Monday, March 1, 2004

M O N D A Y MARCH 1, 2004

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Volume CXXXIX, No. 22

An independent newspaper serving the Brown community since 1891

Levinger professorship filled weeks after family files lawsuit

Corporation endorses campus life initiatives

BY ROBBIE COREY-BOULET

BY LISA MANDLE

Just three weeks after the Levinger Family Trust filed a lawsuit against Brown claiming the University waited too long to fill an endowed professorship in the Levinger name, the Corporation appointed Professor of Medicine Alfred Buxton the Ruth and Paul Levinger Professor of Cardiology Saturday.

The Levinger lawsuit, filed before Brown named Buxton to the chair, claims Brown waited too long to name someone to the endowed professorship and requests that the donation, plus interest, be given to another institution. The funds are currently valued at more than $2 million, according to documents filed in the Providence Superior Court by Brown.

The timing of the appointment relative to the lawsuit is “coincidental,” said Vice President and General Counsel for Brown Beverly Ledbetter.

According to the lawsuit, in 1978 thenPresident Howard Swearer asked Paul Levinger, president of the Speidel, Inc., watchband company in East Providence and a local philanthropist, for a $1 million donation to the Medical School for the establishment of an endowed professorship.

Based on Swearer’s request, Levinger amended his trust to provide for the establishment of a professorship after the deaths of him and his wife.

Levinger died in 1981 and his wife, Ruth, died in 1994. In late 1994, Brown received approximately $1.2 million for the professorship.

According to the suit, Brown decided not to appoint anyone to the position until a new chair of medicine had been named but did not inform the trustees of this decision.

In the response filed with Providence Superior Court, Brown neither admits nor denies that the trustees were not informed.

When the lawsuit was filed in early see LEVINGER, page 4

Dana Goldstein / Herald

A crowd of more than 200 gathered at RISD’s Bayard Ewing Building to hear a speech by Dave Eggers, author of “A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius.”

Eggers is the founder ofthe magazines McSweeney’s and The Believer.

At its meeting Saturday, the Brown Corporation set the University’s budgets and announced the hiring of three highprofile professors.

The Corporation set the University’s Education and General budget for 2005 at $414.3 million, a $29.6 million increase over last year’s budget.

The increase will go to support needblind admission for undergraduates as well as improvements in the graduate program, according to a University press

BY DANA GOLDSTEIN

Don’t compromise, be friends with coworkers with and give back to community, Dave Eggers advised a crowd of about 200 students Sunday night at RISD’s Bayard Ewing Building.

Eggers, the author of the bestselling 2000 memoir “A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius” and the founder of the magazines McSweeney’s and The Believer, is usually known for his unconventional and self-aware narrative style.

But in Sunday night’s lecture, sponsored by the RISD Department of Graphic Design, Eggers treated the audience to a computer slide show of his work as a designer and a history of his experience

in the publishing business.

Eggers said he was trained as an artist from the age of eight and until age 22 aspired to be a painter. But after two years studying painting at the University of Illinois — “Was that anyone’s backup?” he joked with the audience — Eggers became frustrated with his professors’ conventionality and switched to a major in journalism. Eggers said he joined the daily student newspaper, where he cut his teeth as a designer, photographer and writer.

After college and the death of his parents, Eggers moved to San Francisco, Calif., the setting of “A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius,” where he

release. The budget will also aid other elements of the Plan for Academic Enrichment.

The increase was suggested by the University Resources Committee and endorsed by President Ruth Simmons, said Russell Carey, vice president and secretary of the University.

Changes in the budget for 2005 include a 4.9 percent rise in undergraduate tuition and fees for the 2004-2005 academic year, setting total charges for undergraduates at $39,808.

Undergraduate tuition will rise by 5 percent to $30,672. The budget for financial aid for undergraduates will increase by 8 percent.

The Corporation also appointed three new senior faculty members and named several professors to endowed chairs.

Writer and literary theorist John Edgar Wideman was named the Asa Messer Professor and Professor of English and Africana Studies. Wideman is a two-time see CORPORATION, page 4

I N S I D E M O N D AY, M A RC H 1 , 2 0 0 4 New dance company has bright future after successful first set of auditions arts & culture, page 3

Concentration requirements now starting to reflect first-year seminars campus news, page 5

The construction of a campus center, renovation of the Sharpe Refectory, library improvements and an increase in University-sponsored housing were among the proposals approved by the Brown Corporation at its meeting this past weekend.

The proposals, passed as part of the Plan for Academic Enrichment, cap two years of research and debate and will directly influence the upcoming capital campaign spearheaded by President Ruth Simmons, administrators said.

These proposals expand upon the more general initiatives of the Corporation’s 2002 meeting, said Interim Vice President for Campus Life and Student Services David Greene.

“Two years ago we had a fairly concentrated set of proposals that were designed to jumpstart a larger process,” Greene said. “This is the larger process.”

Specific plans for a campus center will be based on the research of Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates, an architecture see CAMPUS LIFE, page 8

Eggers tells RISD audience how he makes his mark

Tuition hike, new professors approved at Corporation meeting

BY SARAH LABRIE

www.browndailyherald.com

lived with and cared for his younger brother. Eggers said he was able to use the experience he gleaned laying out his college daily newspaper on a Macintosh operating system to work for five years as a “Mac temp” in the Bay Area. Among other jobs, he designed congratulatory certificates for employees of Pac Bell, a West Coast telephone company.

Eggers moved on to become the editorial cartoonist for the magazine San Francisco Weekly and eventually started a graphic design firm with a friend from high school. Despite their lack of real experience, Eggers said he and his partner had a way with their clients.

“We’d just go in and lie about everything we knew and could do,” he said.

“We’d screw up huge jobs all the time, but we charged about 10 percent of everyone else.”

In 1993, Eggers and several more high school friends founded Might, a monthly magazine focusing on unconventional feature writing geared toward Gen Xers. Following the conventional wisdom of the publishing industry, Eggers said the staff attempted to reach a circulation of 100,000 by compromising editorial standards in order to appeal to advertisers. Might attracted attention, but the magazine folded after 16 issues without turning a profit. Eggers said the experience left him with a profound distaste for forcing good writing to be squeezed onto pages among advertisesee EGGERS, page 8

TO D AY ’ S F O R E C A S T Brown Night features musical performances and spoken word presentations campus news, page 5

Nate Goralnik ’06 says outsourcing jobs to India hasn’t hurt the United States much column, page 11

M. hockey breaks four-game losing streak in match against Vermont sports, page 12

mostly sunny high 51 low 35

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

THIS MORNING MONDAY, MARCH 1, 2004 · PAGE 2 Coup de Grace Grace Farris

W E AT H E R MONDAY

TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY

High 51 Low 35 mostly sunny

High 55 Low 38 pm showers

THURSDAY

High 52 Low 34 partly cloudy

High 51 Low 39 showers

GRAPHICS BY EDDIE AHN

Four Years Eddie Ahn

TO D AY ’ S E V E N TS "AFGHANISTAN: MOVING TOWARD ELECTIONS" A LECTURE BY AMBASSADOR ROBERT P. FINN 3:30 p.m. (Salomon 101) — Ambassador Robert Finn served as the United States Ambassador to Afghanistan from March 2002 until August 2003.

CARIBBEAN HERITAGE WEEK CONVOCATION 7:30 p.m. (Starr Auditorium, MacMillan Hall) — Featuring Roger Bonair-Agard, National Slam Champion and co-author of “Burning Down the House.”

MENU

My Best Effort Will Newman and Nate Goralnik

SHARPE REFECTORY LUNCH — Vegetarian Vegetable Soup, Shrimp Bisque, Chicken Fajitas, Falafel in Pita Bread, Mexican Corn, Cappucino Brownies, Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Icing, Pumpkin Cheese Roll

VERNEY-WOOLLEY DINING HALL LUNCH — Vegetarian Washington Chowder, Kale and Linguica Sandwich, Chicken Parmesan Sandwich, Spinach and Rice Bake, Green Beans with Mushrooms, Cappucino Brownies

DINNER — Vegetarian Vegetable Soup, Shrimp Bisque, Roast Turkey with Sauce, Spinach Lasagna with Meat or Meatless Sauce, Mashed Potatoes, Broccoli Spears with Lemon,Whole Beets, Squash Rolls, Cappucino Brownies, Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Icing, Pumpkin Cheese Roll

DINNER — Vegetarian Washington Chowder, Kale and Linguica Sandwich, Italian Beef Noodle Casserole,Vegetable Frittata, Red Potatoes with Fresh Dill, Sauteed Zucchini with Onions, Carrots in Parsley Sauce, Squash Rolls, Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Icing

Scribbles Mirele Davis

CROSSWORD ACROSS 1 In high style 5 Sir, in India 10 “Take __ your leader” 14 Taken by mouth 15 Artfully escape 16 Business VIP 17 Drop-down list 18 Like an impossible situation 19 Sorvino of “Mighty Aphrodite” 20 Doing restaurant grunt work 23 Winter racer 26 Members of a gaggle 27 Seer’s decks 28 September celebration of workers 31 Previously owned 32 Burton of “Roots” 33 Part of a tot’s potty experience 39 Clowns 40 Promise 42 Invoice addition 46 U.S. capital region 48 Papal vestment 49 Canada or Mexico 50 Great success 54 Give dinner to 55 Speedy 56 “What’s up __ that?”

