M O N D A Y NOVEMBER 29, 2004
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Volume CXXXIX, No. 116
An independent newspaper serving the Brown community since 1891
For 40 percent of TAs, learning to teach starts with learning English
FACULTY EXPANSION THREE YEARS IN first in a five-part series
U. moves into second round of faculty expansion
BY JANE PORTER
International teaching assistants from China, Korea and Vietnam crowded into the small kitchen of Hilary Farrell’s ’05 apartment on Nov. 19, learning how to make pumpkin pie. The event was organized by Farrell and other undergraduate consultants working with foreign graduate students to improve their English communication skills. “Having an interactive way of learning about American culture rather than just watching TV, I think, is incredibly helpful for them,” Farrell said. The Thanksgiving dinner was an informal event that brought together six international graduate students and four undergraduate “consultants” working for the English for International Teaching Assistants program. Nearly 40 percent of the 432 graduate students serving as teaching assistants or teaching classes at Brown this semester are not native English speakers. “Students come at it from a consumer rights aspect because they might have a TA who isn’t in control of the culture or language,” said John Eng-Wong, director of foreign students at the Third World Center. “The ITAs are in a very vulnerable position here.” The ITA program works to respond to
The plan to expand Brown’s faculty by 100 is a centerpiece of the Plan for Academic Enrichment. Now nearing the third anniversary of the Corporation’s approval of the initiatives, the University is well into the hiring process. The Herald examined how four departments have been affected by the faculty expansion. This, the first article of the series, is an overview of the expansion. BY JUSTIN ELLIOTT
Photo courtesy of Andrew Shield
Joe Carpenter ’08 used trash cans to bail out a flooded Keeney hallway Sunday night.
see ITA, page 6
IN BRIEF Campus buildings lose heat for 2 days A leak in a high-temperature hot water heating line forced Facilities Management to shut off heat to a large section of campus on Friday and Saturday while the leak could be bypassed. The heat to campus buildings south of Angell Street was shut off around 4 a.m. Friday and was turned back on around 9 p.m. on Saturday. The affected buildings included buildings on the Main Green, East Campus and Wriston Quad and Keeney Quad. Buildings north of Angell were not affected. According to Carl Weaver, director of physical plant at Facilities Management, the leak was first noticed about two weeks ago, but officials decided to make repairs at a time when it would be “least inconvenient to the campus,” or over Thanksgiving break. He estimated that there were about 300 students remaining on campus over the break, but that hot water should not have been affected by the shut-off. Weaver said that the leak has been bypassed and will be fully repaired in the next few weeks. “Everything’s working well,” he said. An e-mail was sent out Wednesday evening to students living in affected buildings notifying them of the heat shutoff. Weaver said that Facilities only received a few calls complaining about the cold in dorms, all of those from Graduate Center. Andrew Ahn ’08, who spent the break
in Keeney, said it was “(expletive) freezing” at night. He said he “didn’t pay too much attention to” the e-mail notifying residents that the heat would be off, but that he quickly figured out what was going on. But Takuma Nakamoto ’08, also in Keeney, said, “Actually, it wasn’t that cold,” though he did keep a jacket on indoors. — Ben Leubsdorf
Heavy rains flood Keeney Hall, several dorm rooms Despite the valiant efforts of residents, a flood in the ground level of upper Keeney Quad caused some property damage, water-logged rugs and clogged drains at around 8 p.m. Sunday night. Dead leaves clogged a drain at the base of an outer stairwell at the corner of Brown and Charlesfield Streets during the heavy rain, residents said. Rainwater flowed down the stairs, accumulated and ran under the outer door, creating a twoinch-deep body of water. The water flowed as far as 20 feet along the Bronson House hallways and into a bathroom, a converted lounge and several doubles. “It was just a melee,” said Joe Carpenter ’08. Students took a mattress from storage to try to block the flood, while others used trash cans as buckets and tried to scoop water into showers and sinks and into drains in the stairwell, which soon clogged, he said. “I short-circuited my vacuum trying to
suck it up,” said Steve Greene ’08. Unit 1 Resident Counselor Andrew Shield ’07 wrote in an e-mail to The Herald that he and two other residents unclogged the outside drain themselves after waiting half an hour for Facilities Management to respond. After about an hour, facilities management was able to send a team to use a “high-powered vacuum” to drain the hallway, said Albert Ghitis ’08. Ghitis and roommate Greene tried to barricade their door, but water still penetrated and soaked their rug, which “shriveled up and died,” he said. The water was “really close” to electronics and wires in his room, Ghitis said. “We would have all been screwed.” In the converted lounge, the closest room to the door, residents unplugged all electronics and tried to lift everything possible out of the way of the inch-deep water, Shield wrote. Residents said damage in that sophomore triple was the worst. “It’s contained by now,” said a woman who answered the phone at Facilities Management. “There shouldn’t be any further flooding.” “It was fun, kind of,” admitted Elena Gonzalez ’08. Some residents from higher, dryer floors in the dorm wore bathing suits to watch the event and go “surfing,” hallway residents said. “They were like, ‘We’re going surfing in your misery,’” said Brietta Tsang ’08.
Number of high school seniors applying early decision to Brown increases, with new levels of diversity campus news, page 3
Nate Goralnik ’06 thinks that the U.S. dollar’s glory days might be coming to an end column, page 11
In February 2002, when the Corporation endorsed the Initiatives for Academic Enrichment, a key provision called for the addition of 100 new faculty in “incremental positions” — newly created positions that represent a net expansion of the faculty. Almost three years later, roughly 37 of those positions have been filled, about 25 more searches are underway and a second round of allocations is set to begin next semester, according to Dean of the Faculty Rajiv Vohra P’07. Vohra said that for an institution as complex as Brown, “the pace at which this change is going on is unusual.” “It’s now at the point (when) the plan is not just on paper,” he said. “Our faculty size today is higher than it’s ever been.”
see FACULTY, page 6
U. remains wary of spamming students with mass e-mails BY BEN LEUBSDORF
Ranging from notices that the heat will be shut off to messages about recruitment opportunities, official mass e-mails are a valuable communications tool, according to University officials. But they say it must be used carefully, because students are overwhelmed by junk e-mail. “The whole purpose is to get information to the campus that they legitimately need, and to do it in a timely way,” said Mark Nickel, director of the Brown News Service. “It’s information that’s offered with an open hand,” he said, and “it seems to work.” There are two types of Universityapproved mass e-mail. Morning Mail consolidates reminders and announcements about campus events into one daily e-mail. Faculty and staff members can submit announcements for publication in Morning Mail; the Office of Public Affairs and University Relations decides
see E-MAIL, page 4
— Sara Perkins
W E AT H E R F O R E C A S T
I N S I D E M O N D AY, N O V E M B E R 2 9 , 2 0 0 4 Bynum ’92, a National Book Award finalist, earns praise for her first novel but plans to keep her day job arts & culture, page 3
www.browndailyherald.com
Women’s ice hockey team defeats Providence College, bringing home Mayor’s Cup sports, page 12
Gaudette ’05 and Tarpy ’05 find success at NCAA cross country championships in Terre Haute, Ind. sports, page 12
MONDAY
sunny high 51 low 26
TUESDAY
mostly sunny high 47 low 39