Wednesday, December 1, 2004

W E D N E S D A Y DECEMBER 1, 2004

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Volume CXXXIX, No. 118

An independent newspaper serving the Brown community since 1891

Increased PPD presence will stay for at least a year

Audience for slavery and justice committee’s events largely from outside Brown

BY STU WOO

In response to a recent flurry of criminal activity on and around campus, the University, in conjunction with the Providence Police Department, increased its security twice within the past several weeks — and officers say the campus is safer as a result.

PPD patrolman Ken Simoneau said the department has assigned eight additional officers to patrol the campus between 9 p.m. and 2 a.m. Four officers patrol the campus on foot, while an additional four provide support in cars.

Simoneau, a 14-year veteran of the force, said he is a part of a rotation of about 400 officers who take turns providing the extra security, which will be an ongoing presence.

“They’ve told us that we’d be here for at least a year,” he said.

“I’ve really noticed that they’ve increased security,” said Emma LazHirsch ’08. “There are police everywhere now.”

Simoneau, who was patrolling the Thayer Street area Monday night, said security has improved since the additional patrols were added. He also said removing the motorcycle groups from Thayer Street has improved student safety.

“Getting rid of the motorcycles was helpful,” he said. “That initiated the cleansing of Thayer to help the students.”

But not all students are sure if removing the motorcyclists from Thayer Street has actually helped security.

“I don’t know what the problem was,” Laz-Hirsch said. “The motorcyclists never seemed threatening.”

Although he is working an additional five-hour detail in addition to his regular day job, Simoneau said he thinks the

BY ANNE WOOTTON

response to recent crimes on and near campus. President Ruth Simmons first announced a security upgrade at a Nov. 2 faculty meeting, but a Nov. 9 community

The University Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice continues to attract an eclectic audience as its last events of the semester take place, consistently drawing more people unaffiliated with Brown than students and faculty.

President Ruth Simmons charged the committee in April 2003 with helping “the campus and the nation come to a better understanding of the complicated, controversial questions surrounding the issue of reparations for slavery,” according to a letter she wrote at the time. Since then, the committee has held public lectures, discussions and screenings on a regular basis and organized a town meeting in mid-October, where anyone curious about the committee was invited to attend and ask questions of its members.

This fall, the committee has seen a wide range of people in its audiences — locals, members of the Nation of Islam and even, at the town meeting, two representatives from the National Alliance, a group described by the Anti-Defamation League as “the largest and most active neo-Nazi organization in the United States.”

Some community members have attended all or nearly all of the events this fall, making it clear that the issues

see POLICE, page 3

see AUDIENCE, page 7

Nick Neely / Herald

Providence Police Department patrolman Ken Simoneau is one of eight extra officers watching Brown’s campus at night. Simoneau said the added security will be in place for at least a year. additional security is important.

“I think it’s needed up here,” he said, adding that he doesn’t mind working overtime “as long as you get enough sleep.”

The increased security is a direct

While hiring boom continues in other departments, Urban Studies makes do with the professors it has

BY ROBBIE COREY-BOULET

Although the University has denied the Urban Studies Program’s most recent attempts to hire new faculty, the program plans to submit a proposal for the hiring of a new professor within the next couple of weeks.

But as the program prepares to submit this proposal, it is unclear how the Plan for Academic Enrichment will affect its ability to hire, according to J. Vernon Henderson, professor of economics and the program’s director.

The program has been unable to hire a new professor for several years, though it continues to seek out potential candidates for a joint-appointment position in conjunction with a department in the humanities.

But the interdisciplinary nature of the program makes hiring new faculty difficult, said Professor of Sociology

FACULTY EXPANSION THREE YEARS IN third in a five-part series David Meyer. The program hires professors in line with other departments, meaning that professors hold positions in two different fields. This policy of joint appointment differs from many multidisciplinary programs at Brown, which are collections of faculty members from various departments who do not hold an official position within the program, Meyer said.

Although this format can complicate the hiring process, Meyer said he believes joint appointment ensures

see FACULTY, page 3

ResCouncil recommends making Grad Center coed-optional

BY JANE TANIMURA

The Residential Council voted unanimously on Tuesday to recommend that the Office of Residential Liffe make all four towers of Graduate Center available for coed housing.

After discussion at previous meetings, ResCouncil, a student advisory board to ResLife, made the proposal in response to increasing demand by rising sophomores for coed suites. The change would eliminate the requirement for coed suites to have single-use bathrooms with doors that lock.

Adam Deitch ’05, chair of ResCouncil, said it is currently almost impossible for sophomores to choose coed suites during the housing lottery. Allowing coed housing in Grad Center would allow for greater flexibility in student housing, especially for sophomores, he said.

The recommendation will now be reviewed by ResLife and needs to be approved by Director of Residential Life

Sam Alexander ’05 thinks the New Curriculum isn’t best for Brown students right now column, page 11

Rachel Brown ’05 and Chelsea Sharon ’06 say common ground must be reached in the Middle East column, page 11

Richard Bova in consultation with other administrators if it is to be implemented, said ResCouncil member Chris Guhin ’05.

“We don’t have the final say,” Deitch said.

ResCouncil recommended optional coed housing in Grad Center last year, but ResLife chose not to make the change because the bathrooms in Grad Center suites do not have lockable doors.

The committee also voted to disband Games House as a program house, meaning that students will no longer be able to rush the group.

Deitch said one of the reasons for the decision is limited space on campus for program houses. He added that in its four-year history, Games House has never met the standards of membership for a program house. Membership requires at least 10 members in the group, a condition Games House has not met.

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, D E C E M B E R 1 , 2 0 0 4 Applications for graduate school from international students are down around the nation, study reports campus watch, page 3

www.browndailyherald.com

Strong relay teams and talented first-years give men’s swimming team hope as season continues sports, page 12

Women’s volleyball ends season with winning record, thanks to efforts of recordsetting seniors sports, page 12

WEDNESDAY

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THURSDAY

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

THIS MORNING WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2004 · PAGE 2 Five Stories Eddie Ahn

TO D AY ’ S E V E N TS “A THEORY OF TERRORISM” 4 p.m. (McKinney Conference Room, Watson Institute) — Jeffrey Goodwin, a sociology professor at New York University, will lead a seminar discussing the motives driving insurgent groups that engage in indiscriminate violence against civilians.

ROCK THE HOUSE TO SAVE THE HOME 8 p.m. -midnight (Hourglass Cafe) — The Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance’s third annual benefit concert will feature student acts.

Proceeds go to a local organization working to stop domestic violence.

WOMEN, HIV AND THE RIGHT TO HEALTH: AN INTERNATIONAL PROGRESS REPORT 4-6:30 p.m. (Sharpe Refectory, Dining Rooms 8 and 9) — Brown researchers will discuss their own projects dealing with how HIV and AIDS affect women today. This event is in observance of World AIDS Day.

Hopeless Edwin Chang

MENU Jero Matt Vascellaro SHARPE REFECTORY

VERNEY-WOOLLEY DINING HALL

LUNCH Beef and Broccoli Szechwan, Polynesian Ratatouille, Raspberry Sticks, Spinach Strudel with Cream Cheese Sauce, Vegan Gumbo Casserole, Lemony Orzo Salad.

LUNCH Vegetarian Squash Bisque, Turkey and Wild Rice Soup, Chicken Pot Pie, Vegan Tex-Mex Chili, Fresh Sliced Carrots, Cappuccino Brownies.

DINNER Pork Chops with Seasoned Crumbs and Applesauce, Rice Pilaf with Zucchini, Oregon Blend Vegetables, Maine Blueberry Pie, Vegan Gumbo Casserole, Lemony Orzo Salad.