60 About, contractually 61 Donald’s first ex 62 Buffalo’s lake 63 D’Urberville lass 64 Took out of text 65 Deeply moved DOWN 1 Dot-__ 2 Charlemagne’s reign: Abbr.

3 Holm of “The Fellowship of the Ring” 4 Scotch mixer

5 Has a feeling 37 Acidic 47 Mongrel 6 Sidestep 38 Gang addition? 49 Singer Patsy 7 Goldie of “The 41 Baled material 51 Crisscross Banger Sisters” 42 Architectural pattern 8 “Cool, man!” underside 52 Spelunker’s 9 Out of shape 43 Francis of spot 10 Club joiner “What’s My 53 October 11 Like Napoleon Line?” birthstone 12 Revered Mother 44 Strata 57 Lyricist 13 Irish dramatist 45 Fails to Gershwin Sean pronounce 58 Waiter’s reward 59 Riled (up) 21 Max. 46 Thingy 22 Ancient market ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE: 23 Air conditioner no.

N E A R E A S T E R N C T N 24 Kiln for hops A R A A R L O G U T H R I E 25 Uncle Remus’s L A N P R O V I S I O N A L __ Fox P R A T B L I N L A M E S 28 Massachusetts G E E N A R O N I E T A S music festival R E N A I S S A N C E S A R town 29 Batting nos.

F O N D U L I M A S 30 Christian B L O A T S A T O N E R denom.

B A I R N A C H E S 32 Songstress I L L U S T R I O U S U A R Minnelli W O R L D O N C E G L A M 34 Dramatist I L L Y E R I C A G O B S Henrik A L L I T E R A T E D I O N 35 “Wayne’s W I E N E R S T A N D World” negative E N E 36 Phone caller’s S S R S T R E S S T E S T S disappointment xwordeditor@aol.com 03/01/04 1

2

3

4

5

14 17

7

8

9

10

24

37

38

13

22

25

26 28

31

29

30

32 33

34

35

36

39 43

44

40

45

46

48 50

12

19

21

27

42

11

Hopeless Edwin Chang

16

18 20

23

6

15

Penguiener Haan Lee

41

47

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD, INC.

49 51

52

53 58

59

The Brown Daily Herald (USPS 067.740) is published Monday through Friday during the aca-

Business Phone: 401.351.3260

demic year, excluding vacations, once during Commencement, once during Orientation and

Juliette Wallack, President

once in July by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. POSTMASTER please send corrections to P.O. Box

54

55

56

60

61

62

Carla Blumenkranz, Vice President 2538, Providence, RI 02906. Periodicals postage paid at Providence, R.I. Offices are located at 195

63

64

65

Lawrence Hester, Treasurer

Angell St., Providence, R.I. E-mail herald@browndailyherald.com. World Wide Web:

John Carrere, Secretary

http://www.browndailyherald.com. Subscription prices: $179 one year daily, $139 one semester

By Lila Cherry (c)2004 Tribune Media Services, Inc.

57

Editorial Phone: 401.351.3372

03/01/04

daily. Copyright 2003 by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

ARTS & CULTURE MONDAY, MARCH 1, 2004 · PAGE 3

ImPulse dance company off to strong start after weekend of first auditions

BY MERYL ROTHSTEIN

As a second-semester senior and a graduate student, imPulse co-founders Nefertiti Jáquez ’04 and Rishi Sanyal GS have a lot of people wondering why they are starting a new dance company now.

But such concerns are baseless, Sanyal said. “Why not now?” he said.

ImPulse is a new student-run dance company featuring jazz, hip-hop, modern, ballet, lyrical and cultural dance.

The company, which the Undergraduate Council of Students constituted as a Category I student group Feb. 12, is intended to remedy the “dire need” for a diverse dance group with entirely student dancers and choreographers, Jáquez said.

Sanyal said he found so many “potential dancers that didn’t know what to do with that passion.”

“I didn’t feel like there was much of an outlet for it,” he said.

A lot of the serious dance groups at Brown — such as Fusion Dance Company and MEZCLA — are very selective, said Stanley Voigt ’06, a founding “imPulsee.”

The addition of new, equally selective and serious groups “gives more opportunities for students to be serious about dancing,” he said.

ImPulse will serve as a “separate outlet” for those in the dance community frustrated by the limited options, Jáquez said.

Sanyal said he envisions the company as a “close, tight-knit family of dancers” who are “very happy to work and learn from each other and share the stage with each other.”

Though the choreography will emphasize jazz and hip-hop, there will also be an opportunity to incorporate a variety of dance types, like salsa and fla-

menco, Jáquez said.

Roughly 40 students came to the imPulse auditions on Friday, and seven were accepted, she said.

Everyone who auditioned was “absolutely amazing,” but because much of the semester has already passed, a small group was the only way she and Sanyal could give dancers their full attention, she said.

They chose the seven dancers based on “personality and stage presence” rather than technical skills, she said.

“You can’t train a person to be a performer,” she said.

ImPulse is scheduled to perform in a collaborative exhibition this semester with Soul Cypher, SugarCane, Fusion, the Break Dancing Club, MEZCLA and What’s on Tap?, among others, Jáquez said.

The show, the first of its kind, is “really going to define where the dance community is at Brown,” she said.

In preparation for the performance, the group will meet two or three times each week for two or three hours, with more frequent practice as the show approaches, she said.

The show will be a major step in the six-month planning process that went into imPulse.

Jáquez and Sanyal decided to start the group while co-choreographing a dance for MEZCLA, of which Jáquez is president. They drafted a constitution and mission statement over winter break and presented their documents and a list of signatures to UCS in February, Jáquez said. She called the process “kind of excruciating” and “a little heart-wrenching,” but thus far the group has been received with “open arms,” she said. see IMPULSE, page 4

Hillel exhibit pushes limits of artistic expression

BY MASHA KIRASIROVA

The new Glenn and Darcy Weiner Center for Brown Hillel was dedicated last week amid controversy generated by a series of challenging artistic statements.

“To a Blind God,” parts 1 and 2, are two of the titles displayed in the new mixed media exhibit “For the Children,”

by Ana Weiner, which opened Friday in the building’s main lobby. The exhibit comes on the heels of another Hillel show, by artist Robert Cronin.

Aside from generating their share of strong reactions, the two exhibits have little in common. Unlike Cronin’s sexually provocative “candles” represented as large, soft pink shapes with holes, “For the Children” is the artistic expression of a mother grieving the loss of her two children.

The “children” are the very Glenn and Darcy whose names appear on the building’s facade. After they died in a plane crash, their father and mother — Connecticut artist Ana Weiner — decided to honor their memory with a gift and a message to the Brown Hillel community.

While the gift has been celebrated and welcomed, the message is not immediately clear.

Upon entrance, the visitor is confronted by a holographic image of a fetus of ambiguous gender that appears and disappears inside the mirrored amorphous darkness of an upturned pyramid. The pyramid’s sharp metallic contour is focused on a single sharp point creating a sense of precarious balance. The differ-

ence in media from the heavy steel to the ephemeral visual effect of holographic and lenticular panels creates an interesting, albeit frightening, effect. The baby moves in the metal frame, creating an eerie, interactive illusion.

The walls of the central hallway, which have been described by at least one community member as looking like “a torture chamber,” display bleak gray and darkgreen painting and sculptures.

Tormented puppets are suspended with wire, and ghastly pale faces in white dramatic makeup stare at the viewer amid gothic black and white stripes, spikes, barbed wire and other metal protrusions.

They are sometimes crossed out or otherwise obstructed with metal and text.

Weiner’s experiments with text are often more challenging than the images themselves. Near one of the paintings, the words “pain,” “agonize,” “mutilate,” “crucify” and “punish” spill out of the frame onto the walls. Though always visible, the text challenges the meaning of readability. Against the wall, a large metal work entitled “To a Blind God part 2” presents rows of Braille crumbling and again spilling out of the frame in an unintelligible dotted chaos.

The new Glen and Darcy Weiner Center pushes the limits of acceptable artistic expression acceptable in a holy place.

Herald staff writer Masha Kirasirova ’05 can be reached at mkirasirova@browndailyherald.com.

Academy Awards wrap-up Best picture:“The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” Best director: Peter Jackson (“The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King”) Best actor: Sean Penn (“Mystic River”) Best actress: Charlize Theron (“Monster”) Best supporting actor: Tim Robbins (“Mystic River”) Best supporting actress: Renee Zellweger (“Cold Mountain”)

PAGE 4 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD MONDAY, MARCH 1, 2004

Levinger continued from page 1 February, the professorship was unfilled. The lawsuit alleges that Brown had a reasonable amount of time — nine years — to fill the position had the University been “truly committed.” Brown denies these allegations in its response, filed Wednesday.

Edward Shapiro, a lawyer for the Levinger trust, said that there was no original time agreement for the establishment of the professorship, but the “complaint speaks for itself.” Shapiro would not say when the most recent attempt to discuss the appointment with Brown occurred.

