Tuesday, February 8, 2005

T U E S D A Y FEBRUARY 8, 2005

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Volume CXL, No. 10

www.browndailyherald.com

An independent newspaper serving the Brown community since 1891

SENATOR BROWN? R.I. secretary of state announces 2006 candidacy — but incumbent Chafee ’75 stands in way METRO

SCANDAL SELLS Gavin Shulman ’05: MLB needs steroids, NBA needs fan fights, NHL needs lockout 3

U. grads in politics shake liberal stereotype JONATHAN HERMAN STAFF WRITER

The only two Brown graduates in the U.S. Congress — Sen. Lincoln Chafee ’75, R-R.I., and Rep. Bobby Jindal ’91, RLa., — are both members of the Grand Old Party.

The election of many conservative Brown alumni to prominent positions at the state and federal level appears to dispel the myth of Brown as a homogenously liberal campus.

From Gov. Don Carcieri ’65 to New Mexico State Rep. Justine Fox-Young ’01, to 2004 Libertarian Party Vice Presidential candidate Richard Campagna ’72 and former Nixon advisor Charles Colson ’53, many alumni have shunned the Democratic Party and risen to prominence in a variety of positions and locations.

“Brown is a liberal institution, but it doesn’t mean that everybody who goes through the institution is,” said Professor of Political Science Darrell West, the director of the Taubman Center for Public Policy.

Jindal said, “I think there are many talented students who identify themselves as Republicans. Because of Brown’s diversity, even if the majority are Democrats or not Republicans, it wouldn’t surprise me that there are alumni who are successful and nonDemocratic (party members).”

West and Jindal both told The Herald that the variety of politically-involved alumni is a testament to the University’s diversity of perspectives.

“I think Brown is open to a variety of political perspectives,” West said. “We have liberals, conservatives, socialists and libertarians. It’s a tribute to the University that it produces persons of differing political persuasions.”

Chris McAuliffe ’05, the president of the College Republicans, attributed

OPINIONS

THREE TIMES ONE AND ONE M. hoops, m. icers, w. icers all come up with weekend splits; basketball now 2-2 Ivy 11

SPORTS

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TODAY

TOMORROW

partly cloudy 46 / 32

partly cloudy 44 / 34

Thefacebook.com releases peer file-sharing network

BY JONATHAN SIDHU STAFF WRITER

Wirehog, a file-sharing program from the makers of Thefacebook.com, has been released in beta form for testing by Brown University users. The program’s creator says the innovative software will usher in a new era of more “personal” file sharing.

Unlike other peer-to-peer file-sharing programs, such as Kazaa and Limewire, Wirehog allows only users of Thefacebook.com to share files with designated friends on the intercollegiate directory. “It’s like normal file-sharing programs, but it’s only for people you designate as your friends,” said Wirehog founder, CEO and president Andrew

McCollum.

“Not only do you not know who you are getting files from (on other file-sharing services), but you don’t care. The only things you can search for are mainstream media, and there’s no reliable way to get to those files. You can’t guarantee that anyone is going to have them,” he said.

McCollum distinguishes Wirehog from other services by highlighting the personal nature of this file swapping. Because only friends can access each other’s Wirehog collections, users are more likely to share personal videos or photos in addition to music, said McCollum. For musicians as well, Wirehog is an invaluable source for sharing recordings. “When it’s things that

you have made yourself you can share them as you want,” he said.

But, like many other programs that facilitate the exchange of digital media, Wirehog could potentially be used to transfer copyrighted music or movies. Last year, the Recording Industry Association of America subpoenaed Brown for the names of two network users who were suspected of illegal file sharing. In light of these and other apparent crackdowns on college music-swappers around the country, McCollum stressed the safety of sharing files with Wirehog.

“If you’re sharing files, only you and see WIREHOG, page 5

Furnari ’06 to run marathon in honor of brother

BY TARYN MARTINEZ CONTRIBUTING WRITER

On April 17, Megan Furnari ’06 will run in the Flora London Marathon for the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign. The money she collects from fundraising will go toward searching for cures and treatments for muscular dystrophy.

Furnari’s decision to enter the race has a personal motivation. Her brother Eric was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy near age four.

Muscular dystrophy is a genetic disease “characterized by progressive weakness and degeneration of the skeletal muscles which control movement,” according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

Eric has the Duchenne form of muscular distrophy. Duchenne manifests itself early and is caused by the body’s lack of dystrophin, a protein that aids muscle cells in retaining shape and strength. The life expectancy for those diagnosed is about 20 years.

Growing up with a family member with the disease, Furnari has taken many opportunities to raise money for and see FURNARI, page 5

Gabriella Doob / Herald

see POLITICS, page 8

RIPTA trolleys running along Thayer Street continue to serve many riders despite its recent fare increase that began on Monday.

RIPTA raises fares, monthly pass unchanged

BY ROBBIE COREY-BOULET METRO EDITOR

The Rhode Island Public Transportation Authority approved a fare increase at its Jan. 31 board meeting in an attempt to avoid service cuts while addressing a growing budget deficit. The new rates went into effect Monday.

Base fares rose from $1.25 to $1.50, while tickets for the Providence LINK trolley increased from $1.00 to $1.50. A set of 10 RIPTIKS now costs $13.50, up from its previous price of $11.25, while the cost of 10 student tokens rose from $10.60 to $12.75.

The increase did not affect the cost of a monthly bus pass, which remains at $45. The 10-cent transfer charge also went unchanged.

RIPTA officials estimate the rate increase will bring in an additional $183,500 in revenue for Fiscal Year 2005,

which ends Jun. 30. For the following year, RIPTA expects to receive an extra $500,000 to $550,000, according to Karen Mensel GS ’92, the authority’s director of marketing and communications. These funds will fall significantly short of balancing RIPTA’s budget, which is expected to produce a $1.9 million deficit this fiscal year.

Several factors have contributed to RIPTA’s financial crisis, including a rise in expenses as well as budget restrictions imposed by Governor Donald Carcieri ’65.

In his most recent budget proposal, Carcieri proposed to “level-fund” the authority, meaning it will receive the same amount of state assistance in the upcoming fiscal year as it did this past year, Mensel said.

Meanwhile, RIPTA faces cost increases that are “outside of our control,”

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including rising fuel prices and nearly $500,000 in payments to ensure services comply with regulations set by the Americans for Disabilities Act, Mensel said.

“And there’s a rising demand for service,” she said. The overall budget deficit signifies “a gap between resources and need.”

RIIPTA has already approved several internal cost-cutting measures to reduce the deficit, including deferring several technological improvements to RIPTA services as well as imposing a hiring freeze for eight vacant jobs — positions Mensel said “need to be filled.”

The suggestion to raise fares came “from the state house level,” Mensel said.

Mensel expressed skepticism that increased revenue will significantly

195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island

see RIPTA, page 7

Underground hours cut Managers at The Underground have scaled back the campus pub’s hours this semester for economic reasons.

The student hangout spot and concert venue in Faunce House will now be open from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. Friday and Saturday nights. It had been open from 6 p.m. to 1 a.m. last semester.

“Nobody really comes here before 9, so you’re paying staff to be there, and there really wasn’t any business,” said Phil O’Hara, assistant director of student activities.

The Underground is funded by its own revenue and the University Finance Board. Student employees operate The Underground, but the University hires a supervisor to oversee the site.

— Stu Woo News tips: herald@browndailyherald.com

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

THIS MORNING TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2005 · PAGE 2 Coreacracy Eddie Ahn

WORLD IN BRIEF Israel, Palestinians will commit to truce Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas at a summit in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh will not amount to a joint cease-fire agreement, the officials said late Monday.

Rather, they said, they are intended to reinforce each other, and the commitments made by each side will be dependent on the other fulfilling its obligations.

THE WASHINGTON POST JERUSALEM — Israel and the Palestinians will issue separate but mutually dependent vows Tuesday to halt military operations against each other, according to Palestinian and Israeli officials who expressed hope that the move would eventually lead to the end of more than four years of fighting.

The statements to be made by

Jero Matt Vascellaro

TO D AY ’ S E V E N TS BLACK LAVENDER: AN EXHIBIT OF WRITINGS BY BLACK GAY MEN 5:30 p.m. (John Hay Library) — The John Hay Library presents an exhibit featuring an extensive array of books and periodicals dating from the late 19th century to today, along with photographs, posters and other ephemera.

The opening reception will feature a speech called “What Distinguishes Black Gay Voice?” by Nigerian poet Julius Sokenu.

FINDING AN INTERNSHIP 101 5:00 - 6:00 p.m. (Career Development Center, Pembroke Hall) — This workshop will cover the basics of finding an internship: defining your goals, identifying resources, getting hired and making the most of your internship.