DINNER Vegetarian Squash Bisque, Turkey and Wild Rice Soup, Baked Sesame Chicken, Egg Foo Young, Fried Rice, Green Peas, Vegetables in Honey Ginger Sauce, African Honey Bread, Maine Blueberry Pie.

UT Yu-Ting Liu

CROSSWORD y ACROSS 1 Stick up at sea?

5 Riches’ precursor, maybe 9 Sound in a bar 12 Scream 15 Lambs’ moms 16 Ending for many women’s names 17 Clumsy partygoer?

19 Mdse.

20 Not yet posted, on a sched.

21 Vietnamese capital 22 Grass-growing “pet” 23 Clumsy home run?

26 Wooded area 29 Ending with liquid 30 Inkling 31 Reeves of “The Matrix” 34 Hard water 37 Clumsy footwear?

41 Retirement agcy.

42 Checks for fingerprints 43 Pronto 44 Brewski 46 Talkative 48 Clumsy bar item?

53 Yokel 54 Abstainer’s frequency 55 “What did I tell you” 58 Card with a big pip 59 Clumsy social climber?

62 Anger 63 Frothy quaffs 64 Madison Square Garden team 65 Dogcatcher’s need 66 Top of the head 67 Nod, vis-à-vis Eden DOWN 1 High-ranking NCO 2 Ishmael’s captain

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3 Mlle., across the Pyrenees 4 Make, as a knot 5 Fix the lawn 6 At all 7 “Gosh!”

8 Lith., once 9 Top-ranking cleric 10 Non-studio pic 11 Romero who played The Joker 13 Cannes comebacks 14 Dog topper 18 Raggedy one 22 USN rank 23 Back 24 Indian princess 25 Words after laugh or live 26 Stretches the truth 27 Works of praise 28 Obviously embarrassed 31 U.K. distances 32 Boston hrs.

33 Roker and Unser 35 Bureau closer 36 Catch sight of 38 Payoff determiner 1

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39 Evict 40 Late-night Jack 45 Take advantage of 46 Judge’s assistant 47 Long-legged bird 48 Hourglass particle 49 “Filthy” wealth?

50 Not achieved, as a quota

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ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE: O N E W A Y

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56 Mice might elicit them 57 Old-style “once” 59 Brief rest 60 See 61-Down 61 __ 60-Down mode

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CAMPUS WATCH WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2004 · PAGE 3

Police continued from page 1 e-mail from Walter Hunter, vice president for administration, and David Greene, vice president for campus life and student services, said security had been increased again in light of continued criminal activity.

Hunter told The Herald earlier this month that the University is paying for the added PPD officers, although he declined to say how much the patrols are costing. Simoneau said he is being paid $36 an hour for the additional patrols, which is 50 per-

Faculty continued from page 1 that professors are committed to the advancement of the program. “( Joint-appointment professors) have a vested interest in keeping the program successful, because the program is part of our faculty appointment,” he said.

The program aims to hire someone with expertise in both urban and humanities topics, reflecting a shift in the program’s philosophy, which now emphasizes a broader approach encompassing various humanities-related fields.

Urban studies faculty decided to expand the program beyond its roots in sociology and reach out to other humanities disciplines about four or five years ago, Henderson said.

The University rejected an attempt to hire a joint-appointment professor a couple of years ago, Henderson said. Although this request for a regular faculty search was turned down, Henderson said the program was encouraged to search for candidates who would qualify under the Target of Opportunity program, which allows departments to bypass normal hiring protocol to get top prospects faster. But approval for the special hiring process is not guaranteed, he said.

And Henderson said the University will not permit the program to hire more faculty under “historical staffing” quotas.

“But that doesn’t mean we can’t go in and say, ‘We need somebody,’” he said.

The program currently has six faculty members hired as joint appointments and four additional professors who were hired by other departments.

Although these additional professors are not officially affiliated with the program, they offer courses that fulfill concentration requirements and regularly attend urban studies meetings and events.

But the lack of an official affiliation can pose staffing problems, Henderson said. When professors go on academic leave, the urban studies program does not always receive replacement teaching, he said.

cent more than his regular PPD salary.

Hunter said he’s unclear if the $1 million that Simmons spoke of at the Nov. 2 faculty meeting was for the recent security upgrades, and University officials are not disclosing the source of money for the additional security.

Mark Nickel, director of the Brown News Service, declined to comment on behalf of the University about the cost of the security upgrades or the source of the money paying for them.

Herald staff writer Stu Woo ’08 can be reached at herald@browndailyherald.com.

For example, when Professor of History of Art and Architecture Dietrich Neumann went on sabbatical this year, many of his urban architecture courses that count towards the concentration were not offered.

The program’s most recent hire was Professor of Political Science Marion Orr in 1999. Orr offers courses in the political science department that focus on urban issues and count toward the urban studies concentration.

Some professors say the program would benefit from the hiring of a professor with expertise in urban planning and development, although this type of position would be difficult to accommodate given the program’s interdisciplinary hiring structure.

The program’s reliance on joint-appointment professors makes hiring someone who specializes solely in urban planning or architecture nearly impossible, Meyer said.

An urban planning or architecture expert who has no experience with other humanities programs would be in the “odd situation” of being the only professor dedicated full-time to urban studies, Meyer said.

“We’ve never resolved that,” he said. “It’s just a structural thing.”

The current lack of a more specialized faculty member “is not a shortcoming,” according to Associate Professor of Sociology Hilary Silver.

“We’re making do with the resources we have. We don’t want to be exclusively urban politics or urban planning,” she said.

But some concentrators said the program would benefit from the hiring of an urban planning or architecture professor.

“I’m more interested in the policy than the urban literatures,” said concentrator Melissa Epstein ’06. “I think it would be nice if there was someone who was more specific. I’d definitely like to see someone more focused in what I’m interested in.”

Epstein said she believes an urban planning professor could potentially develop a course on urban design, covering material the program currently does not offer.

Cali Pfaff ’08, a potential concentrator, said she has heard

International applications for graduate schools fell nationwide since Sept. 11

BY JUSTIN AMOAH

International graduate student enrollment has fallen in the United States since the Sept. 11 attacks, according to a recent survey by the Council of Graduate Schools.

According to CGS, first-time international graduate school enrollment declined 6 percent from 2003 to 2004.

Heath Brown, director of research and policy analysis at CGS, said the council believes the decline was caused by “increased competition at the graduate level, changing visa policies and diminished views of the U.S. from abroad.”

“Since the events of 9/11, it became increasingly difficult to obtain visas, particularly student visas. For instance, every student had to come in and do an in-person interview, whereas in the past this wasn’t the case,” Brown added.

The International Graduate Admissions Survey includes information from 126 schools.

Approximately 88 percent of those schools reported a decline in foreign graduate applications. The survey found a 45 percent decrease in applicants from China, a 28 percent decrease in applicants from India and a 14 percent decrease in applicants from Korea.

Graduate applications from the Middle East increased slightly, though the number of applicants from the Middle East does not represent a significant portion of the total international graduate applicant pool.

The biggest graduate applicant declines were in the fields of engineering (down 24 percent), life science and agriculture (down 19 percent) and physical and earth science (down 17 percent). Declines were also reported in the fields of business, education, humanities and social sciences.

In a Nov. 4 report, CGS President Debra Stewart wrote, “While these numbers are discomplaints from other students that the program is “too unorganized and not specific enough.”

“If I was on track to be an urban planner I think I would want a more concrete program,” she said.