Late last week, Mark Nickel, director of the Brown News Service, told The Herald administrators expected to name someone to the chair during the current academic year. On Saturday afternoon, after the winter Corporation meeting, the

University announced it had named Buxton to the professorship.

Ledbetter said the wait to fill the position was in part a result of having “a very young medical school,” which was transitioning from a focus on teaching to include research as well.

Professorships are designed to showcase individuals with distinctions in research, she said, and the University had to wait to find a good fit.

“You don’t just run out and establish and create and find,” she said “The search was ongoing all the time,” Ledbetter said. Brown had come very close to making appointments in the past, she said.

In October 2003, the University anticipated that it would make an appointment by February 2004, but the University had the same anticipation in February 2003 for October of that year, she added.

The University also had to wait

for approval from the Corporation before announcing the appointment, Ledbetter said.

Buxton is an electrophysiologist who has done pioneering research in sudden cardiac death and cardiac arrhythmias, Ledbetter said. He has been at Brown since 1999, she said.

The Providence Journal reported that Levinger has given more than $5 million to Brown. Both Nickel and Ledbetter said they did not know about any donations from Levinger in addition to the $1.2 million for the professorship.

Shapiro could not be reached for comment Sunday regarding the future of the lawsuit.

Ledbetter said she could not predict what would happen because she had not yet spoken with the Levinger family’s counsel.

Staff writer Lisa Mandle ’06 is The Herald’s design editor. She can be reached at lmandle@browndailyherald.com.

Corporation

Changes in the budg-

continued from page 1

et for 2005 include a

winner of the PEN/Faulkner award, a MacArthur Fellowship recipient and the winner of the 2000 O. Henry Award for best short story. He is coming to Brown after teaching at the University of MassachusettsAmherst since 1986. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania, Wideman was the second African American to win a Rhodes Scholarship for study at Oxford University.

In the anthropology department, Stephen Houston, one of the nation’s leading experts on Mayan studies, will begin at Brown July 1. Houston has taught at Brigham Young University for the past 11 years. His areas of research include Mayan writing and language, as well as ancient architecture and religion.

Wayne Bowen, associate biology professor at Brown from 19891991, will return to the University as a professor of medical science beginning in October. He currently works in the drug design and synthesis unit of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases at the National Institutes of Health.

He is chief of the receptor biochemistry and pharmacology unit at the institution. He is currently engaged in the study of the brain, specifically on the effects of opiate drugs and biochemistry of sigma receptors.

Bowen is a graduate of Morgan State College and Cornell University, where he received a Ph.D. in biochemistry and neuropharmacology. He served as president of the NIH Black Scientists Association in 2001.

“President Simmons was very enthusiastic about all three of them,” said Carey of the newly appointed professors.

The Corporation also named associate professor of neuroscience David Berson ’75 the Sidney A. Fox and Dorothea Doctors Fox Professor of Opthalmology and Visual Sciences and Professor of Neuroscience. Berson specializes in the study of the neurons of the retina and was the lead author of a 2002 paper that was the first to identify the eye cell that runs the body’s circadian clock. Berson holds an A.B. in psychology from Brown and a Ph.D. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in neuroanatomy.

The Ruth and Paul Levinger Professorship, recently the subject of a lawsuit filed against the University, was also filled. The Corporation named cardiologist and medical professor Alfred Buxton the Levinger Professor of Cardiology. The nomination comes after the Levinger Family Trust filed suit against the University earlier this year for waiting too long to award the position.

The $1.2 million endowment was presented to the University

4.9 percent rise in

ImPulse continued from page 3 As for the future, Sanyal said he hopes the group will grow to 20 or 25 dancers who will put on one or two shows each year, including further collaborations.

undergraduate tuition and fees for the 20042005 academic year, setting total charges for undergraduates at $39,808.

Undergraduate tuition will rise by 5 percent to $30,672. in 1981. The lawsuit accuses the University of delaying the search to fill the position for nine years after the chair had been established. The suit has not yet been resolved.

Buxton is the director of arrhythmia services and the electrophysiology laboratory at Rhode Island Hospital. He holds an A.B. from the University of Rochester and an M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania.

Endowed assistant professorships were awarded to Jennifer Hughes and George Yap. Hughes and Yap were both named Manning Assistant Professors, Hughes in the Department of Biology. Yap was named an assistant professor of medical science.

Carey said Saturday’s meeting marked the end of a three-day period of smaller meetings attended by members of the corporation committee. Last week also marked the first meetings of the newly instituted advisory councils, he said. The councils, made up of parents, faculty members and alumni, met to discuss topics including admissions, athletics, diversity, computing and the library.

“They are intended to bring in a wider group of people to be involved in the corporation meeting,” Carey said. Some of the topics discussed were later addressed at the Corporation meeting.

At the meetings, members organized their agendas and came up with ways to advise senior department officers, he said.

Other changes implemented at the February meeting include the approval of the full budget. In past years, only the tuition was determined in February, and total changes in budget were calculated in May at commencement.

According to Carey, Simmons proposed the change because it allows the University to plan more effectively for the coming year.

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

Most of all, he said he hopes it remains a “great way (for students) to share their love of dancing with other students.”

Herald staff writer Meryl Rothstein ’06 edits the Arts & Culture section. She can be reached at mrothstein@browndailyherald.com.

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

CAMPUS NEWS MONDAY, MARCH 1, 2004 · PAGE 5

Harlem Renaissance infuses annual Brown Night

BY STEPHANIE CLARK

Josh Miller

Students gathered Saturday in Leung Gallery for the seventh annual Entrepreneurship Forum, presented by the Entrepreneurship Program and Career Development Center.Tom First ’89, founder, executive chairman and chief marketing officer of ELEVEN Technology, Ed Valentini, founder and chief operating officer of Cell Based Delivery Inc., Jody Adams ’79, co-owner and chief of Rialto Charles Hotel, and Scott Ganeles ’86, chief operating officer of I-Deal, sat on the keynote panel moderated by Adjunct Lecturer in Engineering Josef Mittleman ’72,“Marketing Mavericks: Set Yourself Apart!”“I think that students who were new to entrepreneurship were able to flatten some of the myths,” Mittleman said afterward.“It’s more about achievement than about money.”

First-year seminars finding places in concentration requirements

BY MICHAEL RUDERMAN

Now in their second year, first-year seminars have become a new staple of the Brown curriculum, and some departments are incorporating these new classes into their concentration requirements.

“A lot of the seminars currently offered do count toward the concentration requirements,” said Dean of Freshman Studies Armando Bengochea. “We want departments to design courses that fit into the department curriculum.”

This year, 52 seminars were offered, providing 1,000 spaces for interested first-years. “The program has been amazingly successful,” Bengochea said.

But negotiating with departments to create these small classes has been difficult, and some departments have been more responsive than others in creating seminars.

The Department of Economics only offers one seminar, this semester’s EC18: “Economics on a Broad Canvas.” This course does not fit any concentration requirement for the department.

“It’s interesting stuff, but it wouldn’t count towards the concentration,” said Assistant Professor of Economics Enrico Spolaore, who also serves as a concentration advisor.

Hard sciences departments are also offering seminars that fulfill concentration requirements. The Department

of Geology offered four seminars this year, and “a geo concentrator can count one of the first-year seminars toward their concentration,” said Professor of Geological Sciences Jan Tullis, who also serves as a concentration advisor.

Similarly, the Department of Biology offered five firstyear seminars this year, and students are able to count one seminar toward their concentration.

Faculty in each department are responsible for determining concentration requirements, and some departments might not yet have voted on whether to count firstyear seminars, Bengochea said. Other departments have not yet formally changed their requirements.

Professor of Political Science Darrell West, director of the A. Alfred Taubman Center for Public Policy and American Institutions, said his department will count its seminars as elective courses. But the Department of Public Policy’s guide for concentrators lists courses that count toward the concentration, and first-year seminars are yet to appear on this listing.

“That list is to provide guidance. There are other classes that we count. It’s not an exclusive list,” West said.

AC15: “Jews and Whiteness” was offered through the collaboration of the American Civilization and Judaic see SEMINARS, page 8

Jazz music and a sense of history filled Leung Gallery Sunday night as the Organization of United African Peoples celebrated the sixth annual Brown Night. The event, organized by first-year representatives of OUAP, was themed “Harlem Renaissance” and featured performances of music and poetry.

The event began with a poem by Damian Ramsey ’07 about problems facing black people today and “how it is to live in an urban environment,” Ramsey told The Herald after the performance. Ramsey’s poem was followed by an untitled poem by Mica Bayard ’07.

C.J. Hunt ’07 performed a spoken word poem by Gil Scott Heron, a black poet and jazz musician from the 1960s and 1970s, and accompanied himself on drums.

The poem, “Evolution of a Black Man,” focused on how far black people have come through history.

Paul Dorsainvil ’07 read an original monologue about the current political unrest in Haiti, saying that Time magazine called the two sides involved in the conflicts “monsters and cannibals.”

“I’m either a monster or a cannibal. Those don’t seem like very good choices, but that’s what Time magazine has labeled me,” said Dorsainvil, who is of Haitian descent. He also said, “Light-skinned blacks, darkskinned blacks and mulattos fight to assert their blackness every day on this campus.”