Penguiener Haan Lee

MENU SHARPE REFECTORY LUNCH — Artichoke Pasta Medley, Red Rice, Okra and Tomatoes, Sweet Potato Fries, Sliced Turkey and Ham, Vegetarian Caribbean Black Bean Soup, Popcorn Chicken.

DINNER — Sundried Tomato Calzone, Potato Gratin, Fresh Vegetable Melange, Herbed Turnips, Italian Meatloaf, Orange Turkey, Chocolate Pudding, Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting.

VERNEY-WOOLLEY DINING HALL LUNCH — Vegetarian Corn and Tomato Soup, Bean and Bacon Soup, Shaved Steak Sandwich, Linguini with Tomatoes and Basil, Sunny Sprouts, Magic Bars.

DINNER — Vegetarian Corn and Tomato Soup, Bean and Bacon Soup Pot Roast Jardiniere, Vegan Rice and Beans, Roasted Red Potatoes with Shallots, Oregon Blend Vegetables, Asparagus Cuts with Lemon, French Bread, Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting.

Chocolate Covered Cotton Mark Brinker

CROSSWORD ACROSS 1 One with a SAG card 6 Burrito alternative 10 Witches 14 A- or B+ 15 Soon, to Shakespeare 16 Creme-filled cookie 17 Kaput 19 “Exodus” author Uris 20 Prepare for action 21 Water, facetiously 23 Tennis divisions 25 Inspired with love, old-style 26 Prime rib au __ 29 Actor Neeson 31 Skirt folds 35 __ Spumante 37 Captain’s staff 39 Black ball in a pool hall 40 Kaput 43 Swiss mathematician 44 Dunce 45 __ qua non: essential 46 Asparagus units 48 Dogpatch creator 50 Prefix with conservative 51 __ land: unreality 53 Par 55 S. Carolina college 59 Navy builder 63 Volcanic flow 64 Kaput 66 Leave out 67 __ Tree State: Maine 68 CBS or NBC 69 Take from the text 70 Carson’s Carnac, for one 71 Modeler’s wood DOWN 1 Wide-eyed 2 Rock band Mötley __

3 Affected “Bye” 4 Roll-on targets 5 Do a pit job 6 Paving material 7 “__ partridge in...”

8 Sorority members 9 Cloverleaf component 10 Dairy cattle 11 General vicinity 12 Sci. of earth and rocks 13 Volume unit 18 Study of light 22 Distance runner 24 Poet Teasdale et al.

26 Green gems 27 Run out of 28 Like old bread 30 First-aid provider 32 Another time 33 Yours, once 34 Fifth-cen. pope called “the Great” 36 Mr. Right 38 Female 41 Hung tapestry 1

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56 Hobbling 57 Diabolical 58 Eclectic magazine 60 Compete in a lumberjack contest 61 Cannes summers 62 Cornell who founded Cornell 65 Part of HMS

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METRO TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2005 · PAGE 3

Secretary of state will challenge Chafee ’75 in 2006

BY ROBBIE COREY-BOULET METRO EDITOR

Rhode Island Secretary of State Matthew Brown announced his decision to challenge the 2006 re-election bid of Sen. Lincoln Chafee ’75, R-R.I., issuing a press release Thursday, Feb. 3, that highlighted early fundraising efforts and named over 500 campaign supporters.

Brown told The Herald he is disappointed with Rhode Island’s current representation in Washington.

“They just don’t get what’s going on in people’s lives in Rhode Island,” he said, referring to the state’s current national officeholders. “What have they done to solve the problems people are facing every day?”

If he were to replace Chafee, Brown said he would advocate affordable health care, seek improvements in the school system and expand financial aid for college students.

Brown, a Democrat, is currently Chafee’s only challenger, though other candidates could emerge in the coming months and force a Democratic primary, according to Professor of Political Science Darrell West, director of the Taubman center for Public Policy.

Rep. Jim Langevin, D-R.I., is another potential challenger, West said. Langevin has said he will announce by April 1 whether he will try for Chafee’s Senate seat or pursue re-election to the House of Representatives, according to the Providence Journal.

West said Brown’s decision to announce his candidacy at this early stage in the election process reflects the significant amount of time and fundraising dollars necsee BROWN, page 4

Thayer Street becoming a ‘food court’

BY LOIS SALDANA CONTRIBUTING WRITER

As Thayer Street copes with the recent departures of several perceived mainstays, incoming storeowners say more than the district’s physical appearance has changed.

According to these new owners, College Hill’s dynamic — previously dominated by independent retailers — is becoming more commercial as businesses are forced to compete with a growing number of chain stores and restaurants.

“Originality is being watered down. Ten years ago it used to be a lot more funkier,” said Al Read, coowner of The Nice Slice, a new eatery expected to open next to Kabob-N-

Curry in the coming year. Read said he laments the change.

Rob Murphy, Read’s business partner, said he agrees that the street’s unique elements are being compromised.

Murphy is the current owner of Rockstar Piercing. He also used to own Lunasea, a boutique that sold clothing, snowboards and skateboards.

Since he closed Lunasea, Murphy said he has been working on renovating the space for The Nice Slice.

Murphy said he envisions The Nice Slice as a place where customers can choose from an offering of pizza, salads and calzones while enjoying the work of local artists

who will contribute to the eatery’s décor.

Murphy said he believes the transition from retail to food is a more marketable strategy.

“Pizza and hot dogs do real well,” he said. “The mall has put a huge dent in the retail (market). If the Gap can’t even survive, that tells you something,” he said, referring to the retail chain’s closure in December.

“This is becoming more of a food court,” Read said.

But Read added that simply serving food is not a foolproof business strategy, citing as an example the closure of Pizza Grille after only see THAYER, page 8

New GTECH HQ means more opportunities for CS profs, concentrators

BY MARY-CATHERINE LADER SENIOR STAFF WRITER

As GTECH Corporation continues work on its new headquarters in downtown Providence, the Career Development Center and the Department of Computer Science are looking to strengthen the company’s existing professional interest in Brown students.

Meanwhile, some students say

interest in GTECH may be tempered by a perceived lack of understanding regarding the company’s operations.

“Most people are very clueless about GTECH. They aren’t 100percent certain what they do,” said Evan Layne ’06, co-director of the Brown Real Estate Investment Club.

The company’s 12-story, $80

million development, which will stand across from the Providence Place Mall, is scheduled to be completed by late 2006. The development will be the first office building constructed in Providence in 16 years, according to a company press release.

GTECH, which runs the Rhode see GTECH, page 4

PAGE 4 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2005

Brown continued from page 3 essary to launch a legitimate challenge against an incumbent.

“Although it seems like we just had a campaign, he actually did need to indicate his intentions,” West said.

Republican State Sen. Kevin Breene said he believes additional contenders will enter the race.

“I think somebody has to win a Democratic primary before anyone can run against Chafee,” Breene said. “You can’t put the cart before the horse.”

Brown was elected secretary of state in 2002, beating out Republican Christopher Stanley.

Prior to his election, Brown cofounded Providence’s City Year chapter, a non-profit organization he said encourages “young people of all different backgrounds” to spend a year undertaking local community service projects.

As executive director of City Year, Brown said he organized projects that addressed gang violence, fostered after-school enrichment programs and promoted the construction of lowincome housing.

When asked about his most significant achievement in office, Brown cited a recently implemented program that allows Rhode Island residents to receive prescription drugs from licensed Canadian pharmacies.

The program “provides safe prescription drugs that (Rhode Island seniors) can afford,” he said. The move violates a federal ban on drug importation,

though Brown told The Herald last week that he did not anticipate a response from federal officials, saying “it’s very hard to argue” against a program that offers cheap prescription drugs.

“I find that (Brown) has been an excellent leader,” said Ward 7 City Councilman John Igliozzi, who is one of over 500 supporters named to Brown’s campaign committee. “He’s shown that he has the energy to be the right person for the job,” he said, citing Brown’s efforts promoting healthcare improvements and voter rights.

Igliozzi said Chafee’s inconsistency compromises his ability to effectively represent Rhode Island residents.

“You never know where he is on policy. He goes back and forth. He didn’t even know who he was going to vote for,” he

GTECH continued from page 3 Island state lottery among other things, is a member of the Department of Computer Science’s Industrial Partnership Program, which facilitates research collaboration between technology companies and computer science faculty and students.

The program’s eight member companies also recruit heavily among Brown’s computer science concentrators.

“We have a good relationship with them,” said Professor of Computer Science Michael Black, codirector of the program. “So I can imagine joint projects going on, and that’s a lot easier to do if you’re within walking distance.”

