus over winter break. Ann Dill, associate professor of sociology, remembered Vranek as a “brilliant student” who was mastering three concentrations — economics, public and private sector organizations and international relations. Vranek also grasped a wide range of subjects, including European history and astronomy, she said. Vranek always took advantage of the opportunities before him and managed to take away something positive from difficult situations, Dill said. He used his experiences as an international student and a student pursuing a career in investment banking to form plans to aid Brown in better helping students achieve their potential, she said. He suggested ways that see VRANEK, page 4

Planned highway redevelopment points to a changing Providence BY SARA PERKINS

The opportunity to undo a mistake is rare, and experts are seizing on the chance to undo some of the mistakes in Providence’s history, speakers said at an urban studies conference this weekend. Urban planners attending the second annual Harriet David Goldberg Conference on Urban Affairs Sunday discussed plans to redirect Interstate 195 over a new bridge further south of downtown. The skyline-friendly bridge, just beyond the Fox Point hurricane barrier, would replace the Providence River Bridge and elevated highway. I-195 currently cuts off a portion of the waterfront and isolates the Jewelry District and hospitals from the rest of downtown. Speakers agreed the highway policies of the 1950s, which threw two major interstates together in the middle of an industrializing city, were a massive mistake. But with the undoing comes a host of small but vital opportunities — to reclaim the waterfront, reconnect the neighborhoods and make downtown more economically viable. The history of waterfront development is a sordid one, said Thomas Deller, director of the Providence Department of Planning and Development. Providence’s development has left “our backs turned to our water, backs turned to our her-

Korean labor movement has evolved in past decades, speaker says BY AMY RUDDLE

To understand South Korea’s labor movement, worker experiences must be taken into consideration, said Hagen Koo, professor of sociology at the University of Hawaii, in a Friday lecture in Salomon 001. Koo said it is essential to “see the development process from the standpoint of human experiences” in order to understand Korea’s unique economic growth. “When it comes to Korean labor, one often has an image of militant labor strikes. In many TV scenes of Korean strikes we (see) Korean strikers wearing red headbands and red jackets, pumping their fists toward the sky, shouting slogans in unison, sitting cross-legged …

I N S I D E M O N D AY, F E B RUA RY 1 6 , 2 0 0 4 Creative Arts Council has nurtured many visual arts on campus the past six years campus news, page 3

Doug Fretty ’05 says Bush’s research rules are hurting the United States campus news, page 5

Professor Jeff Albert examines the problem of water in the Middle East column, page 7

and often ending their strikes with a violent clash with the public police,” Koo said. These images have created two different interpretations of the Korean labor movement. Foreign newspapers often “regard Korea as a country with endemic strikes,” even going so far as to label South Korea a “strike kingdom,” Koo said. This interpretation often scares foreign business investors, who do not want to be involved with large unions and choose to move their businesses to other low-wage countries, primarily China, Koo said. However, this view is being chalsee KOO, page 5

TO D AY ’ S F O R E C A S T M. ice hockey has disappointing weekend, tying with Union and losing to RPI sports, page 8

M. basketball secures weekend victories over Harvard and Dartmouth sports, page 8

mostly sunny high 28 low 12


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