The night continued with several other poems and musical performances. The primarily jazz music included “Satin Doll” by Duke Ellington and “Ready For Love”

by India.Arie. Between acts, the semiformal atmosphere was enhanced by a live jazz band and appetizers.

The evening concluded with a slide show featuring black and white photos of first-years in OUAP, accompanied by recorded music by Billie Holiday.

The event was organized by OUAP freshmen representatives Jalle Dafa ’07 and Devonne Heyward ’07. Dafa also played the saxophone to “Mack the Knife” and “Summertime” while Tracey Martin ’07 sang.

The theme of the evening was chosen because “the Harlem Renaissance was an exciting time in history for African Americans,” Dafa said. “We wanted to mimic that with the music and poetry presented tonight.” She said the slide show of OUAP members also represented the artwork that flourished during the Harlem Renaissance.

Heyward said the night “went extremely well.”

“I’m very proud of the turn-out in terms of participants and audience members,” she said.

Approximately 75 people attended the event, which has been in preparatory stages for about six weeks, according to Dafa. Despite some technical glitches early on, Dafa said she though the event was “totally successful.”

PAGE 6 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD MONDAY, MARCH 1, 2004

Hunting Season for

THE FIRST PICK IN HOUSING

· · ·

Want to be the first to choose?

Want an excuse to run around wild?

Have you got game?

Get your buddies and join Brown’s first

Campus-Wide Scavenger Hunt

— sponsored by your

UCS

& Residential Life On Tuesday, March 2 Get info at: www.brownucs.org

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

WORLD & NATION MONDAY, MARCH 1, 2004 · PAGE 7

Search continues for 18 crew members of tanker

Aristide resigns; peacekeeping force forming in Haiti

WASHINGTON (L.A. Times) — The Coast Guard searched

Bertrand Aristide resigned and flew into exile on Sunday, bowing to a three-week rebel offensive and increasing pressure from the United States and other governments that he leave office.

At the White House, President Bush said he had ordered the deployment of U.S. Marines to be the lead element in a U.N. peacekeeping force in the country, wracked by a new round of gunfire, looting and mayhem after Aristide left at dawn. Aristide’s departure came after rebels sworn to oust him had taken over more than half of the country, with more than 70 people killed.

Boniface Alexandre, the head of Haiti’s highest court, announced at midmorning he was taking office as interim president as required by the constitution. “The task will not be an easy one,” said Alexandre, who spoke at a ceremony attended by the U.S. and French ambassadors. “Haiti is in crisis. ... It needs all its sons and daughters. No one should take justice into their own hands.”

Alexandre and a seven-member council of prominent citizens, including members of Aristide’s party and the opposition, were to select a new prime minister and form an interim government—part of a U.S.-backed power-sharing plan that Aristide had agreed to earlier this month in the hopes of preserving his presidency.

Guy Philippe, 36, the leader of rebel forces that began an armed insurrection against Aristide Feb. 5, said on local radio Sunday afternoon that his forces would support Alexandre and cooperate with international peacekeepers.

“It is not time for fighting anymore,” said Philippe, a former army officer and police chief who had vowed to capture or kill Aristide if he didn’t step down.

It was the second time Aristide, 50, a former Roman Catholic priest, had been forced out of the presidency and into exile.

Aristide, whose resistance to the brutal Duvalier family dictatorship helped bring it down in 1986, became the country’s first freely elected president in 1990. But a military coup forced him into exile seven months after he took office promising to lift up Haiti’s poor majority. The Clinton

the cold waters of the Atlantic until nightfall Sunday for 18 missing crew members of a 570-foot tanker that sank off the coast of Virginia, but no more survivors were found.

The Bow Mariner exploded Saturday night, leaving three crew members dead, six injured and 18 missing.

The ship was loaded with ethanol.

Coast Guard officials were not optimistic that they would find any of the men, but they said the search would resume Monday morning.

The Norwegian owners of the ship said Sunday that they hoped to determine soon the cause of the blast.

The Coast Guard is investigating, although all signs pointed to an accident.

“The explosion must have been significant for a ship of this size to sink. There were a lot of separate rooms that would have normally kept her afloat,” said Jan Hammer, a senior vice president with Odfjell, the Oslobased company that owns the ship. “I think it will be known today or tomorrow what caused it. We have some theories.”

The Coast Guard received a radio call from the Bow Mariner at 6:10 p.m. Saturday, alerting them to the explosion about 55 miles east of Chincoteague, Va. “That was the last contact we had with them,” Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Steve Carleton said.

A Coast Guard helicopter picked up six survivors in a lifeboat Saturday night. Two were suffering from hypothermia because of the frigid temperatures of the Atlantic Ocean. Rescue efforts continued Sunday with two Coast Guard cutters, a motor lifeboat and air surveillance. “As long as there is hope, we will continue to search,” Carleton said.

The Bow Mariner’s 27-member crew included 24 Filipinos and three Greeks.

The survivors, all from the Philippines, were taken to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, where they were treated for petroleum contamination and exposure.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (Washington Post) — President Jean-

administration sent 23,000 U.S. troops to Haiti in 1994 to restore him to power, and invested $2.3 billion to help establish a new police force and rebuild the country of 8 million.

But Aristide, re-elected in November 2000, had fallen out of favor with foreign governments and international organizations for his increasingly authoritarian style. A broadbased civic opposition, accusing Aristide of ruining the economy, corruption, and political intimidation, had also called for his resignation.

Aristide left Port-au-Prince at 6:15 a.m., escorted by U.S. security forces as he left the National Palace, U.S. officials said. A U.S. government aircraft flew him to the neighboring island of Antigua, then to the Central African Republic, and a final destination not yet determined, according to U.S. officials.

Prime Minister Yvon Neptune read a statement by Aristide, quoting the president as saying he resigned to avoid further bloodshed. “Today is a very difficult day.... I am determined to respect the constitution,” the statement said. “The constitution should not sink in the blood of the Haitian people.”

“I know it is not what the vast majority of Haitians wished would have happened,” said Neptune, who will serve as prime minister until a replacement is named by the interim council.

Witnesses said some rebel forces arrived in the capital Sunday afternoon and manned roadblocks alongside police who were trying to stop the angry rampage that erupted as news spread of Aristide’s departure. Armed supporters of Aristide, who abandoned office three years into his five-year term, marauded all day through this city of 1.3 million people.

Black smoke billowed overhead as entire city blocks of gas stations, stores and banks burned. Gunfire echoed around the hills that rise sharply from the center of the city, located on the Caribbean. Witnesses saw a dozen or more bodies lying in the streets and local radio reported that 3,000 inmates had been released from the national penitentiary.

PAGE 8 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD MONDAY, MARCH 1, 2004

Campus life continued from page 1 firm with “extensive experience working on campuses at other universities like Brown,” Greene said.

After meeting with various groups on campus and studying patterns of space usage and foot traffic, the company put together a series of analyses and plans for a campus center.

The University has reviewed these plans, but the structure and location for the center has not been determined, Greene said.

The University has not developed plans for the building of a fitness center or the renovation of the Ratty, but the approval of the Corporation will allow this process to go forward, Greene said.

Renovations will bring the Ratty up to modern building codes and “enhance greatly the quality of dining experience at Brown,” according to a University press release.

Greene said he expects the University to detail plans within the next month to expand undergraduate housing and develop a program for housing graduate and medical students.

The goal as outlined in the Plan for Academic Enrichment is to house about 300 more undergraduates in an attempt to limit off-campus housing to seniors, as well as provide housing for 400 to 500 graduate and medical students, according to

Renovations will bring the Ratty up to modern building codes and “enhance greatly the quality of dining experience at Brown,” according to a University press release. the press release.

At least two groups of consultants have looked at ways for the University to expand housing both on and off College Hill, said Chancellor Stephen Robert.

The possibilities include both building and land acquisitions, he said.

Robert, who has spent the last four months fundraising for the capital campaign, said the Corporation’s approval will give direction to the fundraising.

“The more solid our plans are and the more we’ve already executed on those plans, the easier it is to raise money,” he said.

The efforts that arose out of the 2002 meeting “have excited alumni, parents and other givers and have made fundraising go much better,” Robert said. “The new proposals will take us that much further.”

But much of the actual con-

struction of these campus life improvements is dependent upon campaign donations, Robert said. A large part of the construction “will essentially start when we get the gift that allows us to go forward,” he said.

Both Robert and Greene said the approvals reflected an enthusiastic endorsement of Simmons’ initiatives.

“I think the reason the Corporation felt confident in approving (the proposals) is because we’re so pleased with what’s been happening with the improvements since 2002,” Robert said. He called the new proposals “some of the most sweeping new programs in expansion we’ve seen in many a decade.”

Undergraduate Council of Students President Rahim Kurji ’05 said he was pleased with the Corporation’s decisions. Kurji, who serves on the Student Life Task Force committee and worked closely with administrators in developing the plans for campus life improvements, said the Corporation was very responsive to student feedback.

“I was very impressed with the level of insight and the level of commitment,” he said.

