Wednesday, February 8, 2006

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2006

Volume CXLI, No. 11 FAKE PIRATES, REAL BOOTY Using school funds to show XXX-rated ‘Pirates’ creates controversy at Carnegie Mellon CAMPUS WATCH 3

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An independent newspaper serving the Brown community since 1891 SOAP OPERA After years of proposals and debate, Yale finally provides soap in its residence halls CAMPUS WATCH 3

SNOOZER BOWL Kate Klonick ’06: The big game may have been XL, but it really was just a bunch of Z’s SPORTS 12

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ResCouncil recommends switch to one-segment housing lottery

BLOOD DRIVE

BY KYLE MCGOURTY CONTRIBUTING WRITER

James Sattin / Herald

Students gave blood Tuesday in Sayles Hall as part of a three-day blood drive.

Number of A’s up from 10 years ago Grade inflation concerns pivotal in debate over pluses and minuses

BY THI HO CONTRIBUTING WRITER

In the debate over the addition of pluses and minuses to the University’s grading system, proponents of the change have argued that a more accurate method of evaluating students will reduce grade inflation trends across academic disciplines.

The number of A’s given out in undergraduate courses has climbed steadily for the past decade, according to figures available on the University Web site provided by the Office of Institutional Research.

In the 1994-1995 academic year, 39.2 percent of all grades given were A’s, 29.7 percent were B’s and 7.5 percent were C’s.

In contrast, the 2004-2005 research study found that the percentage of B’s awarded declined to 24 percent, while C’s PERCENTAGE DISTRIBUTION OF UNDERGRADUATE GRADES 1994-1995: A: 39.2 B: 29.7 C: 7.5 NC: 3.7 S: 19.8

2004-2005: A: 46.7 B: 24 C: 4.6 NC: 2.6 S: 21.3

Source: Office of Institutional Research

fell to 4.6 percent. The study also shows a 7.5 percent increase in the number of A’s awarded, rising to 46.7 percent.

In the life sciences, the figures paint an even more dramatic picture. In 1994-95, 34.8 percent of grades in life sciences were A’s. For 2004-05, the number rose to 46.6 percent, an almost 12 percent increase.

Though the OIR’s recent findings mark a significant change compared to the office’s figures from 10 years ago, these percentages have been more constant over the past five years.

Dean of the College Paul Armstrong partly attributes the increase in the distribution of A’s in undergraduate courses to an “extraordinary pressure to get A’s” evident on campus. “The push for students to get A’s undermines the New Curriculum,” he said.

One of the many issues the University faces in coping with grade inflation is distinguishing between accurate grading and tougher grading. One aim of the College Curriculum Council’s proposal to add pluses and minuses to the University’s grading system is to gauge student performance more accurately.

“The reason I think we should move from whole letter grades to a plus/minus system is because of the distribution of grades over the years,” Armstrong said.

Armstrong said he believes that see GRADES, page 4

Residential Council voted to recommend a new housing lottery system Tuesday afternoon with 10 yeas, one nay and one abstention. If the Office of Residential Life follows ResCouncil’s recommendation, all undergraduates applying for on-campus housing for the 2006-2007 school year will participate in a new housing lottery.

The proposed lottery will have only one segment containing all rooms available for selection, eliminating the four segments divided by group size featured in previous years’ lotteries.

The council voted to recommend scheduling the lottery over the span of three consecutive days, starting Monday, March 20 — a period that precedes spring break — to relieve housingrelated stress, members said. A third of the lottery numbers will be called each day, beginning with the lowest numbers (held by the most senior lottery entrants) and progressing down the list. As in the past, all housing options will be visually presented to applicants when it is their turn to choose. For this system to work, ResCouncil members stressed during the meeting that an individual or group should have a prioritized list of all potential housing options, since rooms will be removed from the list as upperclass students make their selections.

Justin Glavis-Bloom ’07, chair of the lottery committee, told The Herald after the meeting that he expects ResLife to adopt the new lottery.

Students will be able to form groups to choose housing simultaneously. “The maximum number of students per block will be 12,” said Brendan Hargreaves ’06,

Rasulova ’08 works toward recovery after serious car accident

BY ALISSA CERNY STAFF WRITER

According to close friends, Anya Rasulova ’08 is steadily progressing toward a full recovery after sustaining serious injuries in a car accident just after midnight on Jan. 28.

Rasulova and four of her friends were heading to the opening of Bravo, a new club in downtown Providence, when the accident occurred at a four-way stop at the intersection of Steeple Street and Memorial Boulevard. Unaware of oncoming traffic,

Council likely to host U.-wide forum on pluses/minuses

BY ERIC BECK NEWS EDITOR

Public debate over the proposed addition of pluses and minuses to the grading system will likely occur in late February or early March at a University-wide forum instead of at a faculty forum as previously suggested, University officials said Tuesday.

