F R I D A Y MARCH 4, 2005
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Volume CXL, No. 26
www.browndailyherald.com
An independent newspaper serving the Brown community since 1891
DISCOVERED AUTHOR John Hay librarian helps determine that 19th-century author wasn’t all she seemed CAMPUS NEWS
REQUIRED READING Joel Silberman ’05: Everyone suffers when students show up to section unprepared 5
OPINIONS
11
SIXTH SENSE M. and w. icers, both seeded sixth, sharpen skates for ECACHL playoffs this weekend S P O R T S 12
TODAY
TOMORROW
mostly sunny 34 / 19
sunny 38 / 21
U. budget increasing faster than tuition BROWN TUITION IN DOLLARS FOR SELECTED DATES, 1960-2005
BY ARI ROCKLAND-MILLER CONTRIBUTING WRITER
$40,000
On a typical spring day in 1969, hordes of smiling students wearing tight blue jeans and frayed T-shirts could be seen basking on the Main Green, embodying the spirit of peace, love and counterculture and the power of an Ivy League education. Here at Brown, some things never change. However, others do — undergraduates in 1969 paid a measly $3,230 for tuition and fees. Even in 2005 dollars, that’s only $17,188, according to Consumer Price Index estimates. At its regular winter meeting last week, the Corporation set undergraduate tuition and fees for next year at $41,770. The 20052006 academic year will mark the first in Brown’s history in which this figure has exceeded $40,000. However, administrators were quick to point out that both financial aid and the University’s budget have consistently increased at a higher rate than tuition. Next year, Brown’s financial aid budget will increase by 9 percent, or $3.77 million. Financial aid spending has consistently risen at a faster rate than tuition costs to ensure that Brown will continue to attract “the best and brightest” and will remain competitive with its peers, said Michael Bartini, director of financial aid. The 2005-2006 academic year will be Brown’s third year offering need-blind admissions. Bartini stressed that President Ruth Simmons is committed to ensuring the accessibility of a Brown education to all. This reflects “an important understanding of where we’re going,” he said. “Development is built into the heart of the way all universities operate,” said Provost Robert Zimmer, explaining why Brown’s tuition increases consistently every year. “On the other hand, we’re completely committed to the idea that people should be able to pay (for a Brown education),” he added. Zimmer chairs the University Resources Committee, which develops recommendations concerning the University’s budget, tuition and fees and endowment draw. The URC set the University budget for
$30,000
BY ALEXANDRA BARSK SENIOR STAFF WRITER
$20,000 $10,000 $0
1960
1970
1980
1990
2000
2005
GIRL TALK
Kori Schulman / Herald
The Vagina Monologues opened Thursday night with a sold-out performance in Alumnae Hall. See review, page 3.
see TUITION, page 4
Leaves of absence have little red tape, lots of benefits At least in terms of paperwork, taking a leave of absence is much easier than studying abroad or even tackling the housing lottery. And scores of students are doing it each year, leaving College Hill for San Francisco, Spain and even Lebanon. According to Executive Associate Dean of the College Robert Shaw, students take leaves of absence for a variety of reasons: They want to work or travel, they want to be closer to home, they want to study at another institution in order to access other course offerings or they simply want to take a break to reflect on their education. When they return, they often return better equipped to take advantage of what Brown has to offer. About 156 students took personal leaves each year between 2000 and 2003, and another 42 per year took medical leaves, a total of 198 per year. Christina DesVaux ’05.5, a leave-taking co-coordinator at the Curricular Resource Center, has taken two separate leaves of absence during her time at Brown. The first time, after the fall of her freshman year, she spent three semesters studying at Whitworth College in Washington state, making sure before she left that all the courses she took there would transfer back to Brown for credit. The second time, after spending a semester back at Brown, she enrolled directly in the University of Santiago in Spain for a semester, forgoing a more formal study abroad program because she hadn’t fulfilled Brown’s language requirement. “That time it was more about just living there, learning the language and not doing it for credit,” she said. DesVaux said the confusion and pressure surrounding leave-taking came see LEAVE, page 4
Understanding diverse perspectives important, professors say BY CHRISTINA KIM CONTRIBUTING WRITER
In her Feb. 1 Spring Semester Opening Address, President Ruth Simmons focused on the longstanding debate about intellectual diversity at Brown when she expressed concern that the University had become an example of “the way that universities today circumscribe free expression.” Since then, Simmons’ words have faculty and students discussing various methods of increasing intellectual diversity on campus. The first concrete step was Simmons’ creation of the Brown University Community Council, which will connect students with other members of the Brown community, including faculty, alums and administrators. However, discussion continues about what other changes might further foster an open atmosphere for debate. Some professors resort to more local and personal methods to promote intel-
lectual diversity in the classroom. Jacob Appel, professor of community health, teaches UC 11: “Hard Choices,” a course that he says encourages fair representations of multiple voices and opinions. Appel believes that the ways in which students learn to debate controversial topics and issues are just as important as the topics themselves. Students should discuss these issues in order to understand why they feel the way they do, he said. The goal is not to indoctrinate students, he said, but to help them see the world through the eyes of others. “There is nothing more rewarding to me than at the end of the class, students come up to me saying, ‘I can’t believe you believe that,’ ” Appel said. Appel won an Undergraduate Council of Students Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2003. UC 11 was not offered this year. Appel sees the “cries on campus that there are too many liberal faculty mem-
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bers” as misleading. He said the argument could be that “there are too few conservative faculty members.” In addition to liberal faculty members, some see community events as projecting a liberal bias. Recent campus guest speakers include Noam Chomsky, Ralph Nader, Jesse Jackson and Spike Lee, and with the announcement of former President Bill Clinton’s upcoming appearance at Brown, some see the University as attracting only liberal speakers. BUCC member Robby Klaber ’07 said the abundance of liberal voices has stifled conservative views. “More conservative thought isn’t allowed to be presented,” Klaber said. He views the “stigma right now about being conservative” as preventing more conservative students from speaking up in classes and on campus. He hopes that BUCC will work to hire a larger number of conservative professors and, by work-
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ing with the lecture panel, bring in more conservative guest speakers. Klaber said that many new students who take large survey courses when they first arrive at Brown are targeted by certain ideals and opinions. He sees larger courses that offer different and opposing viewpoints as the most effective, shortterm method of provoking thoughtful discussion. Darrell West, professor of political science, whose class PS 111: “Mass Media,” examines media focus and bias, said he has never felt that non-mainstream viewpoints are disrespected in the classroom. “I think there are multiple opinions that get represented in class because I think professors are sensitive to the need for intellectual diversity,” West said. West said he also sees the problem of discourse stemming not only from within the classroom, but in student activities see DIVERSITY, page 4 News tips: herald@browndailyherald.com