“They’d taken to heart a lot of things we recommended, and they’d really done their homework.”

Herald staff writer Robbie Corey-Boulet ’07 can be reached at rcorey-boulet@browndailyherald.com.

Seminars continued from page 5 Studies departments. The seminar counts for neither department’s concentration, according to the departments’ Web sites.

But because first and secondyear students have not had to declare concentrations, the departments offering these seminars have not had to confront the issue. “We haven’t had to face this yet,” Tullis said.

Already some departments have shown interest in expanding their first-year seminar offerings.

The Department of English plans

on offering 11 seminars next year, Bengochea said.

Bengochea said he hopes other departments will increase the number and quality of their first-year seminars. “We would like the departments to own these courses and have them become important parts of their curricula,” he said.

Brown is the only school that offers first-year seminars that are not required, according to Bengochea.

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

Eggers

Eggers said he had

continued from page 1

plenty of idle time

ments, photographs and other distractions.

Eggers said most of the Might editors were offered jobs at bigname glossy magazines in New York, which they accepted after years of waiting tables and temping.

For nine months Eggers worked at the men’s magazine Esquire, where he experienced corporate culture first hand.

“For any of you interested in talking about corporate magazines, you can come talk to me,” he told the audience. “There are advantages and disadvantages, but for me, there were mostly disadvantages.”

Eggers said he had plenty of idle time while on staff at Esquire, and he used it to begin work on McSweeney’s and “A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius.” Both projects took advantage, he said, of “Esquire’s time and their laser printer and their fax machine.”

McSweeney’s began as “a haven for the kinds of misfit stories” rejected from glossy magazines, Eggers said. He explained that in creating the magazine’s distinctive look, he was inspired by 19th century medical texts, Bibles and textbooks, with their bold, centered type and direct invitations to readers, asking them to explore the texts within.

Garamond 3, the font Eggers chose for the first McSweeney’s cover, continues to be associated with the magazine and the genre of witty, unconventional writing contained within it.

Eggers said he used McSweeney’s to bring to fruition the ideas he gleaned after his frustrating publishing experiences at Might and Esquire. To give writers the ability to design the way their texts were presented, some issues of McSweeney’s contained small, one-article booklets surrounded by a common cover. The seventh issue of the magazine was a cardboard box with a rubber band around it. Inside were separate booklets, each containing one article.

But high-concept design can be expensive and painstaking, Eggers said. Many of his projects are manufactured at a small printing press in Iceland, and the cardboard box issue of McSweeney’s almost didn’t make it to the United States during the 2001 anthrax scare because of the white powder covering each rubber band. To solve the problem, the 17,000 rubber bands were put through a washing machine, Eggers said.

while on staff at Esquire, and he used it to begin work on McSweeney’s and “A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius.” Both projects took advantage, he said, of “Esquire’s time and their laser printer and their fax machine.”

Unlike McSweeney’s, Eggers’ new magazine, The Believer, does not change its design from issue to issue. In fact, Eggers said, to cut costs, the monthly magazine uses the same template for each issue and has a staff of one — Andrew Leland, a former McSweeney’s intern who dropped out of Oberlin College to accept the job.

In addition to his publishing and writing projects, Eggers and his staff run 826 Valencia Street, a space in San Francisco that houses the offices of McSweeney’s and a tutoring center for local children. The rent, Eggers said, is supported by a “pirate supplies” shop run out of the building. Eggers said an East Coast branch of the tutoring center will open soon in Brooklyn, called 826 NYC, and will contain a “superhero supplies” store.

During the question-andanswer session, Eggers said if authors cannot get their books published, they should selfpublish, even though they will only be able to sell a maximum of 2,000 copies.

“You should do it yourself before you die,” he said, adding that for the staff of his publications, success is not measured in terms of scale. “We talk to the people we want to talk to, we seem to have influence among those people we like. And it doesn’t really have to be more than that.”

Herald staff writer Dana Goldstein ’06 edits the RISD News section.

She can be reached at dgoldstein@browndailyherald.com.

MONDAY, MARCH 1, 2004 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD PAGE 9

Zarda continued from page 12 indictment ruptures the dam and releases a tidal wave.

Perhaps memories locked and hidden in a corner are rediscovered through the accusations of another. Maybe over time, the wounds have healed slightly.

Maybe with healing, vulnerability transforms itself into the courage to face one’s attacker and demand retribution.

What psychological switch is triggered allowing one to confront his or her fears? If I throw a stone, will you cast one of your own? Does the concept of mob behavior translate to a victim’s ability to confront his or her past? Alcoholics meet regularly to discuss with others that which afflicts them all. Is this accumulation of accusations one large AA meeting for women abused by jocks in Boulder? Is the first accuser merely the push that allows so many to move forward?

If so, then why do the accusations remain centered in the Rockies? Wouldn’t this scandal provide cover for women nationwide to cry foul against the infractions that must pervade every institution? When did all the football players who can’t grasp the lack of ambiguity in the term “no” all relocate to Boulder? I find it hard to believe that sex is only used and abused by Gary Barnett’s pro-

Basketball continued from page 12 With Luke Ruscoe ’06 chipping in with six points and six boards, the starters combined for all 40 of the team’s first-half points and all but 10 of the team’s total minutes.

“We came out in the first half like a mature team, playing hard and playing defense,” Miller said.

In the second half, Brown again got off to a hot start, opening on a 16-4 run for a 56-33 lead.

With the Bears playing well on both ends of the court, the Big Green got no closer than 16 over the rest the game, and Brown picked up a 77-54 victory. Powers led the team in scoring in the second half as well, finishing with 25 points and seven boards.

Martin and Kilburn finished with 15 and 14, respectively. The win also preserved the Class of 2004’s undefeated record against Dartmouth.

“It has been an adjustment for me in becoming one of the first or second options,” Powers said.

Prior to Saturday’s game, Brown celebrated its Senior Night, honoring Kilburn, Martin, Powers and team manager Robert Humm ’04. All four were individually ushered to center court, where they stood with Coach Miller and their families and received a framed photograph.

“I hope (the younger players) learned (from me) to work as hard as you can every day,” Martin said. “To be able to play with your teammates every day and form that kind of relationship is unique, and outside of team sports, there are not a lot of places you can form that relationship.”

Once the game got underway, the Bears maintained the high

gram.

There are many reasons that the states of Florida and California dominate the college football landscape. Blondes and bikinis have been a recruitment tool for longer than a strong wishbone offense or the need for depth at corner have. And when they are revered as gods, I’m certain players at other institutions incorrectly assume that every girl on campus wants a sample of the starting right tackle.

But, if so, where are the rest of the complaints? Why haven’t these women decided to jump on? Who stopped the snowball in Boulder? Why does the rest of Division I football receive a free pass while the Colorado program receives the spanking it rightfully deserves? Is the bandwagon not capable of picking someone up on the East Coast, or does it have a limited seating capacity? I just don’t get it.

To true sports aficionados, bandwagon fans are one step above those who hope to “see a good game.” They’re afforded little respect, dismissed as fickle and branded as such for life. I contend that this bandwagon in Colorado must not and should not be so branded. These women, and those still hesitant to jump on, deserve justice.

Still, the paradox that is bandwagon behavior perplexes me.

Brett Zarda GS hails from Orlando, Fla.

level of energy resonating through the Pizzitola Sports Center and built a 22-16 lead with 14 minutes to go in the half.

At that point, Powers took over the game and went on a run, scoring 11 points in two minutes and two seconds, including three three-pointers. Forte followed with two baskets of his own, and Bruno found itself with an 18point lead. By the time Powers drained a three-pointer with 1:07 on the clock, Brown had surpassed Dartmouth’s total score from the previous night, on its way to a 57-37 halftime lead.

For the second straight game, all three seniors were in double figures in scoring by intermission. Powers led the team with 16, followed by Martin with 14 and Kilburn with 10. Forte chipped in with nine points and seven assists, and Ruscoe drained two three-pointers. As a team, the Bears shot nearly 70 percent for the half, making eight of 14 threes.

In the second half, defense was not at a premium, and both teams put up over forty points. Still, the outcome of the game was never in doubt, and Brown reached 100 points thanks to the free throws of Marcus Becker ’07 with 24.8 seconds to play. The final score, 10083, was closer than the play of the game indicated.

“I want to be a team more like Duke,” Miller said. “I don’t care if they are All-Americans or not.

Every possession, they are playing like the score is tied. They have that kind of discipline. Our goal here is to win championships, so we will have to get to that type of discipline.”

Powers again led the team in scoring, finishing with 27 points.

His five three-pointers left him five shy of the single-season Brown record, which he guaran-

Hockey continued from page 12 shots, and Macri scored Brown’s sixth goal on a combination with Ford and Robinson.

“Before the game, we said ‘let’s make it a good one,’” Grillo said about the final regular season game for the team’s seven seniors.

The seniors recognized their parents in a pre-game ceremony for Senior Night.

Grillo spoke about the season’s challenges and its promise: “We didn’t get too high (with our success) this season, but we got too low sometimes.

“You taste that success, and it’s good, real good. You get a little taste of that negativity, those losing nights, and it hurts. It was hard to pull out of it. (Saturday) we did, and last night was an important step.”