But Pfaff said she benefits from the “broad focus” and interdisciplinary nature of the program because she does not have a specific urban career in mind.

The decision to broaden the program’s humanities offerings was partly influenced by the University’s lack of a graduate program in urban studies and urban planning, Silver said.

Meyer said the program has

tressing, the declines are not nearly as great as some had feared. It is encouraging that graduate schools are battling declines by streamlining their admissions process, enhancing their use of technology, and forming important international partnerships.”

“There are anecdotal views out there that the U.S. isn’t as hospitable as it once was. These are misperceptions, but I think they are real,” Brown said.

While the CGS study focused solely on graduate students, the Institute of International Education found that the total number of international students, both graduate and undergraduate, fell 2.4 percent between 2002 and 2003, according to IIE’s Web site. The biggest declines came from India, China, Korea, Japan and Canada.

The IIE also reports that the net contribution in 2002-2003 to the U.S. economy by foreign students and their families was almost $13 million.

Mell Bolen, interim director of the Office of International Programs, said, “It is important to realize that international students are an important resource for the United States — they have been the best and brightest students from their countries.”

“It is not in the long-term interest of the United States for this (decline) to continue,” Bolen said.

The IIE reports that Columbia, Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania are the only Ivy League institutions among the top 20 nationally in international student enrollment.

But statistics indicate that Brown’s international graduate student applications have not been affected to the same degree as other U.S. universities. This year, Brown received 2,193 graduate school applications from international students. While this number was down from the 2,682 appli“no intention” of developing a graduate program in urban planning. Brown’s small size and the proximity of top planning programs at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and New York University make such a goal unrealistic, he said.

“The infrastructure you would need for that is huge. It wouldn’t fit in with a liberal arts institution,” he said.

Professors said the program hopes to take advantage of the growing number of course offerings that address urban topics in a variety of departments.

Since the program received official approval from the University in 1973, the number of professors with urban interests and expertise

cants in 2003, it was still higher than the 1,923 and 1,651 applicants in 2002 and 2001 respectively.

Dean of the Graduate School Karen Newman said overall applications had been growing steadily until last year, when they fell by 18 percent, but that this decline was lower than the national average. All graduate school applications fell by 28 percent.

“Other countries are working harder on their own indigenous universities,” Newman said, citing China’s efforts to improve its universities. “The kinds of changes that are happening culturally and politically in China are causing more students to stay there.”

Newman also said changes to the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System and homeland security have caused visa applications to be processed differently, after immigration standards were tightened shortly after Sept. 11.

On Oct. 29, 2001, President Bush told the Homeland Security Council, “We plan on making sure that if a person has applied for a student visa, they actually go to college or a university. And, therefore, we’re going to start asking a lot of questions that heretofore have not been asked. … That’s not to say we’re not going to let people come into our country; of course we are. But we’re going to make sure that when somebody comes, we understand their intended purpose.”

Newman said very few Brown students have found trouble with the increased security measures, though “we have had a handful of international students that have gone home for Christmas and had trouble returning,” she said.

Newman said, “We need to be concerned nationally because so few U.S. citizens are going into the sciences, and that is where the majority of our international applicants are coming from.” “has really expanded,” Henderson said.

“I think that 20 years ago the urban offerings were from people who had a specialty in something else and interest in one specific urban topic,” Henderson said.

Now a growing number of professors have a more well-rounded foundation in urban studies, he said.

“It’s nice that you can have the option to take more of those courses,” Epstein said. “It’s nice to know that the department is expanding to include other means of study.”

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

PAGE 4 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2004

No question about it:‘Jeopardy!’ champ is dethroned WASHINGTON (Washington Post) —

And on the 4,575th question, in the 975th category of the 75th day, the master of the trivia universe was laid to rest.

Grinning ruefully as the studio audience let out a collective gasp, Ken Jennings ended the longest and richest winning streak in TV game show history Tuesday night, meeting his doom on “Jeopardy!” courtesy of a California real estate agent who never went to college and threw her hands to her face in disbelief when she unseated the $2.5million winner extraordinaire.

“There goes the ballgame,” the 30-year-old software engineer remembered saying to himself during the September taping of the show when he heard opponent Nancy Zerg busily scribbling an answer to the final question while he stared blankly into space.

Asked to name the company whose 70,000 seasonal white-collar employees work just four months a year, the 48-year-old Zerg correctly answered “H&R Block.”

Jennings guessed

“FedEx.” Zerg ended up $5,602 ahead of her famous opponent, who immediately shook her hand and reached over to give her a congratulatory hug.

Forced to keep mum for two months until the taped denouement aired, Jennings expressed both wistfulness and relief Tuesday about the end of a streak that made him a pop-culture celebrity.

“It’s sort of like losing a job I had all summer,” he said in a telephone interview, but “now I can get back to my real life, which has kind of been on hold.” He began taping “Jeopardy!” episodes in February—five games at a time, two days a week, making his onair debut June 2.

“People appear on game shows all the time and it’s not what you think of as a fast-track to notoriety,” Jennings said. “I thought my grandmother and her friends maybe would watch it over cookies.”

Instead, his brain-to-brain smackdowns ended up luring an average of 2 million extra daily viewers to the show, with ratings

dipping significantly when he was off the air for summer hiatus or while special tournaments aired. Even his rivals were impressed.

“Look, he’s a very personable guy, very charming. ... Ken Jennings, he’s just brilliant, and that’s the appeal of him,” said Michael Davies, executive producer of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.”

According to Merv Griffin, who created “Jeopardy!” on his dining room table in 1964, Jennings “was wonderful for the show and he certainly answered that darned Regis Philbin,” who would say to “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” contestants, “‘Oh, you were on “Jeopardy!”? What did you win, $3,000?”’

Jennings’ streak was made possible by a change in rules last year that allowed champions to continue indefinitely instead of retiring after five games.

“I think Regis annoyed them enough with his remarks,” Griffin said, “that (the ‘Jeopardy!’ producers) thought, ‘Geesh, in this climate now maybe we are a little

cheap. Let’s see what happens.”’

Now on leave from his computer job, Jennings plans to make the talk-show circuit before settling in to write a book “about trivia, and why it’s popular and who excels at it.”

Tuesday night on CBS’s “Late Show With David Letterman,” he told the show host he’d been watching “Jeopardy!” since he was 9 or 10 years old and thought, “I’m not that bad, I can hang with these guys. You know, I should be on the show some day, after my voice changes.”

He also was on ABC’s “Nightline” and will make an appearance Wednesday on “Good Morning America” and “Live With Regis and Kathy Lee.” Barbara Walters is interviewing him as one of her “10 Most Fascinating People of 2004,” and A&E is doing a “Biography” episode on him.

Jennings’ skill left 149 challengers in the dust, some so awestruck they asked for autographs, others so annoyed that they bonded over the Internet and held “Roadkill Reunions.” In

the green room before playing, challengers tried to psych him out with voodoo dolls and dark references to Tonya Harding. His victories became so routine, so assured, that his wife, Mindy, did crossword puzzles while in the studio audience.

The former Mormon missionary from Salt Lake City showed no mercy: Down went the challenger who had survived the London blitz; down went the young preacher with twin babies.

He showed no fear: Down went the toxicologist specializing in fatal bites from severed rattlesnake heads; down went the former gravedigger.

“They could not find anybody to really challenge him,” said Griffin. “That scared me a little.”