Companies must pay a qualifying contribution of $25,000 to participate in the program. GTECH rejoined the program in 2004. The company had been involved previously but temporarily ended its membership, Black said.

Relocation of the company’s headquarters to Providence may have influenced its decision to revive participation in IPP, Black said.

But economic factors may have also played a role in this decision, he said.

“They are hiring again,” he said. “The economy is better and they want help in recruiting students.”

Black said GTECH has less name recognition among potential recruits than other IPP partners, which include Google, Microsoft and Sun Microsystems.

“Even if (students) gamble, they don’t know who operates it,” he said.

Black said he hopes GTECH’s new location will increase students’ awareness of the company’s professional appeal to prospective programmers.

“GTECH has really cool technological problems,” Black said. “Security is a huge issue for them. They’re making millions of transactions a day online. Consequently, they have a lot of really interesting problems with networking, cryptography, databases. These are all things that our students and faculty are interested in.”

Although Black said students stand to benefit from

said, referring to Chafee’s Sept.

20, 2004, announcement that he would not vote for George W. Bush in the presidential election.

But Breene said he would support Chafee regardless of who emerges as the main Democratic contender.

“I just think that he’s an independent person that votes his own mind,” Breene said. “He doesn’t get hung up on the party line in either direction.”

Chafee recently became the target of an advertising campaign sponsored by the Club For Growth, a conservative political organization funding advertisements that urge Rhode Island’s junior senator to support President Bush’s proposed Social Security reforms. see BROWN, page 9 internships that could develop into thesis projects while they are still at Brown, GTECH presents just as much of a professional opportunity to computer science faculty members. Several of the department’s professors have given presentations to GTECH in the past, and Adjunct Professor Donald Stanford formerly served on the company’s board.

Common interests identified between Brown faculty and GTECH programmers during these presentations create potential research opportunities, Black said.

“The new headquarters will certainly create more opportunity for interaction,” he said.

Last semester, the Brown Entrepreneurship Program and BRIC co-hosted a panel discussion about real estate issues surrounding the construction project.

The online gaming and transaction processing company has taken part in University Career Fairs for eight of the past ten semesters.

“They have quite a presence here at Brown,” said Kimberly Delgizzo, director of career development.

Although GTECH does not participate directly in oncampus job recruitment through Career Development, Delgizzo said she plans to strengthen relations with GTECH as they relocate from West Greenwich to Providence. “Obviously there is a good fit between our students and GTECH,” said Barbara Peoples, associate director of career development.

“From a financial standpoint, GTECH seems very interesting,” Layne said. “It’s a pretty big, well-run, classy company.”

GTECH has over $1 billion in revenues and 5,400 employees in 50 countries.

But some students say the company’s industry — which has a 70 percent share of the world’s online lottery business — may deter some jobseekers.

“Some people feel apprehensive about the fact that it’s a company that runs lotteries,” said Ken Tsuji ’05, codirector of the Entrepreneurship Program.

“But overall, the headquarters will have a very positive impact.”

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

WORLD & NATION TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2005 · PAGE 5

Beijing cabbie finds that workers’ rights don’t apply

BY EDWARD CODY THE WASHINGTON POST

BEIJING — From the beginning, Dong Xin had one thing on his mind as he steered his little red taxi year after year through the crowded streets of Beijing. In a Communist-run country, he figured, cabbies should be able to bargain with the bosses who own their cars, control their working conditions and set their meager incomes.

“The reason I keep hoping is that I think our country is a republic,’’ Dong said over a lunch of Peking duck recently, at which he described his long campaign to establish a taxi drivers’ union.

“It belongs to the people.’’

After nearly 10 years of struggle, however, Dong and his fellow drivers remain stuck with 15hour workdays, low pay and lopsided relationships with the approximately 300 companies that control the Chinese capital’s profitable taxi industry. In a pattern reproduced in workplaces across the country, their interests have been left to a branch of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, which is part of the same

vast government bureaucracy that ultimately controls their cars and their lives.

“A union?’’ scoffed Liu Jingqi, who has driven passengers around Beijing’s polluted avenues and alleys for seven years. “We have a union, all right, but it’s of no use.’’

The powerlessness of Beijing’s estimated 65,000 taxi drivers goes to the heart of a complaint that has arisen repeatedly as China’s economy moves toward freemarket liberalism while its oneparty government retains a monopoly on power. In the disruptions brought about by economic change, millions of workers have been left defenseless by a government that will not allow independent organizations capable of challenging official authority on their behalf.

The judicial system remains subordinate to the government and the Communist Party.

Religious leaders must work within government-approved churches or face prosecution.

Security police have jailed large numbers of people for trying to start independent political move-

Furnari continued from page 1

ments or even unsanctioned discussion groups. And workers have been barred from starting their own unions, even in companies run by the government.

Dong decided he was going to change that, at least for his group of taxi drivers.

Beginning in the mid-1990s, he set out to organize an independent union with elected leaders to represent the 70 drivers in his relatively small, governmentowned firm, Tianyun Taxi Co., and negotiate with management for a bigger share of the profits.

Having invested in the taxis with seed money, skill and long hours, Dong reasoned, the drivers deserved more than the roughly $300 a month most of them take home.

“All taxi drivers try to protect their interests, but we’re different,’’ Dong said in the bleak suburb in eastern Beijing where he lives. “Most try to reduce the amount of money they turn over to the company and reduce the amount of time they have to work. But we try to establish see CHINA, page 6

Family photo / Washington Post

Cabbie Dong Xin, far right, at a 1998 meeting where drivers voted overwhelmingly to organize an independent labor union.The government-owned firm then refused to recognize it, calling it illegal.The powerlessness of Beijing’s estimated 65,000 taxi drivers goes to the heart of a complaint that has arisen repeatedly as China’s economy moves toward free-market liberalism while its one-party government retains a monopoly on power.

Wirehog continued from page 1 your friends can see them,” he said. “There’s a degree of safety for users, the rest of the world can’t see what they’re sharing. We take that pretty seriously,” he said.

Stephanie Birdsall, communication specialist at Computing and Information Services, told The Herald that CIS does not look for copyright infringers. “We’re not looking for copyright violations. We are looking to see if this

person is taking up too much bandwidth,” she said.

“We have no idea how the RIAA comes up with their list of violators. They are very careful about explaining how they get that list,” Birdsall said.

McCollum added jokingly, “Unless you invite the RIAA to be your friend, you’re probably all right.”

Wirehog is now in beta testing and still in development, said McCollum. Currently, there are upwards of 10,000 users of the software. The service is also available for Thefacebook users in the Ivy League, New York University,

Stanford University, and University of California Berkeley.

Additionally, users of Wirehog may invite friends not at these universities to join the service.

McCollum and the founder of Thefacebook, Mark Zuckerberg, brainstormed the concept of Wirehog last spring.

Development of the service began in mid-July and is ongoing.

Wirehog will eventually be available to upwards of 1.6 million facebook users. “The eventual goal is to offer it to everyone,” said McCollum. “There’s no reason we should restrict it.”

awareness of the disease.

She previously worked at a muscular dystrophy center in Danvers, Mass., organized teams and participated in walks designed to help muscular dystrophy charities and spoke on growing up with a handicapped sibling at an assembly in high school.

Furnari also appeared on the Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Association Labor Day Telethon to present a check on behalf of her high school.

Furnari’s discovery of the Flora London Marathon, however, was the result of good luck.

“I was randomly surfing the Internet, looking for muscular dystrophy (sites) and suddenly I got a site for running,” she said.

As an “on-again, off-again runner,” Furnari was immediately interested. Further investigation revealed that the Flora London Marathon is not just any race — it includes teams who run to raise money for numerous charities.

Furnari immediately emailed one of the marathon’s coordinators, explaining her personal involvement with muscular dystrophy work, and asking for a spot. Several months passed with no answer.

But Furnari was eventually notified that she had earned a spot — one of the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign’s special spots in the marathon reserved for family members of those diagnosed with the disease.

Furnari was thrilled. She quickly wrote back, saying she would do it. Again, several months elapsed.

When she finally received a response, in the form of donation materials, Furnari was packing to study abroad in France. Undaunted, she filled out all the forms that night.

She retained the same enthusiasm as she began training in December, running every day for up to two hours.

“There’s no way I could do this marathon without (Eric) in my head,” she said.

Eric has been in a wheelchair since he was 10. He is autistic and cannot communicate or feed himself. Despite all this — or perhaps because of it — Furnari described him as “a pretty strong guy.”

“He loves life,” she said, and listed his favorite pastimes as going on trips around the neighborhood, sitting by the ocean and being hugged.