With the big win on Saturday the Bears are standing taller, more confident they can deliver some big playoff goals.

“We’re looking forward to playing at home,” Ford said. “We’ve done well here, and we hope the students will come out and get this place rocking.”

Brown will play Harvard University or Vermont March 12 and 13 at Meehan, where the team is 7-2-2.

Herald staff writer Matt Lieber GS covers men’s ice hockey. He can be reached at mlieber@browndailyherald.com.

teed he would break next weekend. Forte and Kilburn each finished with double-doubles — 24 points and 10 assists for Forte and 17 points and 14 rebounds for Kilburn. Kilburn also finished with four blocks for the second straight game. The other starters, Martin and Ruscoe, ended up with 15 and 9 points, respectively.

“It is nice to go out with Mike and Jamie and get one last win at home,” Powers said. “That is what really means the most. We can take a lot of pride in where the program is at today.”

“This is my last home game, and I definitely wanted to go out on a good note,” Kilburn said.

“More than anything, I wanted to make sure we got the win, but it was an emotional night, and I wanted to make sure I was focused enough to play well.”

With road games at Columbia and Cornell universities looming next weekend, the Bears will hope to win out and have Princeton University drop at least one game before it faces the University of Pennsylvania.

Besides the Ivy League title, the team will be playing for other team and individual records. In addition to the title, the seniors are trying to extend the record for most wins in a four-year span, currently sitting at 62.

Individually, Powers will be gunning for the three-point record, and Forte will be trying to become the first player in Ivy League history to lead the league in assists and scoring in league play. He currently sits in first in both categories and is a favorite to win Player of the Year.

Herald staff writer Joshua Troy ’04 is a former sports editor and covers men’s basketball. He can be reached at jtroy@browndailyherald.com.

Kansas Chicken

I scream.

You scream.

We all scream for protein.

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

EDITORIAL/LETTERS MONDAY, MARCH 1, 2004 · PAGE 10 S T A F F

E D I T O R I A L

Teaching professors This weekend, the Corporation announced the hiring of three new faculty members, all of whom are highly accomplished and high-profile. Bringing to Brown the literary accolades of John Edgar Wideman, the epigraphic expertise of Stephen Houston and the leading neuropharmacology of Wayne Bowen represents a major accomplishment for the University, and one that promises to offer benefits for many here.

But we are concerned that many of us might never see these benefits. The Plan for Academic Enrichment, which the Corporation formally endorsed this weekend, describes an institution that aspires to become a major research powerhouse, with increased funding for multidisciplinary centers, the hard sciences and graduate education. Brown is a university college, not a research institution, and while this stature might have made some elements of its existence more difficult, it’s also endowed us with excellent teaching.

Wideman, Houston and Bowen might be excellent teachers — they certainly have excellent things to teach their students.

But it’s conceivable that academic names of this caliber might demand special treatment from the University in the form of reduced course loads, teaching assignments biased toward graduate students and time off for research.

We’ve been blessed by the school’s attitude toward teaching — professors here work harder and in closer contact with undergraduates than faculty members at many top research universities. The rare opportunity to work closely with superb faculty is one of the reasons many of us are here.

But as Brown continues to distinguish itself, it must take care not to let the faculty become divided between the big names who headline University press releases and the rank-and-file professors who actually teach and work with us. The superstar should be invested in his or her teaching as much as the junior faculty member striving for tenure and the professor emeritus who no longer feels the need to publish.

We all want to go to a school with big-name professors, where we can learn from the experts in their fields. But we don’t want to go to a school where the stars build upon their expertise in offices far removed from undergraduate life. We trust the administration to give undergraduates access to the academic giants they are bringing to our campus.

SHANE WILKERSON

LETTERS Herald comics and cartoons are in poor taste To the Editor: Shane Wilkerson’s editorial cartoon (Feb. 26) was a poor attempt at humor, and worse, it showed a double standard when it comes to racial stereotypes. I am surprised the Brown Daily Herald printed a cartoon depicting how applicants for the Roger Williams University whites-only scholarship must pass (or fail?) a dance test to prove that they are white enough.

Why doesn’t The Herald print a comic with a similar caption: “Applicants for blacks-only scholarships must play in a basketball game to prove they’re black enough.” Wouldn’t that be funny? One can imagine the uproar on campus such a comic would incite.

Michael Pozar ’06 Feb. 26

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD EDITORIAL Juliette Wallack, Editor-in-Chief Carla Blumenkranz, Executive Editor Philissa Cramer, Executive Editor Julia Zuckerman, Senior Editor Danielle Cerny, Arts & Culture Editor Meryl Rothstein, Arts & Culture Editor Zachary Barter, Campus Watch Editor Monique Meneses, Features Editor Sara Perkins, Metro Editor Dana Goldstein, RISD News Editor Alex Carnevale, Opinions Editor Ben Yaster, Opinions Editor Christopher Hatfield, Sports Editor PRODUCTION Lisa Mandle, Design Editor George Haws, Copy Desk Chief Eddie Ahn, Graphics Editor Judy He, Photo Editor Nick Neely, Photo Editor

BUSINESS John Carrere, General Manager Lawrence Hester, General Manager Anastasia Ali, Executive Manager Zoe Ripple, Executive Manager Elias Vale Roman, Senior Project Manager In Young Park, Project Manager Peter Schermerhorn, Project Manager Laird Bennion, Project Manager Bill Louis, Senior Financial Officer Laurie-Ann Paliotti, Sr. Advertising Rep. Elyse Major, Advertising Rep. Kate Sparaco, Office Manager POST- MAGAZINE Ellen Wernecke, Editor-in-Chief Jason Ng, Executive Editor Micah Salkind, Executive Editor Abigail Newman, Theater Editor Josh Cohen, Design Editor Allison Lombardo, Features Editor Jeremy Beck, Film Editor Jessica Weisberg, Film Editor Ray Sylvester, Music Editor

Little Debbie, Night Editor Ezra Flam, Copy Editor Staff Writers Kathy Babcock, Zaneta Balantac, Elise Baran, Alexandra Barsk, Zachary Barter, Hannah Bascom, Danielle Cerney, Robbie Corey-Boulet, Lexi Costello, Ian Cropp, Sam Culver, Gabriella Doob, Jonathan Ellis, Justin Elliott, Amy Hall Goins, Dana Goldstein, Bernard Gordon, Krista Hachey, Chris Hatfield, Jonathan Herman, Miles Hovis, Masha Kirasirova, Robby Klaber, Kate Klonick, Alexis Kunsak, Sarah LaBrie, Hanyen Lee, Kira Lesley, Matt Lieber, Allison Lombardo, Chris Mahr, Lisa Mandle, Craig McGowan, Jonathan Meachin, Monique Meneses, Kavita Mishra, Sara Perkins, Melissa Perlman, Eric Perlmutter, Sheela Raman, Meryl Rothstein, Michael Ruderman, Jen Sopchockchai, Lela Spielberg, Stefan Talman, Joshua Troy, Schuyler von Oeyen, Jessica Weisberg, Brett Zarda Accounts Managers Daniel Goldberg, Mark Goldberg, Victor Griffin, Matt Kozar, Natalie Ho, Ian Halvorsen, Sarena Snider Pagination Staff Peter Henderson, Lisa Mandle, Alex Palmer Photo Staff Gabriella Doob, Benjamin Goddard, Marissa Hauptman, Judy He, Jonathan Herman, Miyako Igari, Allison Lombardo, Elizabeth MacLennan, Nicholas Neely, Michael Neff, Alex Palmer, Yun Shou Tee, Sorleen Trevino Copy Editors Katie Lamm, Asad Reyaz, Amy Ruddle, Melanie Wolfgang

“My Best Effort,” by Will Newman and Barron Youngsmith routinely crosses lines. The comic is often explicitly sexual and implicitly sexist. But the latest strip (Feb. 27) crosses an entirely different line.

Imagine the following comic: In the first panel, our main character checks out an attractive girl but is scolded by a friend: “She’s off limits, she’s black!”

(Offended already? You should be. But read on.) By the third panel, the white protagonist has donned blackface and is drawn with an exaggerated bottom lip and elongated arms. Seeing this, the girl proclaims, “Do me now!”

I cannot imagine that the Brown community would for a second turn a blind eye to such a blatant and extremely offensive stereotype. Yet when I opened The Herald this Friday, this is exactly the sort of strip I read. But instead of stereotyping race, it dealt with disability, which was no less appalling.

There has been much contention at Brown recently regarding “hate speech.” If anything qualifies as hate speech, this should be it. I am an advocate of free speech, but I was shocked that a moderated publication as The Herald would print such a thing. I hope that in the future The Herald will know better.

Donald Tetto ‘06 Feb. 29

Beale’s sense of family is dysfunctional To the editor: I was astounded when I read Stephen Beale’s column (“The Gay Marriage Myth,” Feb. 26). His argument that childless straight marriages are only valid because they retain their procreative potential is breathtakingly inhumane. Are we to revert to the good ol’ days when barren women were divorced?

When women put themselves through endless psychological torment for the sake of conceiving children? When polygamy, not monogamy, was the rule, and men would take additional wives to increase their procreative potential?