Jennings plowed through questions with voracity and occasional delight, his wrong answers often more entertaining than the right ones, like the time the clue board asked a word that can describe either a garden tool or a person of immoral character.

see JEOPARDY, page 8

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

WORLD & NATION WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2004 · PAGE 5

Red Cross cites ‘inhumane’ treatment at Guantanamo WASHINGTON (Washinton Post) — The International Committee of the Red Cross found “cruel, inhumane and degrading” treatment of detainees at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, during inspections there last summer, and issued a formal report in July that said some interrogation tactics come close to torture, a source who has seen portions of the report said Tuesday.

The human rights group decried tactics used on some detainees — including severe temperatures, loud music and other sounds, the sharing of medical information with interrogators, and forced nudity — that it said violate international rules against torture adopted by the United States and other countries.

The report marked the first time that the ICRC formally noted potentially serious violations of international law, including physical torture, at the U.S. Navy base where the administration has held captives in connection with the war on terrorism since early 2002, the source said. ICRC reports are confidential.

A Pentagon spokesman said

Tuesday that defense officials “vehemently deny any allegations of torture at Guantanamo, and reject categorically allegations that the treatment of detainees at Guantanamo is improper.” The spokesman said numerous investigations of operations at the prison have found no “credible instances of detainee abuse.”

The Washington Post reported in June that military interrogators at Guantanamo Bay were given access to the medical records of individual prisoners despite repeated objections from the Red Cross, a breach of patient confidentiality that ethicists said violated international medical standards designed to protect captives.

The New York Times reported in Tuesday’s editions the Red Cross had said in a July report that some of the physical and psychological tactics used on Guantanamo detainees amounted to torture.

Also Tuesday, a group of attorneys representing four Iraqis who say they were abused at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq filed a criminal complaint in a German court alleging that top U.S. military and

civilian leaders are guilty of international war crimes. So far, only a few low-ranking soldiers have been charged with abuse.

The complaint singles out Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld; Stephen Cambone, undersecretary of defense for intelligence; George Tenet, former director of the CIA; Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez; and six other high-ranking military officials.

The attorneys argue that the officials shaped, condoned, authorized and possibly ordered policies and tactics that led to abuse at Abu Ghraib, but that U.S. authorities have been unwilling to charge them.

The 160-page complaint was filed Tuesday in the federal prosecutor’s office at the Karlsruhe Court in Germany, taking advantage of German war crimes laws that give the court “universal jurisdiction” over people and incidents with little or no connection to Germany. A prosecutor is obligated to investigate the claims but does not have to act on them further.

Led by the Center for

see RED CROSS, page 9

Bush, Canadian leader vow unity amid protests OTTAWA (Los Angeles Times) —

With lighthearted banter and an elegant beef dinner, President Bush and Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin proclaimed a new era of goodwill between the two neighbors Tuesday, agreeing to set aside differences over Iraq and pledging to resolve lingering trade and security issues.

The bonhomie between the two leaders was not matched on the streets outside, however, where several thousand demonstrators rallied against the president, culminating in a scuffle with riot police in the late afternoon.

“I made some decisions, obviously, that some in Canada didn’t agree with, like, for example, when we removed Saddam Hussein and (enforced) demands of the United Nations Security Council,” Bush said during a news conference with Martin.

“But the agenda that the prime minister and I talked about is

one where most people should agree.”

Among those issues, the president said, are rebuilding Afghanistan, promoting democracy in Iraq, promoting free trade in the Western Hemisphere and fighting disease and poverty in Africa.

“I’m the kind of fellow who does what he thinks is right and will continue to do what I think is right,” Bush added. “I’ll consult with our friends and neighbors, but if I think it’s right to remove Saddam Hussein for the security of the United States, that’s the course of action I’ll take.”

Despite Canadian support for the United States in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, tensions between the two countries flared over the war in Iraq. Although Canada had supplied troops to assist U.S. forces in

see CANADA, page 6

PAGE 6 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2004

Canada continued from page 5 Afghanistan, they declined in Iraq.

In late March, 2003, as U.S. forces were fighting in Iraq, Bush canceled what would then have been his first visit to Canada’s capital. (In 2001, Bush traveled to Quebec City for a meeting of the Summit of the Americas, but his meetings were confined to the summit and the trip was not considered an official visit to Canada.)

Tuesday’s visit was a rescheduling of that visit.

The president tried to make light of past disagreements, dismissing a question from a Canadian reporter about whether the Canadian public feels increasingly alienated from their neighbors to the south.

“I, frankly, felt like the reception we received on the way in from the airport was very warm and hospitable, and I want to thank the Canadian people who came

out to wave — with all five fingers — for their hospitality,” Bush said as the audience chuckled.

“I know what you mean, Mr. President,” Martin responded, recalling an incident last week during an Asian-Pacific summit in Chile. “I found that Spanish and English and French are three different languages, but that sign language is universal.”

Since Martin succeeded Canada’s former prime minister, the combative Jean Chretien, he has set about to improve relations with the United States.

“It is quite normal among countries to have this kind of disagreement,” Martin said, switching between French and English while Bush listened at his side.

“But we have common shared values, shared ambitions, and we share optimism also. I think that that is what is fundamental.”

The president made a point of praising Martin’s leadership. He promised to help push for a repeal of a ban on live cattle imports to the United States that was

imposed after an imported cow tested positive last year for BSE, or mad cow disease.

“The prime minister has expressed a great deal of frustration that the issue hasn’t been resolved yet. ... “ Bush said. “I don’t know if you’ve got bureaucracy here in Canada or not, but we’ve got one in America, and there are a series of rules that have to be met in order for us to be able to allow the trafficking of cows back and forth, particularly those 30 months and younger. So we’re working as quickly as we can.”

To emphasize his commitment to Canadian beef, the president dined on tenderloin from Alberta during a gala reception and dinner at the Canadian Museum of Civilization, the country’s most popular museum.

“I was pleased to see when I opened up the menu that we’ll be eating Alberta beef,” Bush said as he toasted his hosts.

A senior administration official said that a resolution on the cattle imports should come in no less than five months, and perhaps sooner. A proposed change in regulation that would permit the Canadian imports is currently under review by the Office of Management and Budget. That review should be completed within 90 days, and after that, Congress has 60 days to review it before it takes effect.

The president’s trip ends Wednesday with a speech in the Atlantic port city of Halifax, Nova Scotia, to thank Canadians for hosting stranded U.S. air passengers after the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001.

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2004 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD PAGE 7

Audience continued from page 1 being tackled by the committee — the “bigger picture” — are important to them.

“I was surprised that so many residents were there, or at least that they were the most vocal,” said Itiah Thomas ’07, who attended the town meeting.

Thomas said “it would have been nice to see more students at the meeting,” but she hypothesized that those students might be addressing similar issues in other academic venues or might not feel that slavery and its local implications resound with them.

“I sense there is a core of people, and that has made it possible for a sustained discussion across topics and things,” said James Campbell, associate professor of history and chair of the committee. “On the whole, I’ve been delighted and surprised by how good turnout has been.”

Events usually draw at least 50 people, and over 300 came to see John Hope Franklin, chairman of President Bill Clinton’s National Initiative on Race, speak at the committee’s kickoff on Sept. 21. Student interest in the committee’s events, however, fluctuates depending on the specific event.

Two weeks ago, Marlisa Wise

’08 attended her first committee event, a lecture by author Tony Eprile ’79 about apartheid in South Africa, and was confused about its relationship to the mission of the committee. “I went because I was interested in South Africa and apartheid” more than the committee itself, she said. “If it’s supposed to be dealing with Brown’s relationship to slavery in the U.S., it didn’t really do that.”

Matt Sledge ’08, who also attended Eprile’s lecture on apartheid in South Africa, was also unsure of the lecture’s relationship to the committee.