The University-wide forum will be hosted by the College Curriculum Council and the Graduate Council.

The CCC passed a resolution Jan. 31 requesting that the Faculty Executive

Committee call a faculty forum to discuss the proposed addition of pluses and minuses. The CCC had planned to vote on the proposal after the forum.

“The CCC proposed to the FEC that the FEC hold a faculty forum because that’s the means by which, according to faculty rules, you convene faculty for more extended discussion,” said Dean of the College Paul Armstrong, who chairs the CCC. But the FEC leadership wrote to the CCC Friday requesting that a Universitywide forum be held in place of the requested faculty forum, Armstrong said.

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chair of the council.

This does not mean that a group of students must block together when it is their time to choose housing. “This is a common misconception,” Glavis-Bloom said. When it comes time to choose housing, “a group of students does not have to live together,” Glavis-Bloom said, but can instead select any combination of available rooms so long as all group members are housed.

To avoid confusion, ResCouncil plans to advertise and hold information sessions for undergraduates if the lottery is ultimately changed.

ResCouncil also passed several other recommendations relating to student housing. The Program House Council developed an application for developing program houses, which ResCouncil passed unanimously. The new application calls for an outlined mission statement and stipulated requirements such as community service, social events and a constitution.

“Usually these houses want to be on Wriston,” Hargreaves noted in the meeting, but other spaces may be available.

One member noted that this process has not been advertised among undergraduates. At that moment, a student wandered into the meeting and said she wanted to know if there were program house applications.

Other proposals were passed in the meeting that concerned sophomoreonly housing. Three houses that were previously reserved for sophomores lost that designation. Current sophomore-only portions of Barbour, Goddard and Sears will be available to juniors and seniors for housing next year, pending approval from ResLife.

Professor of Physics Robert Pelcovits, the FEC chair, told the faculty at its monthly meeting Tuesday that it was more appropriate to bring together students and faculty in a communitywide setting than a faculty forum that does not provide for student input.

Armstrong told The Herald that the CCC will consider the FEC’s request at its next meeting Tuesday, adding that he expects that the council will accept it. The CCC will then consider the best format for the forum so that “all the different sides

195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island

see FACULTY, page 1

the driver made a left turn and was hit by a Jeep. The Mercedes carrying the five girls was dragged across several lanes of traffic before colliding with a pole, according to Anna Chacon ’08, a friend of Rasulova’s who was not in the car at the time of the accident.

All the passengers in the car sustained serious injuries and bruising, Chacon said. The driver suffered brain hemorrhaging but was discharged from Rhode Island Hospital early last week. All other passengers except for Rasulova, who remains in the Intensive Care Unit at RIH, were discharged within two days.

Rasulova suffered the most severe injuries, including broken ribs, a broken hip, fractures in her spinal cord and a laceration on the right side of her face. Rasulova arrived at the hospital unconscious, and nurses later told Chacon that Rasulova sustained 90 percent of the crash’s impact.

When Chacon visited Rasulova in the hospital the morning after the accident, she said she was shocked at her friend’s condition.

“When I got there and found out she was in the trauma center, it was surreal.

Just imagining how bad the accident must have been gave me shivers,” Chacon said.

Rasulova, who plans on majoring in economics and international relations, has see RASULOVA, page 4 News tips: herald@browndailyherald.com

THIS MORNING THE BROWN DAILY HERALD · WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2006 · PAGE 2 Jero Matt Vascellaro

TO D AY ’ S E V E N TS CAREER WEEK 2006 All day, (Petteruti Lounge) — Come get answers about internships, grad schools, concentrations and careers.

BROWN DAILY HERALD OPEN HOUSE 7 p.m., (195 Angell St.) — Come by The Herald’s office to learn more about opportunities for reporting, design, copy editing, photography and business.

MEET THE PROFESSORS 7 p.m., (Sayles 018) — Professor Donald Jackson, instructor of BI 80: “Principles of Physiology,” will be on hand for small-talk and refreshments. Sponsored

by Women in Science and Engineering.

STUDENTS FOR CHOICE GENERAL BODY MEETING 8 p.m., (Wilson 301) — Learn how to become involved in Brown’s pro-choice student organization.

