T U E S D A Y APRIL 5, 2005
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Volume CXL, No. 42
An independent newspaper serving the Brown community since 1891
RIGHT HAND GRAD Christopher Bizzacco ’03.5 was Cicilline’s campaign manager, now serves as deputy chief of staff METRO 3
‘QUEER AND PLEASANT DANGER’ Performance Studies International Conference asks audience to get uncomfortable A R T S & C U LT U R E 5
ETHICAL DILEMMA Kevin McRoskey ’05: U. got the facts wrong in decision to cancel bioethics concentration OPINIONS
11
TODAY
TOMORROW
sunny 58/38
showers 59/42
Brown hosts debate on potential for Middle East democracy BY CHRISTOPHER CHON AND JONATHAN HERMAN STAFF WRITERS
The key to ending violence in the Middle East is the democratization of tyrannical regimes, said Saad Eddin Ibrahim, an Egyptian democratic activist and sociology professor at the American University in Cairo, in an optimistic keynote address Sunday afternoon. His speech opened the Providence Journal/Brown University Public Affairs Conference, which explored the possibilities of democracy in the Middle East. “I argue that peace and democracy are two sides of the same coin,” Ibrahim said. “Therefore, by working for democracy, not only will we be fulfilling a lofty goal that all mankind is entitled, (but) we will be sparing not only ourselves but you (the Western world) from further bloodshed.” He addressed the question of whether democratic developments in the region in
the past two months were a “spring of freedom” or “a desert mirage.” Middle Eastern countries are ready for democracy because they have been democratic societies in recent history, Ibrahim said. He cited his native land of Egypt as an example of a country with a pre-existing democracy. “Our part of the world, especially Egypt, had our first constitution and parliament in 1866,” Ibrahim said. The Middle East “had a liberal age from the middle of the 19th century to the middle of the 20th century.” He dismissed the fear that a democratic election in the Middle East would result in
an Islamic theocracy. In both Turkey and Morocco, Muslims have been incorporated into fledgling democracies without disturbing the liberal processes, he said. “These two experiments shining in the Middle East … they showed in my own cell in prison,” Ibrahim said, referring to his political imprisonment under the regime of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Ibrahim said he is optimistic about democracy in the near future because of the activism and involvement of Middle Eastern youth and other individuals against despotic regimes. see DEMOCRACY, page 7
Decisions mailed to Class of 2009 BY ERIC BECK SENIOR STAFF WRITER
Prospective Brunonians — members of the largest applicant pool in the University’s history — were mailed and were able to access their admission decisions online April 1. About 2,500 received the message they were hoping for — a welcome to Brown’s Class of 2009. Outgoing Director of Admission Michael Goldberger said 16,907 students, comprising both early and regular admission, applied for a spot in the incoming class, an increase of 10 percent from last year. From the record-setting applicant pool, 2,463 were accepted to form the anticipated 1,440-member Class of 2009. This year’s acceptance rate was 14.6 percent, compared to 15.8 percent last year, Goldberger said. Students from 58 countries and all 50 states were accepted. Canada, Korea and Singapore are the most represented foreign countries. An acceptance letter was sent to Kazakhstan for the first time. Over 90 percent of accepted students are in the top 10 percent of their high school class, and 375 high school valedic-
Gabriella Doob / Herald
President and publisher of Harper’s Magazine John MacArthur joined other journalists and leading foreign policy experts in a panel discussion on democracy in the Middle East.
torians were offered a spot in the incoming class. “The pool was pretty incredibly strong. … It appears that we’re in for a great year,” Goldberger said.
ACCEPTED TO THE CLASS OF 2009
white
42%
37% 58%
students of color
international
8%
31%
attend private school
14%
did not indicate a race
Source: Brown Admission Office
Undecided 10%
MEN 48%
Gender Breakdown
Engineering 11%
WOMEN 52%
Social sciences 21%
Math or science 36%
Humanities 22%
Intended Concentration
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Beat poet and Distinguished Professor Creeley dies at 78 BY MARY-CATHERINE LADER SENIOR STAFF WRITER
Robert Creeley, poet and distinguished professor of English, died Wednesday morning after a bout of pneumonia exacerbated an existing lung condition. Creeley, 78, joined the University faculty in 2003, but his contribution to the Brown community — as a landmark contemporary poet, professor and friend — was significant despite his brief term. Born May 21, 1926, in Arlington, Mass., Creeley studied at Harvard College until he left school in 1944 to work for a year as an ambulance driver in the American Field Service in India and Burma. Creeley began corresponding with Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams in 1949. Fellow poet Charles Olson invited Creeley to teach at Black Mountain College in 1954, an experimental arts college in North Carolina from which he ultimately received his B.A. As editor of the college’s influential and innovative literary journal “Black Mountain Review,” Creeley continued the Modernist tradition of Pound and others, and developed, along with Olson, a theory of “projective verse” — free verse that took form while being composed. “He brought a rhythm that no one had seen in poetry before, a rhythm that perfectly enacted a complex kind of thinking,” said Professor of English and Director of the Literary Arts Program Forrest Gander. “What you see in his poems is like a mind in movement, and you feel the rhythm of that mind in movement. … So despite the fact that he was an innovator and associated with the avantgarde, he never distanced himself from communicating emotional, powerful feelsee CREELEY, page 4
Cleland will speak today on needs of returning vets BY AIDAN LEVY STAFF WRITER
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Max Cleland, former Veterans Administration chief and former U.S. senator, will deliver the sixth annual Dr. and Mrs. Frederick W. Barnes Jr. Lecture in Public Health at 4 p.m. today in Andrews Dining Hall. The lecture is titled “Pathways to Recovery from Combat: Needs of Returning Veterans.” In 1965, Cleland volunteered to serve in Vietnam and was stationed there starting in 1967 as a Signal Corps officer. In a covert operation to relieve the siege at Khe Sahn, Cleland lost both his legs and right arm in a grenade explosion, abruptly ending his military career. Following extensive rehabilitation, Cleland, a Georgia native, entered the political stage in 1970 at the age of 28, becoming the youngest member ever of the Georgia State Senate. After serving four years, he became a consultant to the U.S. Senate Committee on
195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island
Veterans Affairs. In 1976, President Jimmy Carter appointed Cleland to head the Veterans Administration, the largest health care system in the country. During his tenure as VA administrator, Cleland staunchly advocated for psychological readjustment counseling, full rehabilitation and job training for injured veterans. In 1980, Cleland created the Vet Center counseling program, the first network to help Vietnam veterans deal with the trauma of war. Cleland served three terms as Georgia’s secretary of state, from 1982 to 1996. He was then elected to represent Georgia in the U.S. Senate as a Democrat, where he served on the Armed Services Committee. Cleland was defeated while running for a second term in 2002. That year, he was appointed to the 9/11 Commission, formally known as the National see CLELAND, page 4 News tips: herald@browndailyherald.com