“I don’t think I would have gone unless it was under the Slavery and Justice banner, but by the end of the night I wasn’t sure it should have been,” he said. Sledge first found out about the committee on The Herald’s Web site over the summer and understood it was “meant to address race issues in America, slavery, Rhode Island’s relationship to slavery and Brown University’s relationship to slavery,” he said.

In fact, the committee’s charter is broader than that. In her letter to its members, Simmons specified that “it will be important to explore comparative and historical contexts that may shed light on the issues of reparations and retrospective justice (for example, the history of the Holocaust, the internment of

Wrestling continued from page 12 lot of people,” Saadeh said.

“He wrestles tough, he wrestles hard matches, he’s a really patience wrestler, and that patience pays off for him in the end.”

After Las Vegas, the team will have time to regroup over break before coming back to compete in the Lone Star Duals to finish the early-season tournaments. The Bears will then enter the dual meet of the season. For this stretch of

Japanese Americans during WWII, apartheid in South Africa, etc.).”

“We need to establish what we can about Brown and its entanglement with slavery, (but) we have to think about how to approach these issues in terms of two major things: contextualization and comparison,” Campbell said last night at a lecture on the Tulsa, Okla., race riots of 1921 by Alfred Brophy, professor of law at the University of Alabama.

“Would I like more students to come? Oh, yeah,” he later told The Herald. “What students are being offered is unique — an opportunity to participate in a dialogue of genuine historic significance.”

Campbell emphasized that it remains students’ responsibility, if they have interest in the committee’s charter, to make the long-term commitment to attending events so that they can participate in the larger discussion.

“If people are conscious, they know these events are happening,” Campbell said, adding that the committee advertises in Morning Mail, on the Daily Jolt and in The Herald, and with fliers in the dining halls. “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.”

Herald staff writer Anne Wootton ’08 can be reached at herald@browndailyherald.com.

the season, the team will need a lot of hard preparation to be successful, according to Amato.

“I think what we need to work on is for these guys to step up the intensity every day,” Amato said. “They need to keep doing what they’re doing, because it’s a very hardworking team, and they need to wrestle with the same intensity and aggressiveness in matches as in practice.”

Herald staff writer Bernard Gordon covers wrestling. He can be reached at herald@browndailyherald.com

PAGE 8 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2004

Apply to be a regular columnist with The Brown Daily Herald.

Please e-mail opinions@browndailyherald.com for details. Application deadline is Friday, Dec.17.

Jeopardy continued from page 4 “What is a ho?” Jennings responded.

“A rake,” host Alex Trebek sputtered through laughter.

Jennings was cocky enough to trash-talk Thomas Jefferson (“I wanna see how you’d do on ‘Jeopardy!,’ Declaration Boy”) yet humble enough, when asked who he thought was the smartest person in the world, to salute his father. Over the long course of his marathon, he went from glib about the fortune he was making (“I’m going to roll around naked in it”) to solemn.

“It’s a little scary, actually,”

Jennings confided when Trebek asked him on a recent episode what it felt like to be a multimillionaire. “Most people never have to consider ‘What do I want to most do with my life?’

Most people have excuses and daily responsibilities.” he said.

“Now if I don’t do what I most want to do, it’s sort of my fault.”

Zerg did not respond to phone messages Tuesday, but was quoted in a “Jeopardy!” news release as saying about her toppling of the champion, “It hasn’t sunk in. Ken is just so good!

“I think we both played well, but I got lucky with categories that I knew and he just happened to hit a couple of Daily Double clues that he didn’t know. It took a good 15 minutes

W. Swim continued from page 12 the Big Green a loss.

“Our practice regimen has put both the men’s and women’s teams in phenomenal shape.

Being in the pool almost every day of the week, of course, will do that,” Kowalsky said.

Mariana Chuck ’05 is one of the few seniors on the team, and has helped in setting a good pace for the younger members to follow. The Kingston, Jamaica, native has dominated the competition in backstroke

Quarterback continued from page 12 being a genius among divinely gifted players should end.)

What is interesting is that you hear very few people talking about McNair’s digression, despite the fact that it might be among the worst season-to-season drop-offs in recent memory for an MVP. That means one of two things: Either nobody really believes that McNair is truly an MVP player in any year but last, or the fact that he seems to incur myriad injuries pardons him from the usual criticisms (and nets him awards, as the case may be). The media should not pardon the guy because he has had hard luck with injuries, nor should it favor him if he battles through them. Even Aaron Brooks, whose offensive linemen should help sack him before he does something dumb, has a better rating this year than McNair, but you wouldn’t guess it by watching ESPN. Let it be known: This year, at least, McNair stinks.

As for his fellow co-MVP, Peyton Manning, 2004 may be among the best seasons of all time. His 126.6 passer rating is astronomical, and his lowest single-game rating is 93.5 — against the New England Patriots, no less. Breaking Dan Marino’s single-season record of 48 touchdown passes should be a piece of cake for Manning (he now has 41), and the focus may now shift to whether he will break Steve Young’s single-season passer rating record of 112.8. The Colts finish the season with a trio of tough games against Baltimore, San Diego and Denver, all of whom will likely be vying for playoff seeding. But of these

before I even realized that those points on the board were actually money!”

By Jennings’ standards, his last game was sluggish. “My timing was off,” he said. He entered the final round with a low total of $14,400 to Zerg’s $10,000. The third contestant was in the red and didn’t qualify for the final. Zerg wagered $4,401 and was a dollar ahead of Jennings when he revealed his losing answer and the $5,600 wager that knocked him into second place and trivia history. With the $2,000 prize for second place Tuesday night, his winnings total $2,522,700.

There was another prize as well, from H&R Block headquarters in Kansas City, Mo.: Free financial advice for life.

events — Chuck’s specialty stroke.

The last-place Bears hope to climb out of the Ivy League cellar this weekend. With diving sensation Jessica Larson ’06 dominating the diving board this season, Bruno has a good shot at trouncing the Tigers on their home turf. Brown, though, is quick to stress that the season is still young and that his team has yet to hit full stride.

“I think we are still finding our way a bit, but our work ethic has been good, and I am excited to see how we develop in the coming weeks and months,” Brown said

teams, only Baltimore’s pass defense is far above average.

Manning 1, Marino 0.

While McNair’s lousiness is hidden from the spotlight and Manning takes center stage, Pittsburgh Steelers rookie quarterback Ben Roethlisberger may be getting too much attention.

True, he is undefeated as a starter and has thrown with great efficiency (more than eight yards per attempt) while making few big mistakes (only six interceptions). True, his name makes him endearing. But the Steelers run the ball more than any other team by a significant margin — they average exactly seven carries per game, more than any other team, and have the highest percentage of running plays.

So Roethlisberger isn’t making many mistakes, but he hasn’t had to throw the ball a whole lot.

Of course, the game plan is working, and going slowly may be the best way to bring up a young quarterback.

But Roethlisberger is not a Pro Bowler, despite hype to the contrary. In the games against Pittsburgh’s biggest opponents, the New England Patriots and the Philadelphia Eagles, Roethlisberger and the Steelers got up early and didn’t look back.

Personally, I’m waiting for him to lead his team from two scores down before I speak too highly of him.

The destiny of the AFC may rest on the shoulders of Manning and Roethlisberger.

But enough about these guys — Jeff George already has my imaginary MVP vote locked up.

Assistant sports editor Eric Perlmutter ’06 will help Peyton Manning break a few records, on his fantasy team.

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2004 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD PAGE 9

M. swim continued from page 12 “We have guys that will step up and post good swims on a relay regardless of whether they just swam or are about to swim another individual event.”