Although Eric has lived away from home since Furnari was a child, he has had a strong impact on her life.

Having a brother with a disability has its difficulties, “but it’s really motivated me to do the best that I can,” Furnari said. She said she learned from him how important it is to go after your dreams with all of your strength, because there are others who cannot.

Her work with muscular dystrophy will not end after the marathon. Furnari is pursuing a biomedical concentration, saying her brother “got her into it.”

“Doctors don’t always understand. I want to help with that,” she said, citing her stronger level of understanding for those who have loved ones with diseases.

Furnari also intends to continue contributing to muscular dystrophy charities.

Currently, she has raised close to $2,300 for the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign. She has to raise at least $2,500 before the race, but Furnari isn’t worried.

“Everyone’s really supportive,” she said.

If you are interested about donating to the fundraiser or want more information, contact Megan Furnari at Megan_Furnari@brown.edu.

PAGE 6 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2005

China continued from page 5 some kind of democracy, to share in the company’s management.

This would be done by forming a labor union. That way we could protect our rights.’’

More than most workers, veteran taxi drivers such as Dong have a vested interest in their work.

When the industry started to grow after economic liberalization in 1992, most companies, often founded by local government bodies, started by taking out loans to buy taxis. But when the loans came due two years later, company managers demanded that drivers buy their taxis if they wanted to keep working, thus providing funds to pay back the loans.

Two years after that, the Beijing municipal government nullified those deals and ordered the companies to resume ownership and return what drivers had paid for their vehicles. But drivers complained that, in complying with the order, companies calculated the cars’ value at discounted rates, leaving the defenseless drivers to bear the difference.

Li Zenglin, a veteran of a dozen years on Beijing streets, said he paid nearly $16,000 for his used taxi in 1994, but received only $13,000 in 1996 when the company bought it back. And his payback was higher than most, he said, because he had attempted to organize a strike. The average was about half the original price, Li estimated.

“At that time, some of us were desperate,’’ he said. “We even stopped our taxis on a railway track to protest.’’

Dong seized on the episode to prove his point that drivers should be entitled to participate in decisions with owners — in his case, officials of the Tongzhou District administration in Beijing.

In addition, an acquaintance gave him copies of China’s labor and collective enterprise regulations, which he interpreted as conferring on workers the right to elect representatives and consult with management about how a company should be run.

In 1998, after months of being brushed off by their bosses, Dong and his colleagues rented a room and held elections anyway. Of 75 employees, 62 attended, Dong recalled, and 61 of them voted for him to lead the new union. The official Worker’s Daily newspaper reported favorably on the vote, raising the drivers’ hopes.

But the company ownership, which by then had passed to another section of the Tongzhou District administration, refused to accept the group as a union, saying it was illegal. Over the next several years, officials sought out drivers in small groups and persuaded them to sign pledges to stay out of the union in exchange for keeping their jobs, according to Dong and another driver.

Most important, the company started its own branch of the official All-China Federation of Trade Unions. A company vice president and a local Communist Party functionary were named to head it.

A company official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the official union gives drivers all the representation they need. For instance, it recently handed out free rice to mark the upcoming Spring Festival, he said.

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2005 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD PAGE 7

RIPTA continued from page 1 improve RIPTA’s financial condition, adding that she hopes policymakers can think of other ways for the authority to survive within its current budgetary constraints.

“We’ve cut everything back as much as we can,” she said. “I think we’re very willing to look at any possible ways to economize further. Maybe someone else will see something that we don’t see.”

But Robert Batting, Carcieri’s appointee to RIPTA’s board of directors, said he believes the authority can take further steps to economize. Batting said he believes efforts to reduce expenses have been insufficient, citing a raise in annual total expenditures from $59.9 to $84.4 million in the past four years, as well as the hiring of nearly 200 additional RIPTA employees during that time.

“The state is not awash in money,” Batting said. “So when people start talking about making some choices … they’re going to really have to sit back and fine tune how they manage limited resources. There are obviously no cuts there, are there?”

Some environmental activists have questioned the logic behind the rate increase, saying the hike will reduce the use of public transportation while potentially resulting in revenue losses.

Professor of Physics John Bradley Marston, who has served as chair of the Sierra Club’s Rhode Island chapter, said the rate increase might make Providence less pedestrian-friendly. A high number of residents may opt to drive their own cars, thereby increasing traffic congestion and the city’s consumption of fossil fuels, he said.

“The last time they raised their rates, ridership went down such that the total revenue actually decreased,” Marston said, referring to an increase he said occurred a couple of years ago.

Emily McAteer ’07, a leader for the Brown Environmental Action Network who has also worked with the Sierra Club, said she believes the rate increase will weaken the city’s public transportation system while encouraging the use of individual automobiles.

“People might not think that 25 cents is a big deal,” she said.

“But for people that ride it every single day, it comes out to be a lot.”

McAteer also expressed frustration that the increase eliminates RIPTA’s “short zone” fare, which charged only 50 cents for bus rides within Providence.

With the increase, riders will need to pay the $1.50 base fare for these “short zone” rides.

Kurt Teichert, who serves on the University’s ad-hoc transportation committee and works as resource efficiency manager for Facilities Management, said he believes the rate increase may be necessary to ensure certain services are not eliminated.

“If this is what it takes to keep routes running … that’s probably going to help keep the environmental impacts of driving down,” he said.

The hike in fares comes on the heels of the Brown Transportation Office’s decision to extend a trial RIPTA subsidy through second semester. The subsidy was originally scheduled to end in December. Under the subsidy, Brown finances half the cost of either a monthly pass or two RIPTIK booklets of ten passes each for students, faculty and staff.

The subsidy is one of several measures recommended by the University’s ad-hoc transportation committee, which formed about a year ago to address College Hill’s parking shortage and traffic congestion, according to Abigail Rider, director of real estate and administrative services.

“The ability of the University to grow is contingent upon having suitable parking,” Rider said.

The subsidy is one of the committee’s “demand management” measures that encourage Brown students and faculty to leave their cars at home, she said.

The committee has seen an enthusiastic response from the Brown community, with significant increases in sales of monthly passes and RIPTIK booklets, Rider said. Participation has been “evenly split” between students and employees, she said.

It was this response that led to the subsidy’s extension, Rider said.

“Because it seemed to be going well, we wanted to see if in the second half of the year our ridership would continue to increase,” she said.

Rider said she doubted the subsidy — or any “demand management” program, for that matter — would ever become a “permanent” program, saying it will likely come under annual review “because the need for any particular program depends so much on what else is going on in transportation,” such as fuel costs and budget allocation.

The RIPTA fare increase, which did not impact the cost of monthly passes, will likely have a “negligible” impact on participation in the subsidy, Teichert said.

Because the rate change primarily affects individual rides, the increase will likely have a minimal impact for daily users, he said.

PAGE 8 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2005

Politics continued from page 1 Brown’s politically-uniform atmosphere to leftist, “activist faculty.” Many of the radicals who were the leaders of the social movements of the 1960s and ’70s have become members of the faculty and administration and have stymied intellectual freedom, he said.

Both Jindal and West said Brown’s politicians show the limitations of the stereotype that Brown has a homogenously liberal student population.

However, they did not cite political diversity as the only factor responsible for the success of conservative alums.

West attributed the increase in Republican Brunonian politicians to the changing political sentiments in America rather than an ideology shift at Brown.

“I think the political feeling in the United States has turned more conservative. So the alums who have won office have been conservative,” West said. “They are tapping into sentiments that are more present in the overall community.”

McAuliffe agreed. “Because at least half of the country is right of center, it wouldn’t be surprising that a handful of Republicans come out of any college, including Brown,” he said.

However, Alan Zuckerman, professor and chair of the Department of Political Science, dismissed the relevance of the election of a few Republican Brown alums to any characteristic of the University and cited the election of Jindal and Chafee as anomalies.

“This is a very small sample,” Zuckerman said.

Non-traditional Education “I think Brown is a university that encourages its students to care about others. I think Brown encourages its students toward direct service roles. I even had a friend from Brown join the clergy,” Jindal said. “I think Brown is a place that encourages people to be considerate of others and help others.”

Chafee agreed that Brown’s education and environment prepared him for his current position.

“Sticking up for some of the programs for the disadvantaged all come from my experiences of that era (at Brown),” Chafee said.

Brown’s commitment to effective service shaped his career,

Jindal said. “I think the common theme was to make sure where I could make the biggest impact.

What was common wasn’t the topic or location, but the impact.”

Campus Rarity Despite being united to serve a greater good, Republican students and alumni said they felt like part of a small minority on campus. However, some said that the experience strengthened their views.