Chocolate Covered Cotton Mark Brinker

MENU SHARPE REFECTORY

VERNEY-WOOLLEY DINING HALL

LUNCH — Polynesian Chicken Wings, Stir Fried Rice, Green Peas, Chocolate Frosted Eclairs, Apple Turnovers, Vegetable Egg Rolls with Duck Sauce, Meatball Grinder, Cheese Pizza

LUNCH — Vegetarian Cream of Tomato, Egg Drop and Chicken Soup, Italian Sausage and Peppers Sandwich, Vegetable Strudel, Green Peas, Mini Eclairs

DINNER — Salmon Provensal, Mushroom Risotto, Greek Style Asparagus, Steamed Vegetable Melange, Lamb Stir Fry, Oatmeal Bread, Lime Jello, Caribbean Rum Cake

DINNER — Vegetarian Cream of Tomato, Egg Drop and Chicken Soup, Swiss Steak, Vegan Ratatouille, Mashed Red Potatoes with Garlic, Zucchini, Carrot and Garlic Medley, Mashed Butternut Squash with Honey, Oatmeal Bread, Caribbean Rum Cake

Deo Daniel Perez

Cappuccino Monday Christine Sunu

RELEASE DATE– Wednesday, February 8, 2006

CR O S Daily SWO RD Los Angeles Times Crossword Puzzle Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis ACROSS 1 Deride 5 “I __ Soldier, Too: The Jessica Lynch Story” 8 Some undergrounds 14 Get in the game 15 Bell and Barker 16 Relaxing 17 Wainscoting, e.g.

19 Ray of “GoodFellas” 20 The jitters 22 Doctor, at times 23 Broad valleys 26 Student volume with exercises 28 Spider-Man enemy 31 Coward of the stage 32 Place holder 34 Pockets illegally 38 Holiday establishment?

39 Thrust (upon) 41 Norma McCorvey’s alias, in a landmark case 42 Incense 45 Reduce in price 48 Early ’70s Israeli prime minister 50 Street girls 51 Maine, in Maine 55 In reserve 56 Sharp-tasting 57 Corrida hero 60 Couch in a guest room, perhaps 62 Oscar-winning director of “Unforgiven” 66 That certain something 67 ICU devices 68 His __: big shot 69 Utters decisively 70 Opposite of paleo71 Suggestive opening DOWN 1 Maxilla or mandible 2 Composer Brian 3 DDE’s arena 4 Jeff Foxworthy target

5 Matchmaking god 6 Fab 7 Cock-a-hoop 8 Prefix with adroit 9 Online reservation 10 Misfortune 11 Like back pay, briefly 12 Prefix meaning bone 13 Desolate 18 London dist.

21 Bart, to Homer 23 Credit counterpart 24 Unaccompanied 25 Sierra __ 27 Speaking platforms 29 Craftsperson’s fiber 30 Cortés’s gold 33 Kipling’s young spy 35 Rice-__ 36 Sounded like a cow 37 Have a hunch 40 Yield to gravity 43 ’50s TV cultural series

44 Bins for the birds 46 It merged with Sears in 2004 47 Repudiates 49 QU go-between 51 Words from cribs 52 City SSE of Gainesville 53 With tongue in cheek 54 Wheel alignment feature

58 Speak excitedly 59 Canadian station name 61 __ juvante: with God’s help (Monaco’s motto) 63 Olive or corn follower 64 Sapporo sash 65 Summer hours

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CAMPUS WATCH THE BROWN DAILY HERALD · WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2006 · PAGE 3

Yale housing cleans up its act

BY BRENNA CARMODY STAFF WRITER

For the first time in the university’s storied 304-year history, Yale University students have been able to open their bathroom doors and find a basic necessity: soap.

After a decade of unsuccessful student proposals from the Yale College Council and at least 11 articles in the Yale Daily News since 1996, the university’s Office of Facilities answered student concerns this January by starting a trial program that will install soap dispensers in three of the school’s 12 residential colleges.

Junior R. David Edelman, a YCC representative, said the council put together a proposal this year that, unlike previous proposals, included “a lot more research as well as cost projections.” Still, he said he was surprised when university administrators decided to accept the resolution.

Edelman said one of the biggest issues administrators faced when considering adding soap dispensers dealt with labor concerns. Specifically, Yale administrators were unsure if refilling soap fell under the contract of union custodians, Edelman said. In the end, the Office of Facilities chose a soap that takes longer to run out and is designed to create less spills, thereby reducing the work of custodians.

Another concern involved cost. The original cost of installing dispensers and keeping them stocked was projected at between $40,000 to $50,000 a year. However, the current projection has increased to about $100,000 per year, Edelman said, adding that part of the cost increase resulted from the soap brand chosen by the Office of Facilities.

“It seems silly for a school like Yale with a $15 billion endowment not to provide a basic necessity like handsoap,”

wrote Zach Marks, issue committee chairman for Yale’s Freshman Class Council, in an e-mail to The Herald.

Efforts to bring soap to dormitory bathrooms started in the fall, when representatives from different soap companies toured the campus to discuss various options, Edelman said.