Brumberg, who won the 200 butterfly and 400 individual medley against Harvard, failed to swim up to the lofty standard expected of him in those events.

That being said, he won the 200 individual medley, placed fourth in the 200 backstroke and helped the 400 freestyle relay team to victory.

“I’m chalking it up as a bad day,” he said.

Although he did not meet his expectations, Brumberg still swam well. But, as Brown pointed out, there is little room for error with this team.

“Eric did not perform up to par,” he said. “And that opened the door (for Navy). We are not deep enough to have a few off performances.”

Depth is the Bears’ Achilles’ heel: they have 21 swimmers,

Volleyball continued from page 12 both great role models for the team and excellent students,” Short said.

All of the athletes looked up to the seniors for motivation.

“The seniors were two of the hardest workers on the team,” Gibbs said. “They had a real passion for the game and an exemplary work ethic. It was a real privilege playing with them.

They both had their different strengths. Elvina was a recordbreaker, and Tanya had one of the most positive attitudes on the team.”

Bruno returns two juniors next season, including Gibbs and co-captain Leigh Martin ’06, who led the team in assists.

Leading the offense, Gibbs posted a team-high 359 kills this season. Her best performance of the season came against Harvard, when she tallied a career-high 29 kills.

“This season was a big step in our growth as a team,” Gibbs

whereas Harvard and Princeton have 35 and 56, respectively.

“Princeton is so deep in every event,” Zimmerman said. “So they can pick and choose who swims what.”

Brown’s lack of depth is most glaring in the diving events: Matt Freitas ’07 is the only diver.

Accordingly, opposing teams can take a large number of points simply by having more competitors.

“No one aspect of the meet caused us to lose to Navy,” O’Mara said. “But … Matt was diving alone against four Navy divers, including the defending EISL champion.”

Remaining competitive in diving events might be a challenge, but Freitas’ teammates have confidence in him and admire his solo effort.

“Diving is a weakness we know we have,” said Volosin.

“But Matt does an extremely good job for the team.”

The Bears next meet at the Princeton Invitational Dec. 3-5, where they will compete in six sessions in a format similar to the year-end championship meet.

said. “I think we still have a lot to work on, but this season was definitely a step in the right direction.”

Even the athletes who didn’t experience last year’s rebuilding season understood the improvement necessary to win.

“This season was a great introduction to the athletic opportunities at Brown,” said Julie Mandolini-Trummel ’08.

“The first week of the season, we learned that the phrase ‘last year’ was not in our vocabulary.

We moved forward and showed a lot of improvement together as a team.”

Next season, the team expects to return 12 athletes who are already preparing themselves for Ivy League play.

“The Ivy League only allows 12 practices in the spring,” Short said. “However, the team is already working on their individual workouts to improve for next season.”

Red Cross continued from page 5 Constitutional Rights in New York, the criminal complaint alleges that Rumsfeld and others are directly responsible for dozens of abuses at Abu Ghraib and the policies that were first developed for use in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay. Citing wellpublicized administration memos and policies, three lawyers said Tuesday that they believe top officials should be held accountable for the abuse discovered in Iraq.

“The U.S. administration has gone out of its way to destroy the whole fabric of the laws of war,” Peter Weiss, a vice president of CCR, said in a conference call from Berlin. “They have redefined torture, they have redefined the laws of war, they have given themselves the right to ignore the Geneva Conventions, even though those conventions are equally apt to protect the U.S. troops as they are to protect Afghans and Iraqis.”

The information in the complaint is exactly what defense attorneys for seven military police soldiers charged with abuse have been calling for. It attacks U.S. interrogation policies as illegal and torturous, and links the abuse in Iraq to the highest levels of U.S.

government. The complaint also alleges that Pentagon officials knew about the abuse and did nothing to stop it.

In the ICRC report, officials at the Pentagon were criticized for allowing abusive interrogation tactics, including psychological

and physical abuse, to occur.

According to a military source, a psychological operations commander told a conference in Raleigh, N.C., in November that psychological operations were being used against detainees at Guantanamo.

Herald staff writer Marco Santini ’07 covers volleyball. He can be reached at herald@browndailyherald.com.

www.browndailyherald.com

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

EDITORIAL/LETTERS WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2004 · PAGE 10 S T A F F

E D I T O R I A L

Insider perspective Lectures and discussions sponsored by the University Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice have drawn large audiences, including everyone from the Nation of Islam to a white pride organization. Everyone, that is, except Brown students.

It is disappointing that despite the committee’s vigorous effort to publicize its mission, students seem to still be unfamiliar with its purpose. When the committee made headlines last semester, it was immediately criticized for suggesting that the University might bear responsibility for its connections to slavery. After making clear that its scope is much broader, the committee is now meeting with a new round of criticism: that it is tackling too many different subjects that are unrelated to Brown’s history.

But those who criticize the committee for discussing such topics as South African apartheid and the 1921 race riots in Tulsa, Okla. — including two students who attended the lecture on apartheid two weeks ago — are simply wrong when they say those topics are unrelated to its mission.

From its inception, the committee has made clear that it is intentionally taking a broad view of slavery and reparations — looking at a wide range of cases enriches the committee’s discussion and deepens its understanding of the issues involved.

The committee’s events deal with many different topics, but they constitute a unified, ongoing dialogue. Those who go to only one committee-sponsored event may learn something new about a specific issue or historical event, but those who make the commitment to attend the committee’s events as a series gain a deeper and far more valuable understanding about the nature of its discussion.

It is unfortunate that most of the regulars at committee events are not members of the Brown community. Not only do students miss out on the committee’s programming, but the committee’s work is compromised. In order to preserve the academic value of the committee’s process, the audiences must be made up of at least some students, who are trained to ask questions that are different from those a member of an outside political group would ask.

It is up to students to make sure the committee — which has garnered a great deal of external attention — remains an academic enterprise, and that the intelligent and socially responsible community of Brown retains ownership over one of its innovations, rather than ceding control to outsiders.

JOSEPH NAGLE

LETTERS Dugan forgets about ideological divide To the Editor: Sheila Dugan's column (“Beyond political polarization,” Nov. 30) is an attempt to defend George Bush from the outcries of the liberal majority on campus. But, like the administration Dugan supports, her words are misguided.

The author's main point is that America is not as diametrically divided as liberals say. Dugan speaks of geographical division and poll statistics, but avoids the more important issue of extreme ideological polarization.

Dugan writes that, since liberals and conservatives live in all red and blue states, America is not divided geographically. Clearly no state contains citizens of only one political persuasion; it is misguided to imply that liberals make such a point.

Dugan also claims that our country's homogeneity can be found in the mere three-percent difference

in the 2004 election results. The author claims, “It was no landslide,” which seems counterintuitive.

The fact that the election was so close implies a close-to-even split among the political choices made by Americans.

But more importantly, the author fails to truly address our country's “political polarization” — that is, our ideological divide — at all. This election provided stark contrasts in some very important social and international issues, from women's rights and the religion/science question, to an overseas debacle in which we are still floundering. I believe if Dugan wants to battle the rhetoric of those who speak of division, she must address differing political opinions — not just demographics.

Joshua Lerner ‘07 Nov. 30

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Yes.You should write letters...

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OPINIONS WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2004 · PAGE 11

Checkpointlessness GUEST COLUMN BY RACHEL BROWN AND CHELSEA SHARON

Those of you who walked through the Main Green last week may have noticed several rows of white signs planted in the ground. These signs, put up by Common Ground: Justice and Equality in Palestine/Israel — a student organization which we head — were meant to represent the checkpoints and movement barriers that hinder the day-to-day travel of civilians in the West Bank and Gaza. A typical checkpoint is a road blockade manned by Israeli soldiers; Palestinians who approach must provide an identity card and often wait hours before finding out if they may proceed. Israelis typically pass through without delay.