“I think many (social conservatives) tend to be quiet,” McAuliffe said. “Their viewpoints are certainly ridiculed here and I think often to them, it’s not worth taking the ridicule and (they) keep their opinions to themselves.”

“Brown was a great place for me to get a balanced education even though I knew I was in the minority,” Jindal said. “I certainly felt tested in my views because it was probably true that the majority of students and even professors would not share my views or political affiliations.”

Jindal remembered certain moments at Brown where he felt challenged, but they only served to make him reexamine and reinforce his ideology.

UC11: Hard Choices was one of the classes that exposed Jindal to the schism that existed between him and many of his peers and professors, the congressman said. Unlike his classmates, Jindal thought the private sector should play more of a role in improving sub-par healthcare in the United States, he said. “(It) probably left me more firm of my view,” he said.

Campagna traced his interest in running for public office back to his experience as a political minority on Brown’s campus.

“This group of individuals might be highly political themselves, really preferred not to get into debates with their college cohorts, (but) sit back, observe and develop their political opinions and essentially go off and do their thing outside of the college campus,” Campagna said.

“Perhaps those like myself might go off and run for office.”

A lasting impression Campagna said his politics that later developed into his libertarian ideology were a reaction to the politics of the liberal majority of the late 1960s on College Hill.

After graduating from Brown, Campagna earned a master’s degree at New York University, a

Thayer continued from page 3

younger sister attended Brown, she was instantly drawn to the neighborhood’s “energy and vitality.”

She said she hopes her store will contribute to Thayer Street’s youthful image.

“We want people to be comfortable here, to be able to run into their friends,” she said.

According to Romano, the district’s only disadvantage is high rental rates. It is difficult for small businesses to pay steep rents, she said, especially when larger chains are more willing and able to do so.

Neighborhood newcomers

Jacob and Jamie Kamborian said they are also wary of the presence of nearby chain stores. Their store, J&J’s Candy Bar, which opened in December, offers an array of chocolate, candy and ice cream.

They said they were particularly concerned about the debut of Cold Stone Creamery, a nationwide franchise, which will open a branch in D’Angelo’s old location.

“Thayer Street should keep the Mom and Pop feel” instead of catering to larger corporations, Jacob Kamborian said.

three months of operation.

The low quality of Pizza Grille’s product may have led to its failure, Read said.

He also attributed Pizza Grille’s closure to a weak relationship between managers and its desired customer base.

The staff “didn’t really relate to people around here,” Read said. “They weren’t connected.

They thought they could set up a food tent next to a bunch of students and they will buy it.”

Maria Romano, co-owner of Therapy Beauty Bar at the corner of Thayer and Cushing streets, offered similar reasons for Pizza Grille’s closure.

Though Pizza Grille had “great” marketing, she said, it did not fit in with Thayer Street’s culture and lacked a “superior” product.

Stores should accommodate the needs of their customers, she said. For this reason, she said Therapy Beauty Bar’s schedule is suited to the lifestyle habits of its young clientele, opening no earlier than 11 a.m.

Romano said College Hill’s audience — comprised primarily of college students — attracted her to the Thayer Gabriella Doob / Herald Street location. After visiting J&J’s Candy Bar is one of many new shops that has recently opened Thayer Street when her on Thayer Street, and offers sweets to shoppers of all ages. law degree from St. John’s University, a master’s from Columbia, and a Ph.D. from the American College of Metaphysical Theory. He has worked in the fields of higher education, law, business, and psychology. In 2004, Campagna ran as the vice-presidential candidate on the Libertarian ticket with Michael Badnarik.

“I think it actually helped create my ideology in a way that was contrary to the mainstream. I really had a very common-sense, middle-of-the-road philosophy which is now the building block for my libertarian philosophy.”

Jindal was influenced by his experience at Brown beyond politics. At Brown, he was baptized a Catholic.

“I was also certainly influenced very deeply during my time at Brown. I don’t think most students go to college with a completely blank slate, or leave college thinking exactly what they did when they got there,”

Jindal said.

As a student, Jindal wrote for the original Brown Spectator magazine and reestablished the College Republicans, according to McAuliffe. After a tenure at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, Jindal served in many high-level government positions including as secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals and assistant secretary for Planning and Evaluation for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Having lost a run for governor of Louisiana in 2002, Jindal won a seat in the House in 2004.

Chafee said the environment of Brown in the early 1970s exposed him to alternatives from the “traditional path.”

“I was brought up a Republican and my family was Republican, but certainly my idols for the time were Martin Luther King, Muhammad Ali and John Lennon,” Chafee said.

“During my time, that era —

the early seventies — many of the students were looking for alternatives from just going down the traditional path,” said Chafee, who continued his education at Montana State University’s horseshoeing school and had a subsequent seven-year career as a blacksmith.

Chafee later became the first Republican Mayor of Warwick in 32 years and then filled the unexpired term of his late father, Senator John Chafee.

Chafee was elected to his first full term in 2000.

Not so radical, anymore Some current students feel the Brown student body’s liberalism is no longer as active or radical.

“I feel I look at it differently because I look at it from (the perspective of a native of ) South Carolina,” said Sheila Dugan ’07, secretary of the College Republicans. “Coming to Brown was a big shock. (But) I haven’t seen anything too big like protests since I’ve been here.”

Dugan attributed the decrease in political activity on campus to the controversy surrounding the anti-slavery reparations advertisement David Horowitz took out in The Herald in 2001. The day after the advertisement appeared, a coalition of student activists stole The Herald’s print run. Memories of the emotional responses to those events make students more wary of activism, Dugan said.

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2005 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD PAGE 9

Brown

M. hoops

continued from page 4

continued from page 12

“It’s hard to say” whether these advertisements will have a direct impact on Chafee’s campaign “because there isn’t a big conservative base in this state,” West said.

But the advertisements may foreshadow issues Chafee will need to address later in the campaign, West said.

“I think the primary issue will be the Bush agenda and how people feel about how Chafee has voted in regard to those issues,” he said.

Chafee’s reluctance to fully support some Republican policies may prompt conservative groups to “target this Senate race,” West said.

“If so, they could put hundreds of thousands of dollars into the state,” he said.

“They’ve done this in a number of other places.”

Brown said his own campaign would focus on “the day-to-day problems that people are facing in Rhode Island and the kind of leadership I’m going to bring to solve them.”

provides that stability and leadership that we need.”

The difficult loss took away some of the luster from Forte’s record night, but the team did not dwell on it.

“I saw Alai after the game, and he was joking with me telling me I needed to pass more and start having a few more assists,” Forte said.

The next night at Columbia, the young Bears showed some resiliency, bouncing back from a first half in which they made only 5-of-26 shots and trailed by 11 at the break.

The team’s brutal schedule that has sent them on the road for 13 of their first 18 games is beginning to wear on the young Bears, but Miller refused to blame the travel for the poor play in the first half.

“We had a heartbreaking loss on Friday, but we showed a lot of character and some good mental toughness against Columbia,” Miller said. “Columbia has more experience than us and they were also coming off a tough loss the night before and they were definitely determined, but we didn’t

M. hockey continued from page 12 Jeff Prough ’08 scored on a rebound off a Brian Ihnacak ’07 shot.

“The stop on the 5-on-3 was huge, and then we scored on the back end,” Grillo said.

Despite the goal, Vermont out-shot the Bears 14-5 in the second period.

Vermont’s pressure finally broke through at 11:58 in the third when Jeff Corey scrambled from behind the net to get the puck past D’Alba.

“I was a little disappointed that we let them get back in the game,” Grillo said, “but a lot of our guys stepped up.”

With Vermont pressing to tie the game in the final minute, the Catamounts pulled their goalie to give them an extra offensive option. The plan backfired when Haggett corralled a rebound deep in his own end and his clearing pass banked off the boards, went all the way down the ice and into the empty Vermont goal.

“We used our speed well tonight — that’s one of the fastest teams in the country,” said Prough.

First-year wing Prough had five shots for the night and skated both on the penalty kill and power play. “The sea-

son’s going pretty good,” Prough said. “I’m glad the coaches put me in there.”

Dartmouth had been the pre-season favorite to win the ECACHL conference before injuries and early losses dropped the team from the national spotlight. Saturday night’s game was a reminder that the Big Green are still dangerous, as Dartmouth and its touted stars Lee Stempniak and Mike Ouellette out-shot the Bears 45-21.

The majority of the first period was a scoreless tie until Dartmouth erupted for two goals with under three minutes left.

Oullette knocked in the second goal, which would prove to be the game winner, with just 10 seconds left before intermission.