“At one point I was carrying soap dispensers around campus,” he said.

Edelman said the trial program has been successful so far and that he “would be shocked if it wasn’t spread throughout the campus next year.” The Office of Facilities Management will make the decision at the end of the year after receiving input from a student survey, he said.

“My guess is 90 to 95 percent will say they want to” make the program permanent and widespread, Edelman said.

Student response to the addition was generally positive.

“I was happy to be greeted by soap dispensers when I arrived this semester. … It’s a welcome change,” said senior Shalini Uppu, who lives in one of the newly soaped residence halls.

Lizzie Fulton, a freshman, said she had not even realized other schools provided soap.

“It’s not really a big deal, but it’s always an inconvenience” to get soap from the convenience stores because they are so far away, she said. “The school has so much money; they might as well make students’ lives easier,” she added.

One alum seemed to consider the debate trivial.

“Of all the things I would want Yale to provide me as a student, soap isn’t something I’d consider caring about,” said Andrew Petro, who graduated in 2004. “I dutifully bought my soap and never gave it another thought.”

Edelman said he was surprised by the amount of press this issue has received — over 75 newspapers picked up an

Porn screenings arouse controversy at CMU Last semester, right-wing talk show host Bill O’Reilly subjected Brown to blistering criticism for its alleged sponsorship of Sex Power God, accusing the University of using student activity funds to throw a “sex party” on campus.

It’s a good thing he didn’t get wind of what goes on once a semester at Carnegie Mellon University.

In November, the school drew local media attention when a student group used a university auditorium to screen “Pirates,” an XXX-rated tale of sex, treachery and more sex on the high seas.

More than 1,000 students turned out for three nighttime showings.

According to Andrew Moore, chair of the CMU Activities Board, which sponsored the event, the tradition of screening one or two adult films a year stretches back more than two decades.

“The goal isn’t just to show hardcore porn,” Moore said, adding that his group tries to select “silly films” that students can appreciate for their comic value. “People go and laugh at it.”

But not everyone was laughing over “Pirates” and its bootyseeking characters. A number of students expressed outrage that student activities funds were being used to screen adult films, and the administration released a statement saying that although the event was “not consistent with our values as a university community, it is not prohibited by university policy.”

Much of the criticism came from Carnegie Mellon women’s groups. Femi Akintolo, a freshman member of one such group, told local Television station KDKA that the school should be held responsible for providing students with pornography.

“If they need to watch that, they need to do that on their own,” she said.

Moore dismissed the criticism, pointing out that nobody is

forced to attend the screenings and that it would be impossible to let students pick and choose what their activities fees go to support.

He added that “many women actually see it as liberating, in some way,” and that arguments about pornography being demeaning to women might not apply to “Pirates,” since the film features a female “ringleader” who has power over the men.

On Dec. 11, the university sponsored an on-campus forum to discuss the issue. The event drew 50 to 60 students and was moderated by two Carnegie Mellon professors, including one who specializes in the study of pornographic art.

But while Moore said the discussion was productive, the Activities Board has made no policy changes as a result and plans to show another adult film later this semester.

Usually, the Activities Board does not announce the name of adult films in advance, listing them only as “TBA” on the group’s schedule. For “Pirates,” however, the Activities Board decided to conduct a promotional blitz, putting up posters that included two nude women gazing at each other longingly.

Funding for the screenings comes out of the Activities Board’s annual budget, which in turn comes from the $80 activity fee students must pay each year.

According to Moore, the group has to pay $700 to $1,000 per night for the rights to screen non-adult films, compared to only about $200 for adult films.

For “Pirates,” the Activities Board was able to obtain the rights for free after the movie’s production company, Digital Playground, decided it would make for good publicity. The group also pays for a university police officer to keep watch on the event and for Dippin’ Dots or other snacks.

Moore said critics of pornography screenings were wrong to call for their elimination.

“It isn’t put in their face,” he said.

The final proposal submitted to the faculty will include a provision for undergraduate grading proposed by the CCC and one for graduate grading from the Grad Council.

Also at Tuesday’s faculty meeting, President Ruth Simmons looked ahead at her next five years leading the University.

In the five years since she assumed the University’s presidency, Simmons oversaw rapid growth and change fueled by the Plan for Academic Enrichment. An increase in the size of the faculty, introduction of the First Year Seminar program and physical expansion marked the first halfdecade of Simmons’ time at the University.

But she expressed concerns that the pace of change is slowing.

In particular, Simmons said

that the University “needs to do whatever (it) can” to keep the College competitive, especially in light of recent ambitious moves and “gains” by the University’s traditional competitors.

The University continues to be very selective in undergraduate admission and is in no imminent danger of losing its standing, Simmons said, but administrators must always strive to keep the University “desirable.”

