Wednesday, March 24, 2004

Page 1

W E D N E S D A Y MARCH 24, 2004

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Volume CXXXIX, No. 39

An independent newspaper serving the Brown community since 1891

www.browndailyherald.com

Faculty committees continue to adjust, one year after reorganization BY DANIELLE CERNY

shak(ing) their beautiful long hair in a song-filled ceremony that celebrates an abundant harvest,” Leung said. The performance included a surprise entrance — that of the troupe’s 11th member: a male dancer clad in a revealing loincloth and carrying two large, whisk-like props, which he rattled in the air and banged against the floor. Throughout the performance, the

Less than one year after the faculty examined and changed its system of governance, some professors say governance is more streamlined, while others say organizational problems haven’t been resolved. “Growing pains” are creating some hurdles for the newly reorganized committees, according to Professor of Computer Science John Savage, who headed the development of the reorganization plan that eliminated some faculty committees and combined the functions of others. The faculty approved the plan in May 2003. “If there were senior faculty at the table with senior administrators when they made decisions, better decisions would be made,” Savage said President Ruth Simmons told him during her first semester at Brown in the fall of 2001, when he was chair of the Faculty Executive Committee. Savage said he took Simmons’ message as an invitation to look into reorganizing the system of faculty governance committees, which manage matters that affect the University’s faculty, including appointments, tenure, the creation and abolition of academic units, the evaluation of faculty merit and salaries and the academic budget, and set academic priorities for the University. The Task Force on Faculty Governance began working in May 2002 and completed its work one year later. In the interim year, the task force analyzed the number of committees

see CLOUDS, page 6

see FACULTY, page 4

Nick Neely / Herald

A performance by the Clouds Dance Theatre Tuesday night in Salomon 101 was the closing event of the Taiwanese Culture Festival.

ARTS & CULTURE REVIEW

Folk dance troupe choreographs movements of traditional Taiwanese culture BY ALEXANDRA BARSK

Long, bright, multicolored scarves, held by members of the Clouds Dance Theatre, floated through the air on the stage of Salomon 101 Tuesday night. The Clouds Dance Theatre is a Taiwanese and Chinese folk dance troupe whose dances convey themes in Taiwanese culture, predominantly those pertaining to the activities of women. The show, coordinated by Eva Wu ’06, Brown Taiwan Society communications chair, was the closing event of the Taiwanese Culture Festival. Each of the eight dances was prefaced by a description of the theme it sought to convey, read first in Mandarin and then in English translation by Will Leung ’05. The first dance, “Shimmering Fans,” was performed by all 10 of the troupe’s female dancers, clad in matching vibrant fuschia and yellow dresses. It began with the women hidden behind large, pale-blue sheets. These they later tied to their dresses, creating waves of fabric that surrounded them as they shuffled across the stage. “Shimmering Fans,” like most of the group’s dances, seemed to focus more on the coordinated, patterned movements of the group as an aesthetic whole rather than on emphasizing the talent of any individual dancer. One of the show’s two solo performances, titled “Eighteen-year-old girl is a like a flower,” was described by Leung as depicting a Hakka girl who is “like a bud waiting to flower, sweetly refreshing,

vivid, delightful and adorable.” The dancer, with her hair in pigtails that emphasized her youthful demeanor, used energized yet controlled movements. The fan in her hand served a dual purpose — she alternated between sniffing it like the flower she is meant to resemble and using it to coyly cover her face. The show’s last and most memorable performance, “Yame Kume,” depicted “the women of the Dahwu tribe

Journalist predicts bitter fight for White House, says it’s tough to forecast winner BY PAT CLARK

Forget the economy — the 2004 presidential election will primarily be “about the war, stupid,” Howard Fineman told a Sayles Hall crowd Tuesday night. Fineman, a Newsweek political correspondent, gave his lecture in place of Washington Post columnist David Broder, who was ill and unable to attend. Describing Washington, D.C., as “Hollywood on the Potomac,” Fineman commented on “the spin-war between Bush/Cheney and Kerry” and analyzed the electoral map for November’s general election. According to Fineman, the election is

Nick Neely / Herald

see FINEMAN, page 6

Newsweek political columnist Howard Fineman told a crowd in Sayles Hall Tuesday that historical precedent favors neither Bush nor Kerry in this year’s presidential election.

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 2 4 , 2 0 0 4 Hate crimes disrupt California colleges , cause concern in Claremont campus watch, page 3

New facebook Web site to make debut at Brown after spring break campus watch, page 3

Ian Cropp ’05 writes from Barcelona about the current state of democracy in Spain column, page 11

Gymnastics closes successful season with individual honors for team member, coach sports, page 12

Without No. 1 player, w. tennis unable to beat Boston College in weekend match sports, page 12

WEDNESDAY

sunny high 49 low 36

THURSDAY

partly cloudy high 52 low 41


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