Haggett got the Bears back in the game when he scored off a pass from Rugo Santini ’06 with 5:25 left in the second period. Brown did not get any closer and the Big Green sealed the victory with an open net goal 17 seconds before the final buzzer.

“I thought we were pretty bad (tonight),” said Head Coach Roger Grillo.

“Dartmouth played pretty well.”

This weekend Brown travels to Union College and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute for two more ECACHL games.

give up, even with the elevenpoint deficit.”

“It plays on your psyche,” Forte said. “You play hard and it’s so tough to lose by one, especially with a young team. Then the next night we come out and have a rough first half, but we didn’t quit.”

Brown was able to claw back into contention with the help of some deadly shooting from beyond the arc. Huffman hit three shots from long range, while Forte added two more.

In the end, Brown found themselves with the game in Forte’s hands again. With the score tied 52-52, the Bears had the ball with 30 seconds left and set up a play for the last shot.

“We sent four guys along the baseline and Jason did a real good job of holding the ball,” Miller said. “The fact that they let us run the clock down so much surprised me because I anticipated them pressuring the ball. As it turned out, we left more time on the clock than we would have liked.”

Forte let the clock run down to eight seconds and then drove to the hoop. After shaking his defender he let fly a jumper from just inside the arc that was dead on.

After spending an inordinate amount of time away from Providence this season, the Bears will return to the Pizzitola Sports Center for the first time this season to take on Harvard and Dartmouth this Friday and Saturday. For the Bears, the homecoming is not a moment too soon.

“We’re definitely happy to be coming home,” said Forte. “I’m a senior and I’ve never experienced anything like this, so it’s going to be nice on Friday.”

W. hockey continued from page 12 that I’ve seen it, I’m going to expect it for the rest of the season.”

With the return of Krissy McManus ’05, this weekend was the first time since the season began that the Bears have had their entire complement of players healthy. As was evident against Vermont, now that stalwarts such as McManus and Margaret Ramsay ’06 have returned from injuries, Bruno may have more success executing the defensive game plan that Murphy has preached throughout the season.

“If we’re patient with our plan, we’ll persevere,” Murphy said.

The Bears are back at Meehan Auditorium this weekend for a doubleheader against Mercyhurst College. The games are at 7 p.m. on Friday and 4 p.m. on Saturday.

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

EDITORIAL/LETTERS TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2005 · PAGE 10 S T A F F

E D I T O R I A L

The pirates of Wriston Quad The average student on this campus has at least two ways to transfer music from the Internet to his computer right now.

Colleges are the centers of digital piracy in the United States. Students have the bandwidth, the fast computers, the media editing software and toys. We have a community, within our university networks and between them, where other users share our eclectic tastes and our apparent lack of morality.

The legal options — iTunes Music Store and its competitors — see a fraction of the use that the less-legal options see in the average week. Their 99-cent songs are tempting, and a thrifty shopper could amass a worthy collection without breaking the bank, but very few programs can offer enough content and features to compete with free music.

Using a slightly modified version of the popular iTunes program, a typical Wriston resident can reach deep into the music libraries of dozens of her friends and neighbors. And to ourTunes, the i2hub, Kazaa, bittorrent and limewire, now we can add Wirehog, the latest venue for content-hungry pirates — an up-close and personal network for sharing our indie rock and shameless pop classics.

We were pleased to hear that the Office of Campus Life and Student Services would be auditioning legal download services that could be provided to the entire campus for free. But responses from the first pitch meeting for four of these college-specific services were mixed and seem to indicate that they are not up to the task of making experienced pirates go straight. These services err on the side of copy protection and remove utility from a product that students can and do obtain for free. Particularly damning, none of them will work with Macs, and only one can fill our insatiable iPods. And piracy technology continues to outstrip the ingenuity of corporate regulators thanks to (you guessed it) college students like Andrew McCullum.

In an ideal world, even ingenious college students would obey the law. But students often favor their wallets over their consciences. If Brown’s introduction of a legal musicdownloading alternative is to be successful, the service must offer students new capabilities rather than limiting the ones available through the free, albeit illegal, avenues currently ubiquitous on campus.

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD EDITORIAL Jonathan Ellis, Editor-in-Chief Sara Perkins, Executive Editor Dana Goldstein, Senior Editor Christopher Hatfield, Senior Editor Lisa Mandle, Senior Editor Meryl Rothstein, Arts & Culture Editor Melanie Wolfgang, Arts & Culture Editor Justin Elliott, Campus Watch Editor Robbie Corey-Boulet, Metro Editor Stephanie Clark, Features Editor Kira Lesley, Features Editor Te-Ping Chen, Opinions Editor Ari Savitzky, Opinions Editor Chris Mahr, Sports Editor Ben Miller, Sports Editor PRODUCTION Peter Henderson, Design Editor Katie Lamm, Copy Desk Chief Lela Spielberg, Copy Desk Chief Matt Vascellaro, Graphics Editor Ashley Hess, Photo Editor Juliana Wu, Photo Editor

BUSINESS Ian Halvorsen, General Manager Daniel Goldberg, Executive Manager Mark Goldberg, Senior Financial Officer Robert McCartney, Senior Accounts Manager David Ranken, Senior Accounts Manager Kathleen Timmins, Senior Accounts Manager Lisa Poon, Marketing Manager Ryan Shewcraft, Technology Officer Abigail Ronck, Senior Business Consultant Laurie-Ann Paliotti, Sr. Advertising Rep. Susan Dansereau, Office Manager POST- MAGAZINE Fritz Brantley, Editor-in-Chief Adrian Muniz, Executive Editor Sarah Gordon, Calendar Editor Abigail Newman, Theater Editor Josh Cohen, Design Editor Marissa Hauptman, Photo Editor Ruthie Baron, Features Editor Jeremy Beck, Film Editor Paul Levande, Assistant Film Editor Jesse Adams, Music Editor

Nargis, Night Editor Chessy Brady, Copy Editor Senior Staff Writers Camden Avery, Alexandra Barsk, Eric Beck, Mary-Catherine Lader, Ben Leubsdorf, Jane Porter, Stu Woo Staff Writers Marshall Agnew, Zachary Barter, Hannah Bascom, Danielle Cerny, Christopher Chon, Stewart Dearing, Gabriella Doob, Amy Hall Goins, Kate Gorman, Krista Hachey, Jonathan Herman, Leslie Kaufmann, Allison Lombardo, Meryl Rothstein, Jen Sopchockchai, Jonathan Sidhu, Lela Spielberg, Stefan Talman, Jane Tanimura, Jessica Weisberg, Melanie Wolfgang, Anne Wootton Sports Staff Writers Kathy Babcock, Zaneta Balantac, Stephen Colelli, Lexi Costello, Ian Cropp, Justin Goldman, Bernard Gordon, Katie Larkin, Matt Lieber, Shaun Macnamara, Chris Mahr, Ben Miller, Eric Perlmutter, Jilane Rodgers, Marco Santini, Brooke Wolfe Accounts Managers Steven Butschi, Rob McCartney, John Nagler, David Ranken, Joel Rozen, Rukesh Samarasekera, Ryan Shewcraft Project Managers In Young Park, Libbie Fritz Design Staff Deepa Galaiya, Allison Kwong, Jason Lee Photo Staff Marissa Hauptman, Ashley Hess, Matthew Lent, Bill Pijewski, Kori Schulman, Sorleen Trevino, Juliana Wu Copy Editors Chessy Brady, Jonathan Corcoran, Eric Demafeliz, Leora Fridman, Allison Kwong, Katie Lamm, Suchi Mathur, Cristina Salvato, Sonia Saraiya, Lela Spielberg, Zachary Townsend, Jenna Young

JOSEPH NAGLE

LETTERS UFB: no ‘funds race’ for student groups To the Editor: We were pleased to read in the staff editorial (“Funds race,” Feb. 7) support for our renewed regard for the funds student groups raise on their own. Given the extent to which the student activities budget is currently stretched, UFB encourages groups to seek out all avenues of funding, but it is also important to note that no group is ever required to do so. In fact, changing how we acquire this information is not meant to alter the way groups finance their activities, nor spark any sort of “funds race.”

Whether a group is actively fundraising will prove most relevant only to aid in the verification of groups’ overall financial need. Knowing the total amount a student group accumulates beyond its allocated budget helps to ensure that UFB makes the most informed decisions possible.

The editorial subsequently asserted, however, that “UFB has not come to a consensus on how this information will be used.” Beyond this statement’s lack of

support — two non-contradictory quotes — it is plainly false. We unilaterally believe that the amount of money a group has — whether it is $0 or $10,000 — is crucial information in the process of rendering equitable decisions for all students and student groups. Though noted in another article as an “unprecedented” move, the reality is that we have always ascertained this very information in meetings and through representatives, as is articulated in our original Code of Operations, written in 1985.