“Family” does not mean what it used to, and it never had that strong of a definition to begin with.

Committed, loving gay couples give birth or adopt, or have surrogate mothers carry children. High

mortality rates, especially among mothers in childbirth, often meant that children were raised by relatives or people other than their parents. Is that sort of guardianship illegitimate as well? I would much rather be raised by a loving gay couple who fought their whole lives just to have me than be the accident product of a union between two unprepared heterosexuals.

For all the statistics and sophistry, Beale’s column comes down to the tired argument that “gay marriage is unnatural and makes me uncomfortable, so it should be illegal.” Fortunately, this type of logic doesn’t hold up well under scrutiny.

Natalie Smolenski ’07 Feb. 26

CORRECTIONS POLICY The Brown Daily Herald is committed to providing the Brown University community with the most accurate information possible. Corrections may be submitted up to seven calendar days after publication.

COMMENTARY POLICY The staff editorial is the majority opinion of the editorial board of The Brown Daily Herald. The editorial viewpoint does not necessarily reflect the views of The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. Columns and letters reflect the opinions of their autho rs only.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR POLICY Send letters to letters@browndailyherald.com. Include a telephone number with all letters. The Herald reserves the right to edit all letters for length and cannot assure the publication of any letter. Please limit letters to 250 words. Under special circumstances writers may request anonymity, but no letter will be printed if the author’s identity is unknown to the editors. Announcements of events will not be printed.

ADVERTISING POLICY The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. reserves the right to accept or decline any advertisement at its discretion.

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

OPINIONS MONDAY, MARCH 1, 2004 · PAGE 11

NATE GORALNIK

What sucking sound?

In 1992, independent presidential candidate Ross Perot won 19 percent of the popular vote predicting that freer trade would lead to a “giant sucking sound of jobs being pulled out of this country.” Instead, President Bill Clinton passed numerous free trade agreements during his time in the White House, and the result was an economic boom that brought unemployment to unseen depths.

But with hard times comes the inevitable search for economic scapegoats. With yet another George Bush presiding over yet another election-year jobless recovery, 1992 is in the air once more, and the protectionist party-poopers are at it again. This time, the fear is that Americans will have their jobs outsourced to lowerwage countries like India. Foreign competition already ate up America’s manufacturing base, we are told. Now we’re losing high-paying jobs like information technology!

Let’s put this new “sucking sound” to the test. Since India is stealing American jobs, the unemployment rate is floating up into the double digits, right? Wrong.

Unemployment is actually falling. It is true that we are losing info-tech jobs at an unusual pace, but many of those jobs were the ephemeral residue of the tech bubble of the 1990s. It’s only natural that those jobs are disappearing now that the bubble has burst. Other factors, such as the weak economy and the prohibitive cost of employee benefits, provide a far more compelling explanation for American employers’ continued reluctance to hire.

The important point is that “churn” in the job market is natural and ongoing. In an economy as vibrant as ours, millions of jobs are destroyed and millions more are created every year as the economy grows and

changes. Many of the changes that most people attribute to globalization are in fact the results of this natural process.

Consider the myth that foreign competition has eviscerated our manufacturing and agricultural base. You’d figure that real-goods production now makes up only a sliver of the U.S. economy, right? Wrong again. It turns out that real-goods production as a share of the economy remains close to all-time highs. If these sectors are shedding jobs, it’s not because of Chinese competition.

It’s because technological progress has made them unnecessary. That’s why we’re at Brown preparing to enter the intellectual labor force instead of toiling on

Protectionists exaggerate the harms of outsourcing. the family farm.

Outsourcing helps fuel economic progress because it means that now labor, not just goods, are tradeable.

Hence, firms can achieve lower production costs and make more goods more cheaply available to more people — a utilitarian dream. For example, outsourcing promises to reduce health care costs for all Americans because Indian radiologists can read our X-rays more cheaply than will American doctors. It is this dynamism that allows our standard of living to scale ever-higher plateaus.

True, economic progress is often terrifying for families caught in the fault lines of economic change, but it is inevitable, even without outsourcing. Shall we then

ban commercial aviation in order to save the jobs of railroad workers? One need only look at Japan’s economic troubles to see what can happen when countries waste billions of dollars on life support for “zombie” companies whose heyday is long past.

But, “What about the trade deficit?” many ask. Yes, we import lots of foreign goods, but that’s hardly a sign that we’re losing out to foreign competition. We’re also the world’s largest exporter. Furthermore, outsourcing has the paradoxical effect of enhancing the competitive edge of American companies, because it allows them to take advantage of low-cost foreign labor.

Maintaining full employment is the Federal Reserve’s job; it has nothing to do with outsourcing or trade. To understand why, think of national economies as individuals. People don’t stop working just because they can trade the fruits of their labor. On the contrary, that’s why people work. The trade barriers that many protectionist worrywarts propose to block out foreign-made goods would also prevent us from selling our goods on the world market. That’s a recipe for more — not less — unemployment.

As Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan recently noted, if anything threatens our position at the helm of the global economy, it is our declining educational standards. Americans will need ongoing job training to remain afloat in today’s rapidly changing economy. With or without outsourcing, high-paying jobs will only go to highly productive workers who can do them. American high school dropouts need not apply. In this area, perhaps a little foreign competition is just what the doctor ordered.

Nate Goralnik ’06 wishes everyone a frisky March 1.

The need for more Chemistry teaching assistants GUEST COLUMN BY PROFESSOR DAVID CANE

There were some troubling distortions of fact in “Shopping period, limited funds leave some classes short on TAs” (Feb. 27). The article contained the following paraphrase of a statement attributed to Dean of the Graduate School Karen Newman: “(T)he Department of Chemistry has lost funding from the Graduate School to hire TAs because of declining undergraduate enrollment in chemistry classes.

The TA funds were transferred to other departments — particularly those in the social sciences — that have experienced rising undergraduate enrollments.”

This statement is a blatant misrepresentation of the facts.

I have taught CH36: “Organic Chemistry” lecture and/or laboratory, the second half of the organic chemistry sequence, for most of the last 10 years. Over the last three years, the numbers of students assigned to the required laboratory have increased: Semester I, 2001: 165 students Semester I, 2002: 200 students Semester I, 2003: 251 students These numbers, which are indisputable, represent successive 20 percent and 25 percent increases in undergraduate enrollments in the CH36 lab each year.

Based on current enrollments in CH35 (more than 400 students), enrollments in CH36 are projected to increase again by an additional 20 to 30 percent next academic year.

CH36 is the third course in the sequence of CH33, CH35 and CH36, required of essentially all pre-meds as well as many physical and biological science majors.

Some students also take an additional introductory, or remedial, non-laboratory course, CH10. Since the 2001-2002 academic year, enrollments in all introductory chemistry courses combined have increased an aggregate 45 percent and 10 percent in semesters I and II, respectively. Looking at the longer term, since 19981999, when we first moved from the antiquated Metcalf into the modern MacMillan laboratories, total laboratory enrollments have remained essentially constant.

In spite of these dramatic short-term enrollment increases and stable long-term trends, last year the TA allotment for the Chemistry Department was reduced

from 33 to 26 TAs, corresponding to a greater than 20 percent reduction. The University has no plans to change the department’s allotment of graduate TAs for 2004.

The chemistry department, like many Brown Departments, also uses undergraduate TAs. Support for undergraduate TAs was initially cut last year from 30 slots to 0, then temporarily restored to 25 by the provost. Undergraduate TAs not only supervise weekly laboratory sections, they also may run problem sessions, or correct quizzes and problem sets.

There are many reasons to encourage the judicious use of undergraduate TAs. Such students provide excellent role models, and the opportunity for collaborative learning enriches the educational experience of both students and undergraduate TAs. In the past, the University has been happy to make use of such cheap

Declining class sizes are not the cause of fewer TAs in MacMillan. labor — an undergraduate TA is paid a small fraction of a typical graduate TA stipend, and there is no need to cover either health care expenses or tuition for such students.

On the other hand, undergraduate TAs in the chemistry department do not grade exams and they teach only one laboratory section per week, half the graduate teaching load. Scheduling undergraduate lab TAs can also be very difficult. Unlike chemistry graduate students, prospective undergraduate TAs have many competing afternoon obligations – sports teams, EMT schedules, classes, and even their own laboratory courses.

The “shopping period” described in The Herald story is largely an irrelevant issue for most students taking core chemistry courses. Most of these students are enrolled in the chemistry sequence to fulfill a premedical course requirement or to obtain the prerequisites for higher-level courses required for their concentra-

tion.

Once they have entered Brown, their progression through the chemistry sequence is more or less predictable. Indeed, nearly two out of every five entering students enroll in an introductory chemistry course.

Last semester, more than one in seven Brown students were enrolled in at least one chemistry course.

Moreover, these students do not have the option of enrolling two weeks late for a laboratory. Some students may drop the course after one or two-hour exams. Nonetheless, these students must still be assigned places in the lab at the beginning of the semester. Often as many as five to 10 students per year choose to complete the laboratory without taking the final exam.

Shortages of TAs can have serious consequences.