To that end, Simmons told the faculty that she appointed Provost Robert Zimmer to lead a committee focused on the future of the undergraduate College, emphasizing Brown’s international profile, its advisory programs, undergraduate housing, financial aid and developments in engineering and the sciences.

BY ZACH BARTER STAFF WRITER

Daniel Petrie / Herald

Yale recently acted on students’ requests to provide soap in University bathrooms.

Associated Press story about the Yale soap opera. Edelman said he received a letter from a woman in Milford, Conn. who is writing a poem about “the soap crusades at Yale.”

“It’s heartening to hear how many people are affected by it,” Edelman said.

Over the past decade, in response to student feedback, the Office of Facilities has made several other improvements to residential college bathrooms.

In 1999, Yale agreed to provide two-ply toilet paper in the bathrooms, and in 2001 the university changed a rule that barred students from leaving toiletries in the bathroom and began to provide students permanent storage bins.

Brown has offered soap in the dorms for at least the past 15 years, wrote Director of Physical Plant Carl Weaver in an e-mail to The Herald.

The only dorms not to contain soap dispensers are the Young Orchard suites, Barbour Hall apartments, Grad Center A, B, C and D and Morris-Champlin.

The suites are “not conducive to locating dispensers in the bathrooms,” said Weaver, who added that no dispensers exist in Morris-Champlin because of a lack of wall space.

Faculty continued from page 1 of the issue get aired,” he said.

The forum will probably be held on a Tuesday or Thursday afternoon — a time when few classes are held — in late February or early March.

The forum will be hosted by both the CCC and the Grad Council because the grading changes would affect both grad students and undergraduates, Armstrong said.

The Faculty Rules and Regulations, which outlines the University’s grading policy, does not contain any provisions for Grad School grading, so the Grad School has traditionally adhered to the undergraduate grading system, Armstrong said.

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PAGE 4 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2006

Grades continued from page 1 the differences between a Bplus and an A-minus are not accurately reflected under the current whole letter grade system. This can also mean that students who do B-plus work often receive A’s for final grades.

Armstrong said the addition of pluses and minuses would provide faculty free reign to evaluate students’ performances.

Fighting inflation at other Ivies Brown is not the only Ivy League institution that faces grade inflation concerns. A Boston Globe article published in October 2001 revealed that 91 percent of Harvard University’s class of 2001 graduated with honors of some kind, compared to 51 percent at Yale University and 44 percent at Princeton University.

A 2001-02 Harvard faculty study found that 46.8 percent of all grades were in the A range, according to a 2005 Harvard Crimson article. During the same year at Brown, A’s made up 42.3 percent of all undergraduate grades.

Several of Brown’s peer institutions have undergone evaluations of their grading systems, prompted in part by stories like the 2001 Boston Globe article.

At Columbia University, transcripts include mean grades for each class. In April of 2004, Princeton approved an aggressive plan to combat inflation, instituting a quota system that permits only specified percentages of A’s and B’s. This approach seems to have been effective in reducing the percentage of A’s awarded.

For 2004-2005 at Princeton, A’s accounted for 40.9 percent of all undergraduate grades, down from the previous year’s 46 percent. In the humanities, the percentage of A’s was 45.5 percent, compared to the previous year’s 56.2 percent.

The field of engineering saw A’s accounting for 43.2 percent of grades, down 5 percent from 2003-2004.

Yale, like several other Ivy League institutions, does not release information on grade

distribution.

Shelly Kagan, professor of ethics and social and political philosophy at Yale, said he finds this policy peculiar, particularly because other schools where he taught previously, including the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Chicago, do disclose this information.

“After I had been teaching here for a year, it became clear to me that students were treating me as if I were a harsh grader compared to other faculty at the school,” Kagan said. “A is excellent, B is good, and C is average. Consequently, if you do good for me, Yale says B. So a B for me means good. I reserve A’s for those who are genuinely excellent.”

When he asked around for more information on grade distribution, Kagan said he was refused access to the material by Yale administrators.

“The reason for not sharing information about grading with faculty members became very clear,” Kagan said. “Those faculty who found out they were harsher graders would ease up. Those who graded lightly would then grade more harshly. There would then be a constant upward pressure toward harsher grading. By calling, they were worried I would exacerbate grade inflation.”

Students seem less concerned For her part, Michaela Cohen ’09 said she is not surprised that 46.2 percent of Brown’s undergraduate grades in the humanities are A’s. “That doesn’t seem like an exorbitant amount of A’s to me,” Cohen said. “The percentage doesn’t matter so much as (students’) learning.”

Dorota Poplawska, a freshman at Yale, does not feel that grade inflation is a problem at her school.