Formalizing and communicating this question will help all groups to solicit fairly from the same limited pool of funds.

Adam Deitch ’05 UFB chair Sarah Saxton-Frump ’07 UFB representative Feb. 7

New recycling strategy for success?

To the Editor: While I agree wholeheartedly with the RecycleMania leaders’ values, I believe they ought to change their strategy. As reported in Monday’s article (“BEAN kicks off RecycleMania,” Feb. 7), success is measured by weight of recycled materials proportional to the amount of total waste. There is no consideration of the number of students that participate, nor of the number of units that they recycle. In this light, I feel that BEAN’s upcoming ad campaign may be off the mark.

Here is the best way to win the competition: Don’t recycle more. Recycle heavier. Fill glass bottles with water before you recycle them. Tens of empty cans can be offset by a single full Nantucket Nectars container.

Dartmouth won’t stand a chance.

Adam Green ’05 Feb. 7

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

OPINIONS TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2005 · PAGE 11

Renewable energy at Brown University GUEST COLUMN BY EMILY MCATEER

The outcome of the 2004 presidential election was nothing short of a devastating blow for a vast majority of students here at Brown University. Today, the campus continues to echo with the grumbles of disheartened liberals — and undoubtedly, there are many reasons to complain.

In particular, the Bush administration’s environmental policy represents a virtual horror movie for environmentalists. For four years, we have seen forests being opened up to road construction and logging, the continuing release of carbon dioxide into the air and the steadfast denial of the imminence of global warming.

But instead of simply complaining for another four years, let’s get one thing straight for on-campus environmentalists: if we are serious in supporting responsible environmental policy, we must act.

Today we face what may be the most detrimental piece of environmental legislation the White House has yet unveiled. Under the guise of the so-called “Clear Skies” initiative, the Bush administration plans to loosen restrictions on the amount of mercury coal-fired power plants are permitted to emit, thereby reversing much of the progress we’ve made towards improving our country’s air quality.

The implementation of the Clear Skies initiative will allow power plants to emit six times the amount of mercury permitted by current emission standards. But to the Bush administration, what’s a little extra mercury?

Unfortunately for the rest of us, it’s a lot. It only takes one drop of mercury to contaminate every single fish in a 20-acre lake for an entire year with this dangerous neurotoxin. Currently, one in 10 women in the Northeast have mercury levels in their bodies exceeding EPA’s recommended safe level, while 45 states in the country have issued health advisories due to mercurycontaminated freshwater fish. The environment is already contaminated with this neurotoxic chemical, with its health effects encompassing everything from kidney damage to severe mental health disorders.

Yet this is not a time to lose hope. It may be hard to fight federal policy, or convince Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Hampshire — New England’s three states with coal power plants — to strengthen emission standards. But there is something we can do at Brown. We can stop relying so heavily on this mercuryemitting energy. President Bush may allow power plants to burn even more coal, polluting our skies with mercury — but that doesn’t mean we have to use such energy.

Action has already begun at the state level. Last year, Rhode Island began to take the steps needed to reduce

Brown consumes about 63,000,000 kilowatt hours of electricity each year, and none of this energy comes from renewable sources. our dependence on dirty, coal-dependent energy by passing a comprehensive Clean Energy bill that aimed to increase the amount of renewable energy our state uses each year. By 2020, the state plans to be 20 percent dependent on renewable sources of energy.

Rhode Island is doing its part. But is Brown? The answer, unfortunately, is not yet.

Brown consumes about 63,000,000 kilowatt hours of electricity each year, and none of this energy comes from renewable sources. Instead, the University relies on the coal power plants that benefit through the Bush administration’s graciously lax mercury regulations.

Brown’s inaction on the matter is astonishing, especially in light of the fact that the majority of its students are at a high risk for mercury poisoning. The Rhode Island Department of Health recommends all children and women of childbearing age to avoid eating native freshwater fish from anywhere in the state.

Fully 55 percent of Brown’s population is both female and of a childbearing age, and therefore at the highest risk of mercury poisoning in Rhode Island.

Beyond the ill effects of global warming, fossil fuel depletion and our nation’s political dependence on foreign oil, at the very least, Brown should switch to renewable energy for the sake of its students’ health.

The good news is that Brown students care about renewable energy. In October, Brown Environmental Action Network sampled students for four hours on the Main Green. They found that among the 350 students sampled the average student was willing to pay an extra $20 in tuition to buy renewable energy.

Multiply that by Brown’s approximately 6000 students, and that’s $120,000 worth of funding for clean energy sources. And even that small increase in tuition would be enough to fund almost five percent of the school’s total energy consumption.

Here at Brown, we complain about the policies of the current administration and are willing to support renewable energy, but we have yet to see any progress made. We lag far behind other colleges and universities — for example, 32 colleges in Pennsylvania recently agreed to collectively purchase 31 megawatts of wind energy to power their schools. Students must pledge to support slight tuition increases, and Brown must pledge to match this increase by a reevaluation of its budget priorities.

It is high time Brown’s administration worked to counteract the mistakes of the Bush administration by committing to use renewable energy on campus.

Emily McAteer ’07 works for the Sierra Club.

GAVIN SHULMAN

Scandal-mongers miss the point As a sports fan, I find it disconcerting how predisposed people are to seeing the negative in most modern sports scandals, and how blind they are to the potential positive of what may seem like sports’ most controversial stories.

Take the current hockey lock-out. All people want to talk about is the greedy players, the greedy owners, Gary Bettman being a jerk, the complete lack of progress and the fact that no one really even cares in the first place.

But this hiatus is a great thing for hockey. Let the players get some rest. Let them get their teeth replaced and noses set. Let the owners lose a little money. Let them try to exploit their other assets. Let the fans miss it some. Let them forget how fun watching Canadians and Russians fight is.

I believe that the lock-out is a brilliant marketing scheme to breathe life back into a sport that is melting into obscurity. When, and if hockey ever comes back, it will be such a novelty. Oh, hockey? I haven’t seen that forever. How do you play that again? On ice? No way. Man, I’m so glad hockey’s back. I’m not sure how I ever lived without it.

Remember what the strike of 1995 did for our national pastime? No one was watching baseball in the early nineties, but ratings have been through the roof ever since. That strike was probably the best baseball move since A-Rod slapped the ball out of Bronson Arroyo’s mitt. Let the fans swing, miss it a little, and take a strike. It’ll get the people up on their feet. Everyone loves a good strike.

Honestly, I think hockey is very cleverly positioning itself to score on another such rebound off the pads of fan rediscovery.

But speaking of baseball, what all these scandal-

sensitive people fail to recognize is that beneath the controversy that is currently plaguing our beloved, prematurely balding batsmen, steroids are a terrific thing for baseball. How awesome would it be to see someone jack 600 homeruns in a season? How great would it be to watch the Incredible Hulk playing second? How cool would it be to watch a pitcher throw the ball the speed of light? All of these things are possible, but only with steroids.

What we need to do is start the kids on these steroids early. That way, by the time they mature, they

Should an asterisk be placed next to every orgasm reached with the assistance of Viagra? will not merely be big men, but monsters. Imagine a giant, roid-raging right-fielder rounding third about to smash into a creamed-up catcher of about 500 pounds who has no fear protecting the plate. Now that’s good watching. And we’re only talking Little League.

I want to see records broken. I want to see unimaginable feats feated. I want to look back at the accomplishments of our athletic ancestors and laugh in their black-and-white faces. I want to embarrass their achievements. I want to let them know that if they even thought of playing today, we would kill them again.

In a society where performance-enhancing drugs

are commonplace, how hypocritical is it to hold our athletes to a higher standard? Should an asterisk be placed next to every orgasm reached with the assistance of Viagra? Should we erase from the record every child’s test score that was aided by the use of Adderall?

Should we note in italics every friend made by someone who relies on Zoloft? Or should we simply embrace the miracle of our modern technology that has the ability to improve not only our own troubled lives, but that of our sports stars as well? Steroids should not scare us, they should excite us.

As for basketball, of course we should let players fight fans if they get too drunk in the stands. That’s like two sports for one. The more interactive our sports can be, the better. There should be a five-row maximum though. Players should only be allowed to attack fans within the first five rows of the court. Because the people with those tickets are probably pricks anyway.

Especially if they’re too drunk to not do something too drunk. And then, if they are and do, all of us sitting behind them and above them get to watch them get pounded. That’s the complete sporting-event experience. If I’m going to pay $12 for parking, I want to at least know that there is the possibility of a fight.