Many students will recall that as many as 17 students in CH36 had to be placed on a laboratory waiting list at the beginning of last semester before a sufficient number of additional undergraduate TAs could be identified to staff the laboratory. All these students were eventually placed in the laboratory, but only after overcrowding each section to the mandated safety limits and allowing some students to work in what amounted to an only partially supervised laboratory section. Unlike lecture courses, the number of students in a single laboratory section is limited physically by the number of lab benches in a room. Adding more students means adding more lab sections and appointing more TAs to supervise them. One cannot just find a bigger room somewhere else on campus.

Next year’s enrollment increases coupled with the prolongation of cuts in the TA allotment could result in waiting lists of 60 to 80 students for the organic chemistry laboratory. This would not only be unconscionable, it will leave such students wondering whom they should see in order to get some of the “academic enrichment” that they have been promised.

The allocation of scarce human and financial resources will always be a problem at Brown. It cannot be handled in a balanced and rational manner, however, when confounded by official disinformation.

Professor David Cane is the Vernon K. Krieble Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Biochemistry at Brown.

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

SPORTS MONDAY MARCH 1, 2004 · PAGE 12

Men’s ice hockey ends winless streak with 6-0 drubbing of Vermont

BY MATT LIEBER

In a thrilling performance, the men’s hockey team (15-9-5, 13-7-2 ECAC) won 6-0 over the University of Vermont (9-15-4, 7-14-1) on Saturday, halting a four-game losing streak while clinching the Ivy League cochampionship. After a narrow 3-0 loss to Dartmouth College (13-8-9, 11-4-7) Friday, the team’s seniors led the Bears to end a slump and break out offensively.

The win over Vermont earned Brown a week’s rest and home ice for the playoffs.

Brown finished third in the ECAC and tied for first with Cornell University for the Ivy League championship. The regular season results were the team’s best in nine years,and equal to the best of any Brown team in the 32-year-old ECAC era.

As much as anything, though, the win was a big mental lift for the team and its offense in particular. A four-game losing streak, including three shutouts, burdened the minds of Brown’s scorers, causing awkward, indeliberate play around the goal, and ate at team confidence.

Against Dartmouth Saturday night, Brown was confronted with an unwelcome bit of role reversal. Dartmouth had the opportunistic offense and a hot goaltender.

The Big Green grabbed a 1-0 lead when Eric Przepiorka’s deflection got past goalie Yann Danis ’04 at 9:38 after a Brown defensive lapse. The Bears put 31 shots on Dartmouth goalie Dan Yacey but lacked the finishing touch. Dartmouth added two empty net scores in the final minute. “It was a defensive battle — Brown did a good job ,and it could have gone either way,” Dartmouth Coach Bob Gaudet said.

“It’s a confidence issue,” Head Coach Roger Grillo said after the loss to Dartmouth. “We’re just not capitalizing on our chances.”

“Guys have been holding their sticks too hard,” assistant captain Brent Robinson ’04 said.

Scoring woes aside, Brown’s overall game never collapsed during the mini-slide. “I’m not encouraged by losing — we’re better

than that — but I was encouraged by the way our guys battled and competed,” Grillo said. “When we get a bounce, we’ll explode.”

And explode is what the Bears did against Vermont, equaling their total output from the prior six games. Captain Scott Ford ’04 led the offense with two goals and four points, using smarts at the point in addition to his thunderous slap shot and combining with Robinson, who also had a four-point night. The win was also the 13th shutout and 43rd win for Danis, who needs one more win to become Brown’s all-time career leader.

“We established ourselves early there,” said Ford, whose power play goal at 3:56 gave Brown a 1-0 lead. Assisting on the goal were Robinson and Vince Macri ’04, who saw his shooting lane blocked, spun and fed to Ford.

Nick Ringstad ’04 scored at 13:53 to give Brown a 2-0 lead at the end of the first period.

Bruno’s determination was unrelenting in the second period, as it took a 5-0 lead.

Ford added his sixth goal of the season on a blistering slapshot off a seeing-eye pass from Brian Ihnacak ’07, and Robinson scored at 8:49 while Vermont’s Art Femenella was serving a minor penalty.

“It was good to open the floodgates a bit and ... put some pucks in the net,” Ford said.

Then came a scary moment. The 6’ 7” Femenella emerged from the penalty box and collided with Brown defenseman Paul Crosty ’05, cutting the giant freshman, sending blood spurting across the ice and silencing the crowd. The fallen Catamount gripped his arm, stanched the flow and skated to his bench for help. He was treated

by Vermont trainers and taken to a local hospital for surgery on a severed artery.

After the bloody scare and a Vermont timeout, Brown resumed its same dominating play. Mike Meech ’05 added his seventh goal of the season at 11:43 to put Brown up 5-0. In the third period, Danis stopped 14 see HOCKEY, page 9

Jeremy Kay / Herald

Assistant captain Brent Robinson ’04 had a goal and three assists in Brown’s 6-0 victory over the University of Vermont at Meehan Auditorium Saturday night.The win was the final home game for the senior class that revitalized Brown hockey.

Sweep of final home weekend keeps hope for Ivy title, NCAA bid alive for men’s basketball

BY JOSHUA TROY

Although Brown does not control its own destiny as far as capturing an elusive NCAA tournament berth, the men’s basketball team still needed a weekend sweep to have any chance of winning a share of the Ivy League championship.

With the two last-place teams coming into Providence for the final home stand of the year, the Bears took care of business and did not trail for a single second over the course of the two games.

Ten-plus point wins over Dartmouth College and Harvard University helped keep the Bears (13-12, 9-3 Ivy League) in second place in the conference, clinch four consecutive winning Ivy seasons for the first time in school history and push the team over .500 for the first time all

University of Colorado scandal: Where does the bandwagon stop?

Since Dec. 7, 2001, six women have accused men linked to University of Colorado football of rape.

One is an isolated case. Two is a disturbing trend.

Three is a scandal.

BRETT ZARDA Is six a bandwagBORN & RAISED on?

Why choose now to call out this collection of meathead “give-me-itit’s-mine” monsters with a pension for sexual misconduct? Did the environment of sex, strippers and Smirnoff not exist at Colorado before 2001? Did previous play-

ers not expect the recreational benefits often afforded Division I football players as a portion of their daily stipend? Is Colorado the first school to have these problems? If not, then what happened?

Why now?

Why does one allegation of sexual misconduct inevitably spark others to follow suit? Several accusations stem from events of years ago yet remained buried until recently. Why did Colorado allow these savages to continue on their path of unobstructed degradation for so long?

I realize I lack the experience to empathize with the gravity of the victims’

situations. I don’t presume to understand what a victim of such an unforgivable act must feel, or no longer feel. I appreciate that such an incident scars one eternally.

I by no means am implying that I doubt the validity of these claims. I just want to understand.

What makes people jump on the bandwagon?

This form of snowballing is by no means unprecedented. Bill Clinton, Michael Jackson and the entire Catholic priesthood understand well that one see ZARDA, page 9

Want to cover a team? Write a column?

Brown Daily Herald Spring Sports Meeting Friday, 6 p.m., 195 Angell Street

season.

“The three seniors have meant so much to our program,” said Head Coach Glen Miller. “This was a big weekend for them, and they all had good games as far as putting points on the board. This was a culmination of all of their hard work over four years.”

The team shut out Dartmouth (3-23, 1-11) for the first five and a half minutes of the game and jumped out to 14-0 and 21-3 leads. After the fast start, the Bears led by no less than nine for the rest of the game.

Despite scoring only two points in the first half, Jason Forte ’05 pulled down four rebounds and dished out eight assists on his way to the first Brown triple-double in over 16 years. By the end of regulation, Forte had 11 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists.

Also putting up strong first-half numbers on the way to Bruno’s 40-29 lead were Jamie Kilburn ’04, Mike Martin ’04 and Patrick Powers ’04. Each player reached double figures in scoring in the first half, with Powers adding 12 and Martin and Kilburn scoring 10 apiece. see BASKETBALL, page 9

Scoreboard Friday Feb. 27 Men’s Basketball: Brown 77, Dartmouth 54 Men’s Ice Hockey: Dartmouth 3, Brown 0 Women’s Basketball: Dartmouth 74, Brown 59 Women’s Ice Hockey: Brown 4, Vermont 0 Saturday Feb. 28 Women’s Tennis: Brown 6, Seton Hall 1 Women’s Lacrosse: Brown 15 Fairfield 3 (exhibition) Men’s Lacrosse: Brown 10, Sacred Heart 5 Women’s Ice Hockey: Dartmouth 3, Brown 2 Women’s Basketball: Brown 95, Harvard 70 Men’s Ice Hockey: Brown 6, Vermont 0 Men’s Basketball: Brown 100, Harvard 83 Women’s Swimming: Fourth at Ivy Championships Women’s Water Polo: Brown 9, Iona 7; Brown 15, St. Francis 1 Fencing: Ninth at IFA Championships Sunday Feb. 29 Men’s Tennis: Brown 7, Hofstra 0 Gymnastics: Third at Ivy League Classic Women’s Tennis: Brown 5, Rutgers 2 Men’s Track: Fourth (tie) at Heptagonal Championships Women’s Track: Third at Heptagonal Championships