“I guess (Yale’s administration) trust(s) their professors with grading techniques and do not feel that this is an issue that needs to be addressed,” Poplawska said. “I mean, I have seen the amount of work and the quality of work people do here and it is really impressive.

We are used to getting high grades so we will do anything to keep that up.”

Fill in the grid so that every row, every column and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 through 9.

Solution, tips and computer program at www.sudoku.com.

Gymnastics continued from page 8 The Bears won the floor exercise with 46.425 points, but the Big Red proved to be too strong in the uneven bars, vault and balance beam. The team almost bested Cornell in the bars, scoring 46.700 points to Cornell’s 46.775 points, and it produced some very strong routines throughout the course of the meet despite not being able to overcome the Big Red. In the floor exercise, Brown was led by co-captain Amber Smith ’06, Jessica Pestronk ’08 and Rachel Foodman ’09. All three gymnasts posted a 9.4 and tied for second place. On the vault, Jessica McNell ’06 placed third with a 9.45.

Although no other Bears broke into the top five in the vault, all six gymnasts who competed scored 9.05 or better.

“The two most improved events from our last meet were the floor exercise and vault. We hit every routine (on floor and vault),” said co-captain Mandi Baughman ’06.

“We went six for six on both events, and seven for seven if you count our exhibitionists.”

Brittany Anderson ’09 and Jennifer Sobuta ’09, who have both been surprisingly consistent for the Bears in their rookie year, continued their solid work with second and third place finishes, respectively, on the balance beam.

Anderson scored a 9.525 while Sobuta posted a 9.425. On the uneven bars, Sarah Cavett ’06 led Brown with a 9.525, good for fourth place.

In the all-around, Anderson led the team by finishing second with a 36.820. Smith finished a strong third with a 36.453. At the end of the day, Carver-Milne was very satisfied with her team’s effort.

“I am very pleased with the team’s performance. In most cases, we had a better meet at Cornell than Cortland,” she said.

Rasulova continued from page 1 been involved in many activities at Brown over the past two years. She has served as a UCS class representative, a mentor for international students and a mentor for children in downtown Providence through the City Girls Club. In addition, the sophomore has also worked very closely with Senior Fellow in International Relations Sergei Khrushchev, helping him compile and translate a chronology on the history of the Soviet Union.

Khrushchev is one of many concerned acquaintances who have visited Rasulova over the past week or so.

Rasulova’s godparents, who live in Massachusetts, joined her anxious friends at the hospital

On Sunday, the gymnasts took on Division III Cortland State, where they demolished their host.

Cortland managed to win the vault, but Brown took the other three events. Carver-Milne was pleased with her squad’s performance in its first back-to-back meets of the season.

“This is a new format for us — the back-to-back meets,” she said.

“For the team to pick it up less than 24 hours later is huge.”

While the Sunday meet was “more laid back because we were a little tired from the day before,” the team was still aggressive from the outset, Smith said.

The Bears swept the top five spots in the beam. Anderson finished first with a 9.6 and the next four spots went to Baughman, Smith, Cavett and Pestronk, in that order.

The Bears dismantled the Red Dragons on the bars as well, taking the top four spots. Cavett led the way, winning with a 9.575. Anderson followed with a 9.4, while classmates Miriam Straus ’06 and Jessica Pouchet ’06 scored 9.375 and 8.975, respectively. CarverMilne pointed to Straus’ routine as another particularly impressive effort since she is returning from an ACL tear that occurred eight months ago.

On the vault, Smith and Foodman tied for second, each

W. tennis continued from page 8 Krasnopolski of Boston College due to leg cramps. Saiontz played well against Syracuse, so after dropping the first set against Krasnopolski 6-1, it was clear something wasn’t right. After a trainer treated her during a changeover, Saiontz attempted to resume playing, but was visibly in pain. Wardlaw, however, does not expect that the injury will prevent her after the accident. After some initial difficulty, Rasulova’s parents, who live in Uzbekistan, were able to fly to the United States on Feb. 4 to stay by her side as she recuperates.

Several of Rasulova’s friends, including Chacon, Alexandra Ewenczyk ’08 and Marielena Groeger ’08, have rallied around her during the past week. According to Ewenczyk, who visits Rasulova daily, she is making a steady and impressive recovery.

“The day after the accident she was completely unable to move.

Now she is in physical therapy, climbing stairs and sitting up in bed. There have been a few complications, and she’s been in a lot of pain, but overall she’s doing really well,” Ewenczyk said.

“She’s made a complete turnaround since when she arrived, and she’s in really high spirits, always laughing and

scoring a 9.55. Foodman’s mark was a personal best for her. The all-around duo of Anderson and Smith continued putting up high marks in the floor exercise, with Anderson finishing first with a 9.6 and Smith finishing second with a 9.575.

