W E D N E S D A Y MARCH 10, 2004
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Volume CXXXIX, No. 29
An independent newspaper serving the Brown community since 1891
www.browndailyherald.com
Endowment performs well over threeyear period, beating peer institutions BY JONATHAN ELLIS
on food studies. “We are looking at the food sheds, which are the geographical areas from which nutrients are pooled to feed a population,” she said. During the fall of her junior year, Hill studied abroad in the Italian countryside, where she learned how to make sheep’s milk into cheese and about the importance Europeans place on fresh, homegrown produce. Hill has been working with Associate Director of Dining Services Virginia Dunleavy to promote the link between local farmers and Brown. “We are laying the foundations for what will hopefully become of Brown’s food systems,” Hill said. Rossi said BuDs is happy to work with the interdisciplinary group and that he has also met with the Rhode Island Department of Agriculture to help facilitate the link between local
Brown ranked sixth out of the academic institutions with the 50 largest endowments in return on investment over the last three years, President Ruth Simmons announced at last week’s faculty meeting. The University saw an annual average return of 3.3 percent over the three fiscal years, with the fiscal year ending June 30, according to Elizabeth Huidekoper, vice president for finance and administration. Brown’s figure easily beat the median — a loss of 1.8 percent — for the top 50 academic endowments over the past three fiscal years. The mean was a loss of 1.7 percent, Huidekoper said. The rankings were released in January as part of the National Association of College and University Business Officers Endowment Study. Because the study’s overall results are confidential, Huidekoper would not say which universities ranked higher than Brown. The upward trend comes despite the S&P 500 index’s loss of 11.3 percent over the past three years. “We clearly have a strategy that’s very successful in a bad market,” Huidekoper said. Vice President and Chief Investment Officer Cynthia Frost attributed the endowment’s gains under poor market conditions to a diverse investment portfolio, but she said predictions of poor market performance were not the reason the Brown Investment Office implemented this diversity. “It’s something we always do,” Frost said. “It’s a policy for all seasons. We don’t try to time when the market goes up or down.” Frost said the diversified approach is common to institutions with large endowments. “Yale and Duke (universities) tended to do the best over the long term,” she said. The University has a “huge allocation” in what Frost termed “alternative assets,” including hedge funds, real assets and private equity. Frost said the strategy is neither conser-
see LOCAL FOOD, page 4
see ENDOWMENT, page 4
Mark Cho / Herald
Leaders from student groups attended the second meeting of the Campus Affairs Committee in Leung Gallery Tuesday night.Interim Vice President for Campus Life and Student Services David Greene led a brainstorming session about potential functions of the planned campus center,and Director of Institutional Diversity Brenda Allen led a discussion about pluralism at the University.
New document accompanying transcripts will explain GPA policy BY SARA PERKINS
Students worried about explaining why they have no official grade point average to skeptical human resources and graduate school admissions interviewers will soon have a new ally. The College Curriculum Council has approved a document that clarifies Brown’s policy of not calculating an official GPA for students’ transcripts. The four-paragraph statement explains that while students may choose to make their own GPA calculations, the University has not done so since the introduction of the New Curriculum in 1969. Brown’s “unique grading system” invalidates comparisons to the GPAs given by other schools, according to the statement. “All students and alumni who choose not to compute a GPA on resumes, applications or wherever else it may be requested are acting consistent with Brown’s educational policy,” it reads. The document will be made available to students through the Web site of the Dean of the College and through the Career Development Center, said Dean of the College Paul Armstrong, who chairs the committee. This method of communicating with graduate schools, fellowships and employers has been in development since last October, when the council decided to spend about $100,000 to see GPA,page 4
Student group working to link BuDS, local farmers BY KATE CONSIDINE
Brown Dining Services and an interdisciplinary student group led by Louella Hill ’04 are taking steps to offer students more fresh, locally grown produce. The initiative began last semester with the implementation of the Community Harvest Program, which brought farmers’ markets to Wriston Quadrangle in September and October. “We saw great success with it, and it’s a great thing to interact with the local farmers, “ said Peter Rossi, BuDS assistant director of produce purchasing. According to Rossi, after the program began last fall, the consumption of apples in the dining halls more than doubled, and, according to surveys conducted by the group, students are happy with the new choices. “We have seen a great amount of interest and enthusiasm with this new program,” Hill said. BuDS is also making strides in incorporating locally grown produce into its daily menus. “We try to use local products whenever we can, but it’s hard to plan menus three weeks in advance,” said BuDS Administrative Dietician Bridget Visconti. When the Community Harvest Program was instituted last semester, Rossi and BuDS Executive Chef John O’Shea made changes to the dining menus to incorporate more fresh produce from the market. At the same time, Hill started her senior thesis on community food assessment, as part of her environmental studies concentration with a focus
Reel Big Fish, Blackalicious to play annual Spring Weekend Reel Big Fish and Blackalicious will perform at the April 22 show during this year’s Spring Weekend, according to David Galea, assistant to Reel Big Fish’s agent at The Agency Group in New York. The bands will join Bela Fleck and the Flecktones at the Thursday night performance. Bela Fleck’s representatives confirmed in January that the ensemble is part of the lineup. David Margolius, administrative chair of BCA, would neither confirm nor deny any of the performers officially lined up for the weekend concerts, which will also include a Saturday afternoon show. — Meryl Rothstein
W E AT H E R F O R E C A S T
I N S I D E W E D N E S D AY, M A RC H 1 0 , 2 0 0 4 Brown’s peers boast larger capacity in performance spaces, lecture halls campus watch, page 3
Dorothy Marcello ’07 says Tikkun speakers misrepresented conflict in Haiti column, page 11
U.S. set dangerous precedent in removing Haitian president, says Arjun Iyengar ’05 column, page 11
Wrestling’s Dies ’04 and Garcia ’04 advance to NCAA tournament sports, page 12
W. skiing finishes sixth at national championship despite poor weather conditions sports, page 12
WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY
cloudy high 44 low 32
snow high 43 low 32