W E D N E S D A Y MARCH 9, 2005
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Volume CXL, No. 29 PVD LOCALES Beat the latewinter blues by discovering places in Providence you’ve never been INSIDE 3
NOW RAISE COUNSELORS’ PAY Jack Sweeney-Taylor ’06: MPCs, RCs and WPCs earn significantly less than at peer institutions OPINIONS
FORTE ’05 EXITS, LOUDLY M. hoops closes season with victory over Yale and honors for sole senior 11
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Pulitzer winner Hersh gives skeptical outlook on Iraq
Increase in salaries aimed at attracting faculty interested in undergrad work
BY MARY-CATHERINE LADER SENIOR STAFF WRITER
The Bush administration and its neoconservative advisers are pursuing a myopic agenda for regime change in the Middle East, despite the failure of wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to establish INSIDE meaningful democA Herald interview racy thus far, with Hersh, page 4 according to New Yorker reporter Seymour Hersh. In the 39th annual Meiklejohn Lecture, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Hersh tracked the chronology of events from Sept. 11 to Abu Ghraib, interjecting skeptical analysis of U.S. relations with Iran, Pakistan and neo-conservative ideology based on his 46 years of experience covering national security issues. Alexander Meiklejohn, member of the Class of 1893, a Brown professor of philosophy and Dean of the College, was a firm advocate of academic and press freedoms. Supreme Court Justice William Douglas gave the first Meiklejohn lecture in 1963. Other speakers have included former Attorney General Janet Reno and a mix of judges, lawyers and academics. Hersh’s reputation as an unrelenting investigative journalist, best known for exposing the My Lai massacre in 1969 and Abu Ghraib prison abuse in May 2004, made him a fitting selection for this year’s lecture because of Meiklejohn’s strong advocacy of the First Amendment. But Hersh did not speak on press freedom at length and never mentioned the First Amendment. Instead, he delivered a lengthy analysis of President George W.
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“Sy Hersh redeemed my belief, and that of so many others, that justice will prevail and triumph,” Radack said. “He gave legitimacy to what I shouted alone into the darkness for three years.” Radack also quoted a note Hersh had written her that read: “There may be no truth, but there will always be history.” Hersh’s own speech traced the “alternative history” he said he has been writing for the past three years. “I’m gonna tell you
President Ruth Simmons announced on March 1 a 5.5 percent overall increase in faculty salaries, reflecting a continuous effort within the Plan for Academic Enrichment to upgrade the faculty by attracting the most desirable new professors and keeping successful existing professors. When the University approved Simmons’ Plan for Academic Enrichment in 2002, one of its goals was for Brown to become more competitive with peers for the best incoming teachers and professors, said Dean of the Faculty Rajiv Vohra P’07. “It was pretty clear four or five years ago that the faculty salaries were behind our competition by a quite substantial amount. So there has been an attempt to catch up, so to speak,” he said. The recent attempts to increase staff salaries have been successful, as pay raises at Brown are now higher than the typical yearly increase at other universities, which is about 4 percent, Vohra said. Ultimately, Vohra characterizes Brown’s current situation as “not nearly as dismal as it was four or five years ago.” According to Vohra, of the 5.5 percent total salary increase, 3 percent is known as the merit pool, which is given to all departments to allocate based on production. Of the remaining 2.5 percent, 1.5 percent is given out for promotions
see HERSH, page 4
see SALARIES, page 6
Juliana Wu / Herald
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh drew a full audience in Salomon 101 Tuesday as he spoke about his experiences investigating the Bush Administration and its operations in the Middle East. Bush’s foreign policy, disparaging the “beyond-belief bad” situation in Iraq and declaring “Iran on the target list — big time.” Jessleyn Radack ’92 introduced Hersh, whom she described as her “inspiration, mentor, kindred spirit and hero.” Hersh wrote about Radack, a former Department of Justice ethics lawyer, after she garnered media attention in 2003 for leaking emails to Newsweek implicating the department in ethics violations in the case of “American Taliban” John Walker Lindh.
Pembroke to be renovated for Humanities by 2008 BY KIM STICKELS STAFF WRITER
Seeking to foster interdisciplinary inquiry within the greater context of the humanities, the Cogut Humanities Center will take residence in a renovated Pembroke Hall sometime in 2008, according to Richard Spies, executivevice president for University development and senior advisor to the president. The University announced the planned renovation after the Corporation approved a lead donation of an undisclosed amount from Deborah Cogut and Craig Cogut ’75 at its February meeting. The renovation to Pembroke Hall, which will cost “in the neighborhood of $10 million,” Spies said, will feature a small addition to the north side of the building to accommodate an elevator, handicapped restrooms and a new entrance that will help to unify the buildings of the Pembroke campus. The remainder of the Coguts’ gift will endow the Center and allow it to fund seminars, visiting professors, faculty and student research. “It’s a great building that’s just tired now but matches up beautifully with the program (to host the new Center),”
Spies said. “It’s useful for seminars and informal gatherings and a great resource for the campus.” Dedicated in 1897 and built at a cost of $37,601.06, Pembroke Hall was originally the center of the Women’s College at Brown. Currently, it houses the Career Development Center and several classrooms. Spies said the new entrance would link the building to Smith-Buonanno and Alumnae Hall. Pembroke Hall predates the other Pembroke campus buildings — no rear entrance was necessary when it was first constructed. Renovating Pembroke was one of many recommendations in New York architect Frances Halsband’s “Strategic Framework for Physical Planning.” The advising architect to the University conducted a 15-month study to assess the status of University buildings. Approved in October 2003, the document also recommended that the University demolish Perkins Hall, T.F. Green Hall and the Young Orchard Apartments. The Brown Humanities Center, which was founded in 2003, sponsored “Situating the Humanities” lectures in
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see PEMBROKE, page 7
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Pembroke Hall, which currently houses the Career Development Center, will undergo renovations to serve as the future home of the Cogut Humanities Center.
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