T H U R S D A Y DECEMBER 2, 2004
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Volume CXXXIX, No. 119
An independent newspaper serving the Brown community since 1891
Quiet phase of capital campaign has raised $400 million with launch a year away
UCS looks ahead, plans election reform and campus regions BY CHRIS HATFIELD
Official announcement is planned for Fall 2005 BY ERIC BECK
More than a year after beginning the quiet phase of the capital campaign, University administrators are gearing up to publicly launch the estimated $1.3 billion fundraising drive in Fall 2005. The Corporation approved the quiet phase of the campaign, currently dubbed the Campaign for Academic Enrichment, at its October 2003 meeting. University officials expect to publicly launch the campaign next fall with public announcements, on-campus events and kick-off functions around the country, said Ronald Vanden Dorpel A.M. ’71, senior vice president for University advancement. A quiet phase usually lasts about two years, Vanden Dorpel said, adding that the subsequent public phase can last five years or longer. The University “aggressively but quietly” solicits gifts during the quiet phase, especially from Corporation members and other important donors, Vanden Dorpel said. He cited the recent donations by Sidney Frank and the three gifts totaling $20 million for the Jonathan M. Nelson Fitness Center as progress of the campaign’s quiet phase. The University will likely announce other recent donations after the Corporation meets in February, Vanden Dorpel said, adding that Brown has raised more than $400 million thus far in the quiet phase, though he declined to specify the exact amount. Donations totaling less than $200 million have been announced. Public announcements of some gifts during the quiet phase are used to spur on the campaign, he said.
Nick Neely / Herald
Violent winds and rains left the campus muddy and wet and did in several umbrellas, which were dumped Wednesday afternoon in Wilson Hall.
New calendar aims to promote local produce with nudity BY AIDAN LEVY
Agriculture and nudity may seem mutually exclusive, but “Ripe 2005,” the Sustainable Food Initiative’s 2005 calendar, cultivates the sensual side of fruits and vegetables in a natural way. The calendar features 12 photographs of naked Brown students using locally grown produce to conceal their private parts — highlighting the contours of both their bodies and the vegetables — in an effort to promote sustainable food practices at Brown. All the proceeds will go towards local sustainable agriculture, including Brown’s anticipated studentrun farm and the Incubator Project, a program that buys tractors for local farmers who can’t afford them. “Someone as a joke called it ‘veggie porn,’ but it’s really important that people know that we’re looking at it from a more abstract perspective,” said Kate Abarbanel ’06, a photographer for the calendar. “It’s not raunchy. It’s more ele-
see CAPITAL, page 5
gant.” In the spirit of organic farming, the images offer a visceral, uncorrupted representation of the human body. Each image incorporates a locally grown fruit or vegetable that is available during that month. The photos run the gamut from seven cantaloupes artistically placed on top of seven bare bottoms for August, to a model balancing a potato on his forehead for December, to the rear view of a model next to a purple cabbage for January. Across the bottom of each image is an erotic recipe, accompanied by a relatively comprehensive list of foods that are available during that month. “Hopefully we’ll surprise a few people,” said Louella Hill ’04, food systems coordinator for Brown Dining Services and head of the Sustainable Food Initiative. But the surprise isn’t the nudi-
BY STEPHANIE CLARK
FACULTY EXPANSION THREE YEARS IN fourth in a five-part series leaders often take advantage of vacancies to redefine positions, using current trends in research to determine what the department needs, Harris said. And the department defines the job vaguely in the search description so that the best candidates will come forward; the position is then defined based on a candidate’s specialties. “There is a sense in which the applicant pool defines the way in which the position goes,” Harris said. New professors are also hired when the department as a whole decides it needs to strengthen a certain area of history or when a donor donates money for a specific type of professor, Harris said. For example, the department was recently given
Art featured in “Island Nations” exhibit captures a culture and a region too often stereotyped risd news, page 3
Darin Ranahan ’05 thinks Democrats should look to Ukraine to see how to make change happen column, page 11
see UCS, page 5
U. names new dean of biology and medicine BY SARA PERKINS
money to hire a professor in modern Brazilian history, an area it had already decided it would like to expand. The department is also working to expand its non-Western history offerings. Associate Professor of History Nancy Jacobs is currently the only professor in the department who specializes in African history, a situation that drastically limits the options of undergraduates, she said. Because professors are limited in the number of courses they are able to teach, Jacobs has to balance between teaching subjects she is passionate about and meeting student demands. She currently teaches a class in 20th-century African history, which she called “the second half of a survey course.” “But no one here teaches the first half,” she said. This limited number of professors with
see HISTORY, page 4
see ADASHI, page 6
see CALENDAR, page 6
W E AT H E R F O R E C A S T
I N S I D E T H U R S D AY, D E C E M B E R 2 , 2 0 0 4 RISD internship program helps students develop curatorial skills, get museum experience risd news, page 3
As the semester comes to a close, the Undergraduate Council of Students has its sights set on the completion of various projects after Winter Break, including election reform, advising improvements and a campus-wide festival on Spring Weekend. At Wednesday night’s UCS meeting, representatives from each committee presented their accomplishments this semester and goals for the spring. The council’s goal this semester was to “create access for students,” said UCS President Joel Payne ’05. He noted that student groups’ printing costs are now exempt from Brown First if they total less than $500 — something Payne views as a success. “It’s a great feeling when you set a goal and you accomplish it,” Payne said, referring to the Brown First exemption. Both Payne and UCS Vice President Charley Cummings ’06 said UCS will continue to examine Brown First, including the components of the program that govern food purchases. Trying to get back to the program’s aim of providing “better food at cheaper prices instead of worse food at higher prices” is a goal for the spring, Cummings said. Another project that UCS has taken on this year is election reform. At the meeting,
After a search that lasted more than two and a half years, the University announced Wednesday that Dr. Eli Adashi will become dean of biology and medicine on Jan. 18. Adashi, professor and chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Utah Health Sciences Center, will replace Interim Dean Dr. Richard Besdine, who has served since the departure of nowemeritus Dean Dr. Donald Marsh in July 2002. A 1973 graduate of the Sackler School of Medicine of Tel Aviv University in Israel, Adashi began his U.S. career at the New England Medical Center in Boston. His impressive record includes founding Utah’s Ovarian Cancer Program at the Huntsman Cancer Research Institute. Adashi told The Herald he will be leaving his career as a prolific researcher behind in Utah. “I gave it a lot of thought — I think it’s probably time to let it go and focus on the full plate that is in front of us,” he said. But he said expanding research opportunities for undergraduate, graduate and medical students will be “a top priority.” “My sense is that an overall enhancement of the (research) enterprise will
History department sees academic enrichment plan as an opportunity to continue change In an effort to expand the diversity of its offerings, the Department of History is in the process of hiring new professors with a wider range of specialties and is taking advantage of vacancies to redefine faculty positions. The department is “not reinventing but … reevaluating” itself, said Acting Chair Tim Harris P’03. Around the University, departments are taking advantage of the 100 new faculty positions allotted in the Plan for Academic Enrichment by proposing new faculty positions. But meanwhile, the Department of History is continuing on a path of reevaluation — a path that will lead to adjusted job descriptions and new faculty members, some of whom could arrive at Brown as a result of the plan. The reevaluation is occurring while the department works to fill vacancies left by professors who have retired. Department
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Men’s basketball team reverses four-game losing streak by beating Wagner College for season’s first victory sports, page 12
Women’s basketball manages difficult victory against URI in Wednesday night home game sports, page 12
THURSDAY
mostly sunny high 49 low 29
FRIDAY
snow high 41 low 26