Because we believe that peaceful coexistence in Israel and the occupied territories can only arise by understanding the lived realities of civilians, we hoped to illustrate how checkpoints interfere with Palestinians’ everyday lives. While it is crucial to understand the everyday experiences of Israelis — in particular, the effect of suicide bombings — we wanted to offer a perspective that is largely marginalized and misrepresented in the U.S. media.

Recognition of the suffering that Palestinians experience under a system of checkpoints is not a proPalestine or an anti-Israel issue; rather, it is a matter of basic human rights. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights provides for freedom of movement and the right to work, yet the movement barriers in the occupied territories cause frequent interference with Palestinians’ ability to commute to work, access needed services and move freely about the land. As Amnesty International documents, “traveling even a short distance between West Bank towns and villages usually entails a lengthy, costly and potentially dangerous journey for Palestinians.”

As a result of checkpoints, many workers cannot commute to their jobs and become unemployed.

Goods cannot travel in a timely manner — food rots, production is hindered and the economy stagnates.

These problems contribute to the high rates of unemployment and poverty in the West Bank: 50 percent of Palestinians are without jobs and 60 percent live below the poverty line of $2.10 a day.

Checkpoints often prevent people from accessing treatment or medical care, and many die as a result.

On some occasions, women must give birth at checkpoints, causing the death of newborns. Israeli soldiers are now being trained to deliver babies at checkpoints.

The egregious nature of this situation led the

Checkpoints have become a human rights crisis for Palestinians.

United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights to condemn “the severe measures adopted by the state party to restrict the movement of civilians between points within and outside the occupied territories, severing their access to food, water, health care, education and work.”

Recognizing the severity of this situation should not, however, preclude an understanding of the suffering of Israelis. Suicide bombings and terrorism present serious security concerns, and every state has the right to defend itself. International law, however, mandates that defense measures be reasonable and proportional rather than sweeping and indiscriminate. Checkpoints do not simply target those who

carry out terrorist activities; instead, they impose collective punishment on entire communities of Palestinian civilians.

Furthermore, there is no evidence that checkpoints effectively reduce Palestinian terrorism. Rather than regulating movement between the occupied territories and Israel, the majority of checkpoints regulate movement in villages within the occupied territories.

This strategy is analogous to regulating the border between the United States and Mexico by restricting movement between Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

Checkpoints are counterproductive in another, more profound sense. Restrictions on movement create hopelessness and humiliation for Palestinians, as they are forced to wait for hours under the watch and control of Israeli soldiers. As unemployment and poverty increase, it becomes more and more difficult for Palestinians to sustain themselves. This suffering gives rise to resentment and desperation, which, horribly, can crystallize in violence against Israelis.

We can all agree that Palestinians are not genetically predisposed to hate Israelis, nor are Arabs inherently inclined to hate Jews. Violence, then, is more likely a result of grief, impoverishment and despair, feelings that only intensify under an occupation enforced through checkpoints.

Checkpoints are nothing more than a Band-Aid for a deeply embedded cycle of fear, hatred and anger which plagues all sides of the conflict. Unfortunately, checkpoints simply reproduce the mechanisms of violence that they allegedly aim to prevent. Peace can only develop once basic human rights are respected and Palestinians are freed from the corrosive effects of poverty, humiliation and despair.

Rachel Brown ’05 and Chelsea Sharon ’06 would like to thank those who helped to create a common ground by engaging in open-minded discussion on the Main Green last week.

Cores and community GUEST COLUMN BY SAMUEL ALEXANDER

I am going to make an unpopular recommendation here. Brown should abandon the course it has been on since 1969 and re-institute core requirements. Before I get to exactly why, and what those requirements should be, we should consider some of the problems that the absence of cores has spawned.

The Dean of the College’s account of the Brown curriculum points out the most central challenge students face when they encounter the New Curriculum: “How can a student choose a coherent and balanced program of study from a curriculum of 1,800 possible courses?” A number of possible solutions to this question are posed whenever it comes up — none of them satisfactory.

Some administrators point to the important role played by students’ advisors in mitigating this (often overwhelming) sense of unbounded choice. Although I can only offer anecdotal evidence, I would guess that for many Brown students, the kind of close mentoring relationship envisioned by the New Curriculum simply does not occur. Stories of uninterested, unhelpful or altogether absent advisers aside, however, there is another problem with the idea of advising as cure-all.

Many students — including myself — received excellent input from our advisers, only to completely ignore it.

After all, as entering first-years we had no shortage of advice (befriend your roommate; keep your distance; shop until the last minute; pick your classes early) and most of us did not yet possess the kind of institutional knowledge to know the good from the bad. It was easier to adapt the simple survival mechanism that distribution requirements take for granted: Talk is cheap, and the only way to really find out what you want to study is to try out all the possibilities.

Another justification for the absence of guiding

requirements maintains that it is supposed to be difficult to choose from so many options and that in doing so, students embrace — again, in the Dean of the College's words — “individual development and intellectual growth rather than a static means of transmitting information.” The language here reveals another problem with the New Curriculum: In its focus on the

Creating common ground out of common courses. individual, it ignores that we live not as isolated works-in-progress, but as a community. Any community — particularly one as diverse as Brown — needs a certain shared base of knowledge in order to function.

This need for common ground has been dramatized in my four years at Brown by the perennial battle (fought in these opinion pages) over the Third World Transition Program. As was apparent throughout the columns about TWTP, the people on either side of the issue began, and undoubtedly still begin, from fundamentally different understandings of the issue of racism. Some approach the issue from the common sense understanding that racism exists only in the form of isolated actions by individuals who favor one race over another. For this crowd, TWTP was unjustifi-

able — a clear case of “reverse racism.” Some kids get to come early!

Those who had more direct experience with racism —whether as students of color themselves or through academic work with the issue — tend to take a more subtle view of the issue. For them, racism is a system of benefits conferred by society as a whole on white people to the exclusion of people of color. In this scheme, there can be no easy “reversing” of racism: the best we can do is to try to prepare students to deal with it here at Brown. In this sense, programs like TWTP are essential.

Why does all this matter for core requirements? I believe that these issues should be worked out in certain mandated courses where all entering freshmen could puzzle through the complexities of living in a diverse community. They would not necessarily need to be limited to race but could deal with other potentially divisive issues as well, like class, gender and sexuality. These are the areas around which misunderstandings most often crop up. The antidote to freewheeling and potentially hurtful debate in the opinion pages of The Herald — or, worse, violent confrontation on campus — is informed dialogue among students as they begin their Brown careers.

When we discuss a core curriculum, we tend to think of it as a kind of broad-based “Introduction to Western Civilization” (as, indeed, it is at many colleges). This is a block to meaningful thought about the issue. Rather than jettisoning core requirements altogether, Brown should embrace them with the same kind of inventiveness that has been its hallmark elsewhere.

Samuel Alexander ’05 is a comparative literature concentrator.

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

SPORTS WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 1, 2004 · PAGE 12

Relay teams and newcomers turning in solid performances for m. swimming

BY CHARLIE VALLELY

Going into the men’s swimming and diving team’s opening meet against Harvard two weekends ago, the Bears knew they had a challenge before them but welcomed it as an opportunity to discover some of their strengths and weaknesses.