Anderson and Smith completed the day with season bests in the all-around competition, with Anderson reaching the 38.000 mark and Smith posting 37.050 points. Smith had high praise for her young teammate.

“Brittany has been anchoring our team,” Smith said. “She has been very consistent, and has been handling the transition from high school to college really well. I’m really proud of her.”

The team’s weekly improvement bodes well for the Feb. 26 Ivy Classic looming on the horizon.

Until then, Brown will use next Sunday’s meet at Springfield College as a tune-up for that Ivy League showdown. Baughman said the team is aiming for no falls at the Sunday meet, after three falls each at Cornell and Cortland.

“We’re making sure not to plateau, but to be consistently going up (in our performance),” Baughman said. “We are aiming for zero falls. That’s a realistic goal.

We’re just perfecting our routines now, getting out the baubles, steps (and) bent legs.” from playing in Wednesday’s match against the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Overall, the Bears are not displeased with their weekend performance. In beating Syracuse, they defeated a team similar to the one that beat them 5-2 a year ago.

“We’re simply better this year,” Wardlaw said. “The BC loss shell-shocked us a bit, but that is primarily the result of our higher expectations. This team has great energy and spirit; I couldn’t ask for much more out of them.” smiling,” Groeger said.

“The nurses have made jokes about how popular Anya is. She’s had visits from friends, professors, deans, her mentees, even people who didn’t know her very well but respected her. She’s never alone, and she’s really grateful for that and for everyone’s prayers,” Chacon said.

According to her friends, it remains uncertain when Rasulova will be discharged from the hospital and if she will want to take a temporary leave of absence before returning to the University.

According to Groeger, Rasulova is considering the possibility of taking a reduced course load upon her initial return to Brown.

“Anya has such an amazing spirit. She’s a real fighter. She made it all the way to America from Uzbekistan against incredible odds, and I know she’s going to beat this too,” Ewenczyk said.

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2006 THE BROWN DAILY HERALD PAGE 5

Klonick continued from page 8 get a significant number on the board after blowing seven straight drives in an anticlimatic 20-yard pass to tight end Jerramy Stevens.

Perhaps the only truly exciting scoring came on the Steelers’ decisive final touchdown, a wide receiver pass by Antwaan Randle El to Hines Ward. I should have just done all my history reading in the first three quarters.

You can’t say that the game was boring because the refs couldn’t keep their eyes open or their flags in their pockets.

There were plenty of penalties, but not enough to make the game slow-paced, and some of the calls, though questionable, were not so atrociously bad as to be game-deciding (as many Seattle fans would like you to believe). Touchdown number one, for example, was a genuinely difficult call to make, one that couldn’t even be accurately decided after watching playbacks. Although they didn’t help things, the officials were simply not the reason this game dragged on.

As far as stories went, the Seahawks had the traditionally compelling “We’ve Never Won a Super Bowl But We’d Sure Like To” spin, while the Steelers had their “Underdog Comes Out on Top” twist. The players were interesting. Big Ben Roethlisberger and Jerome Bettis were guys with heart and grit, and if that wasn’t enough, the New York Times even did a story on the Steelers’ “link forged by tragedy,” citing the Sept. 11, 2005 attacks and recent coal miners’ catastrophe. There were definitely stories, so what made this game so dull?

My theory? The entertainment. One, the sleepy commercials, and two, the sleepier halftime show.

There was no Terry Tate, Office Linebacker. No 1984. No Mean Joe Green. No memorably hilarious or even poignantly quotable commercials to be re-enacted at the water cooler on Monday. Bud Light did the typical, “Dude, guys like beer. … No, no, we don’t think you understand. … Guys REALLY like beer. … Some guys even like beer more than women. …

Isn’t that hilarious!?” approach.

These commercials, while always fun, may be just a little

played out. Diet Pepsi and Toyota attempted to appeal to minority groups by having a soda can star in a hip-hop video and Jackie Chan flick and a bilingual father explaining in a terribly acted exchange with a young child the value of driving a Hybrid. Overall, I was shocked by how many ads I’d seen before (Alka Seltzer, Capital One, Westin) and how many ads were just plain unimaginative and insignificant. As one of my fellow viewers shouted at the TV: “Why are we watching something about Overstock. com?” It got so bad, I started taking bathroom and beer breaks during the commercials.

The halftime show was even more uninspired, though no less sold out, than the advertising. Surprisingly, the nearly dead Rolling Stones, even Mick Jagger, appeared to have more energy than either of the teams actually competing in the game.