Every sport has something to gain from scandal. If we examine the reasons behind the controversy, the motives, the consequences, the potential, the possibility, we can see past the initial shock and see the promise that every scandal brings to light. Just when we think the sporting world is showing us its ugliest, most grotesque face, maybe it’s showing us its best.

Strikes, fights, steroids, and scandal may truly be what make our sports so great.

Gavin Shulman ’05 took steroids and is stronger for it.

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

SPORTS TUESDAY FEBRUARY 8, 2005 · PAGE 12

M. icers defeat UVM, fall to Dartmouth to remain in sixth

BY MATT LIEBER SPORTS STAFF WRITER

The men’s hockey team posted a win and a loss this past weekend in conference games against the University of Vermont and Dartmouth at Meehan Auditorium. Friday night, the Bears defeated Vermont 3-1. A night later, Dartmouth ended Brown’s four-game winning streak with a one-sided 3-1 defeat. The Bears’ record now stands at 12-7-3 overall and 7-6-2 in the ECACHL. The two games were crucial for the sixth-place Bears, as the Big Green and the Catamounts stand between them and a first round bye and a home playoff series.

Against Vermont on Friday, Brown showed the sharper skating that has characterized the team’s recent success.

“We’ve been chasing (Vermont) in the standings,” said Captain Les Haggett ’05, who scored three of the team’s four goals on the weekend.

Haggett connected with Paul Baier ’08 on a first-period power play to put

Brown in the lead at 11:09.

“I thought that was our best first period all year,” Grillo said. “After that we settled back a bit and let them take the play to us.”

After the first intermission, Vermont dominated the territorial battle, outskating Brown and generating power play opportunities. Brown committed three penalties in a span of just under three minutes to give the Catamounts two 5-on-3 opportunities.

With the clock ticking down on the second two-man advantage, a Vermont wing recovered a rebound and fired a wrist shot from 15 feet that Brown goalie Adam D’Alba ’08 somehow managed to stop as he dove to his right.

“Instinct kicks in,” said D’Alba. “We practice that play, and it’s a tough one to stop. He (the shooter) was falling too.”

Brown was quick to capitalize on their goalie’s save of the night. At 8:28, see M. HOCKEY, page 9

Ashley Hess / Herald

Forward Jeff Prough ’08 scored the game winning goal against the University of Vermont on Friday night.

With road trip at an end, m. hoops splits in N.Y.

BY STEPHEN COLELLI SPORTS STAFF WRITER

The men’s basketball team played two more away games this past weekend and returned to Providence still alive in the race for the Ivy League Championship. Friday night the Bears came up short against Cornell despite a career-high 36 points from co-captain Jason Forte ’05, losing 7675 on two last-second free throws by the Big Red’s Cody Toppert. Saturday, the Bears bounced back with a furious second-half rally, finally closing out Columbia 54-52 on a Forte jumper with 3.2 seconds remaining.

The weekend split evens the Bears’ record to 9-9 overall and 2-2 in the Ivy League.

Against the Big Red, Brown opened up a 20-8 lead with eight minutes remaining in the first half, but Cornell battled back to tie the score at halftime, 27-27. The Bears’ free-throw shooting kept them in the game in the first half, as they made 10 of 12 from the line. Cornell, meanwhile, was held without a free throw attempt.

In the second half, Forte gave Cornell all it could handle, scoring 28 of his 36 points in the final 18 minutes of the game. With his effort, Forte broke a tie with Alai Nuualiitia ’03 to take sole possession of third place on Brown’s career scoring list with 1,380 points.

“It was a little disappointing,” said Forte.

“It’s an accomplishment that should have had a happy ending.”

With Forte shouldering most of the scoring load, the Bears found themselves trailing by one with 30 seconds remaining in the game. After a steal by Luke Ruscoe ’06, Damon Huffman ’08 put Bruno up 75-74 with a driving lay-in with only ten seconds left. Cornell missed back-to-back shots, but in the scramble for the rebound Marcus Becker ’07 was whistled for a foul, allowing Toppert to sink the winning buckets.

The final foul brought with it some disbelief from a Bears team that saw its fortunes reversed twice in the span of less than ten seconds.

“It was a surprising call,” said Head Coach Glen Miller. “It seemed to me that Marcus (Becker) had his hands on the ball and that it was going to be our possession.

I assumed that we were headed to the foul line, so I was shocked when I saw it was

Finally at full strength, w. icers go 1-1

BY HELEN LURYI SPORTS STAFF WRITER

The women’s ice hockey team added a win and a loss to their middling record this weekend, but Head Coach Digit Murphy sees brighter days ahead. The Bears’ game against powerhouse Dartmouth in Hanover, N.H., Friday resulted in a 6-3 defeat, but they bounced back the next day against the University of Vermont, controlling the play and winning 1-0. The split leaves the Bears 11-10-2 overall and 8-7-1 in the ECACHL. “I’m very encouraged,” said Murphy.

“I saw flashes of brilliance. I saw that Brown hockey was back for (the first period of the Dartmouth game).”

The game started off well for the Bears, who were up 2-0 after 20 minutes with goals by Hayley Moore ’08 and Kathryn Moos ’07. But the momentum shifted 13 seconds into the second period, when the powerful Big Green squad scored the first of three consecutive goals.

“We had a lapse in the second period,” said Moore. “There were a lot of penalties called (on us) and that threw off our game.”

“We went back to our old habits,” Murphy said. “We didn’t put the puck in safe places, we made some bad decisions, we didn’t take the body.”

Dartmouth added another goal early in the third period to pad their lead to two. Moore gave Bruno a goal on a power play that brought them within one with six minutes left, but Dartmouth immediately countered, then scored a last-minute empty-netter to seal the 6-3 victory.

The score did not reflect Brown’s defense during the game. Bears goalie Stacy Silverman ’08 made an impressive 43 saves and the team killed off six of seven penalties.

The stellar Big Green offense was led

by Tiffany Hagge, who scored a hat trick. Katie Weatherston had a goal and Cherie Piper had two assists — the two juniors lead Dartmouth in goals and

points, respectively.

After a loss to Harvard on Saturday, Dartmouth has dropped down to third in the U.S. College Hockey Online poll.

Brown and the Big Green will meet again this season Feb. 26.

Bruno came back strong against Vermont on Saturday. Amy McLaughlin ’05 scored the only goal on a power play in the second period. Moos and Jessica Link ’05 assisted on the score.

“We dominated the Vermont game,” Murphy said. “We were in their end the whole time and we outshot them by a lot.”

Brown’s goaltending duo of MariePier Desbiens ’07 and O’Hara Shipe ’08 made 11 saves between them, while Vermont star Kami Cote made 36.

Murphy was pleased with the results of the weekend. “I’m very encouraged,” she said. “We’re starting to get it. (The first period of the Dartmouth game) was pretty much flawless hockey. Now see W. HOCKEY, page 9

Judy He / Herald

Guard Damon Huffman ’08 scored 19 points in two games for the Bears this weekend. going to be Cornell shooting free throws.”

Miller acknowledged that without the effort of Forte, the game might not have been as close at the end.

“Against Cornell he just got into a zone and felt it,” Miller said. “He carried us in the second half. Our younger players have really grown a lot, but as the only senior, he see M. HOOPS, page 9 IVY LEAGUE “BASKETBALL U.” POWERPOLL

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

PENN QUAKERS (27) 11-7, 4-0 IVY 216 POINTS / PREVIOUSLY #1 CORNELL BIG RED 9-10, 3-1 IVY 169 POINTS / PREVIOUSLY #7 BROWN BEARS 9-9, 2-2 IVY 162 POINTS / PREVIOUSLY #2 HARVARD CRIMSON 8-11, 3-3 IVY 122 POINTS / PREVIOUSLY #5 COLUMBIA LIONS 12-7 / 3-3 IVY 97 POINTS / PREVIOUSLY #4 PRINCETON TIGERS 10-8 / 1-3 IVY 86 POINTS / PREVIOUSLY #3 YALE BULLDOGS 5-12 / 1-3 IVY 65 POINTS / PREVIOUSLY #6 DARTMOUTH BIG GREEN 5-14 / 2-4 IVY 54 POINTS / PREVIOUSLY #8

Voting for the PowerPoll is conducted by a panel of 28 voters, consisting of the four senior Basketball U. staff members and three members of the media from each school. http://www.basketball-u.com/ S P O R T S W E E K LY AWA R D S Men’s BASKETBALL: Jason Forte ’05 Ivy League Player of the Week Women’s BASKETBALL: Sarah Hayes ’06 Ivy League Player of the Week