Brown fell to perennial powerhouse Harvard 197-96 but split last weekend’s meet, defeating Dartmouth 122.5118.5 and losing to Navy 134107. The 1-2 Bears notched their first victory last weekend, but also, perhaps more importantly, were able to continue their learning process.

With only one more event scheduled this semester — the Princeton Invitational this weekend — things are beginning to pan out for the Bears in terms of what they can expect for the season.

After winning the 1,000meter freestyle in his first collegiate event against Harvard, Peter Volosin ’08 turned in another impressive performance in his second meet, winning both the 1,000 and 500 freestyle, and placed third in the 200 breaststroke. Volosin has quickly asserted himself as the team’s leading distance swimmer. His teammates were not surprised by his continued success and anticipate that he will keep it up.

“I did not expect Volosin to let down at all,” said Matt Zimmerman ’05. “Swimming is an individual sport and all of us have been swimming for a long time, so Peter has the necessary

BY BERNARD GORDON

Ashley Hess / Herald

The men’s swimming team competes against Princeton this weekend in its final meet of the semester. experience and skill to be effective at the college level.”

Before the second meet, Volosin was a little worried about living up to his performance against Harvard.

“I am pretty confident that I can keep swimming at this level,” Volosin said.

Head Coach Peter Brown is not worried at all. In fact, he expects even more from Volosin.

“Peter is a good competitor and will continue to get better,” he said. “He is doing well but will continue to improve in distance events, which are his forte.”

The Bears also impressed Brown with their relay teams, winning both relay events. Brian Sharkey ’06, Zimmerman, Michael O’Mara ’07 and co-captain Matt DelMastro ’05 combined to win the 400 medley relay. Sharkey, O’Mara, Eric Brumberg ’06 and co-captain Tim Wang ’05 teamed up to win the 400 freestyle.

“Our relays are usually good due to the fact that we don’t lack a strength in any one stroke,” said O’Mara, who swam on the “A” relay team for the first time.

see M. SWIM, page 9

Quarterbacks turning in impressive performances, even with losing records What a difference a year makes.

At least, for Tennessee Titans quarterback Steve McNair.

McNair, the 2003 co-MVP, has endured a tough seaERIC PERLMUTTER son, with PERL MUTTERS his team standing at 4-7 and essentially devoid of any playoff hopes. There is always a multitude of factors that determines the outcome of any NFL

season, but much of the Titans’ decline should be attributed to a parallel drop in McNair’s play.

The difference between McNair’s passer rating last year and this year is 37.3, leaving him 10thworst among qualified starters in 2004 (and this is after one of his best games of the season against Houston last Sunday).

There are other “good” players in the bottom 10, like the Seattle Seahawks’ Matt Hasselbeck, but

we’d better not mention which players are performing better than McNair, because that might scare some readers. In a season in which quarterbacks are performing at levels rarely seen in NFL history — the average passer rating is 84.9 — McNair has missed the boat. (By the way, it’s now safe to say that talk of Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren

see QUARTERBACK, page 8

W. swimming looks to upset opponents at upcoming Princeton Tournament

BY ADAM ROYSTER

The women’s swimming and diving team has seen its fair share of ups and downs since the season began. A loss to Harvard and then a win over Dartmouth has brought the Bears’ Ivy League record to 1-1.

In this weekend’s tournament, the team will look to some of the younger swimmers to help beat Friday’s opponent, Harvard.

After only two meets, the

Tough competition ahead for wrestling at Las Vegas Invite

younger swimmers are already starting to perform at a high level, making contributions to the team.

“We are pretty much where I thought we would be — we train consistently hard in the fall and come more to life as the season progresses,” said Head Coach Peter Brown, who has been pleased with the way the firstyears have been swimming.

“I do expect us to be better at the Princeton (tournament),

however,” Brown said. “This weekend will give me a better opportunity to assess our development.”

Much like the first-years on the team, Becky Kowalsky ’07 has been developing quickly.

Kowalsky was one of only three Bears to place first against Harvard in the team’s opening meet, and her Dartmouth performance helped the Bears hand

see W. SWIM, page 8

The Las Vegas Invitational is the toughest and most prestigious tournament Brown’s wrestling team participates in, aside from the NCAA championship competition. With a young team, the Bears are anxious to upset some highly ranked opponents and make a name for themselves.

“We want to get some upsets and beat some ranked guys,” said co-captain David Saadeh ’06. “(We want) everyone to wrestle tough, each match. We have a young team, so if guys go out and show heart … that’ll be great going into the season.”

Las Vegas is a tournament during which the Bears will learn where they stand this season. It’s also the first major college competition for the heralded first-year recruits.

“In the first two tournaments some good things happened and some not-so-good things (happened),” said Head Coach Dave Amato. “I always say, in the first semester the freshmen are still freshmen, but after the first semester, they’re not freshmen anymore.”

The team is coming off a strong performance at the Cortland Open and a fifthplace finish at the Keystone Classic and has had a wide range of wrestlers step up. Cocaptains Mike Pedro ’07 and Saadeh fulfilled their leader-

ship roles on the mat, wrestling well. Also turning in good performances were Doran Heist ’06 and Jeff Schell ’08, who both took third at the Keystone Classic. After missing some practices, Heath Lohrman ’05 took fourth at the Keystone Classic.

The team has yet to establish a major threat with nationally ranked players, as it was able to do last year with David Dies ’04 and Nick Ciarcia ’04.

Both wrestlers earned national rankings early in the season, and the team was able to build off their momentum.

“Our team might be more well-balanced than last year’s, but we haven’t established the top guns like Dies or Ciarcia, yet,” Amato said.

Las Vegas, with its strong competition, will be a good place for the Bears to see who will step up to take that top position, although the team will be missing Pedro, who is out until after break with an injury.

“We have to keep him healthy,” Amato said. “That’s a priority for us to be good in dual meets.”

Schell, a standout first-year, will look to build upon his early success in Las Vegas. “(Schell’s) been great — in the first tournament especially, he came out and surprised a

see WRESTLING, page 7

Volleyball doubles last year’s win total, graduates key seniors

BY MARCO SANTINI

The volleyball team finished the season with an 8-17 record, doubling its number of wins from last year. The Bears graduate two seniors, both of whom were instrumental in bringing the team forward this year.

Co-captain and four-year starter Elvina Kung ’05 finished off her amazing career with a few entries in the record books.

Kung set the all-time record for digs in a match with 49 against Princeton. She also broke the record for digs in a season, with 648, and placed second for the career mark at 1,397.

“I would say this season was like a rollercoaster,” Kung said.

“It definitely had its highs and lows. As a senior on a very young team, it sometimes felt like an uphill battle. This team has a lot of potential and can definitely compete with the best in the league.”

For her efforts, Kung was named to the 2004 All-Ivy League team along with teammate Lauren Gibbs ’06.

Bruno also graduates outside hitter Tanya Rinderknecht ’05. Rinderknecht recorded digs in the double digits in seven of the team’s Ivy League matches, including a seasonhigh 17 against the University of Pennsylvania.

“Since sophomore year when I walked onto the team, I’ve had a great experience,” Rinderknecht said. “I’m really going to miss working together as a team and playing with such a great group of girls.”

Head Coach Diane Short will need to look elsewhere next year to replace the skill and leadership of both seniors.

“They were two of the hardest-working young ladies I have ever coached. They are

see VOLLEYBALL, page 9 B ROW N S P O RTS S CO R E B OA R D Tuesday, November 30 Men’s Basketball: Brown 76, Wagner 60 Wednesday, December 1 Women’s Basketball: vs. Rhode Island, 7 p.m., Pizzitola Sports Center