To be honest, I don’t know when a halftime show has ever actually been that good, so I’m unsure why I keep expecting them to captivate me. Despite the costume snafus of recent performers, the event is always an over-promoted, over-done, made-for-television, barely live and often lip-synched performance. Really, all we ever have to hope for is that someone in management forgets to turn on the five-second delay and suddenly one of the performers is topless on live national television. But that would never happen, and in live shows Jagger’s shirt comes off easier than Kobe’s bad boy reputation, and who wants to see that anyway?

The long and the short of it? You could have probably gotten up and walked to the refrigerator enough times to finish a 30-rack, cooked yourself some chili, invented more random grid structures (number of times Bill Cowher makes inexplicable angry face versus number of bad calls in his favor) and topics to bet on (most valuable acronym for Emerald Nuts), read at least three chapters of Tocqueville’s “Democracy in America” and even had time to relieve yourself — all without missing a thing.

Thank God pitchers and catchers report in two weeks.

Kate Klonick ’06 never remembers to turn on the fivesecond delay.

Wal-Mart workers critique labor conditions

BY SHEELA RAMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Wal-Mart’s official code of conduct for its overseas suppliers may mandate the humane treatment of workers, but in reality it is just empty words, according to the overseas delegation of three Wal-Mart workers who spoke Monday night in List Art Center as part of the International Wal-Mart Worker Tour.

The tour was organized by the International Labor Rights Fund, in conjunction with local unions in developing countries.

It has traveled to Kansas, Missouri and Washington, D.C. over the past two weeks in an attempt to raise awareness about conditions in Wal-Mart supplier factories in developing countries. The event at Brown — brought to campus by the Brown Student Labor Alliance and the ILRF — was formatted as a panel made up of WalMart workers and local union members from three different countries. Each worker outlined the state of Wal-Mart factory conditions in their home countries of Nicaragua, Colombia and the Philippines.

Damarys Meza Guillen said she is hardly able to keep up with the daily goal Wal-Mart sets for her of inspecting 1,000 pairs of jeans in a Nicaragua factory. A former law student who had to drop out to support her family, Guillen said she now works well over her scheduled hours of 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. five days a week in order to meet the quotas, though she does not get paid overtime.

“The code of conduct is very nice. They have it up on the wall like a picture. But we need a permanent representative from Wal-Mart to see that the code is enforced,” she said.

Wal-Mart’s code of conduct for maintaining humane working conditions is part of the Supplier Standards Agreement it enters into with each of its foreign suppliers.

High production quotas from Wal-Mart sometimes force workers in the Philippines to work 24 hours in one day without the option of getting drinking water during working hours, said Florie Arevalo. Arevalo said in spite of a Wal-Mart mandate that sets the minimum wage at the factory at $0.62 per hour, over 60 percent of employees receive $0.46 per hour.

Although the factory where Arevalo works started producing Wal-Mart goods in 2000, workers only came face-to-face with a Wal-Mart representative in 2003, she said, when the corporation wanted to bust a workers’ union that had recently formed to protest the oppressive conditions.

At flower plantations in Columbia, where the bouquets sold at Wal-Mart are cut and packaged, conditions are similar to the apparel factories, said Stella Inés Orjuela. Workers on her plantation are also not permitted to get drinking water on the job, nor are they ever given permission to see a doctor, she said. As a result of the repetitive motion of cutting flowers for 15 hours each day, many of her co-workers have developed carpal tunnel syndrome, and some cannot move their hands anymore, she said.

Arevalo said Wal-Mart not only exploits labor so it can sell its products cheaply, but also lies to its employees about how much their products cost abroad. “They tell (workers) they can’t pay them more because they only get two dollars for a shirt, but when I came to the U.S. I noticed the same thing they were talking about cost $14.42,” she said. “What this comes down to is holding WalMart responsible for oppressive working conditions in our factory.”

Trina Tocco, a program assistant for the ILRF who introduced the workers, said the ILRF is working together with unions such as the ones Arevalo, Orjuela

and Guillen represent in order to hold Wal-Mart accountable in U.S. courts for failing to uphold its corporate code of conduct. As part of its agenda, the ILRF filed a class-action lawsuit against Wal-Mart in California on Sept.

13, 2005. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of workers in several developing nations as well as California Wal-Mart workers.

In the question-and-answer session following the panel presentation, one student said that the condition of workers in developing countries might be a painful but necessary step for their countries to adapt to more modern conditions and questioned what workers could accomplish by trying to change things in their lifetime. “The changes we see now started from people generations back fighting,” said Guillen. “That’s why we are fighting right now.”

“The Filipino Labor Union has been struggling for 100 years and the condition remains the same,” said Arnel Salvador, Arevalo’s translator who works for a worker’s rights nongovernmental organization in the Philippines.

Ward 1 City Councilman David Segal gave a brief speech after the panelists had finished presenting. He said the worker tour highlighted the importance of a new initiative he is pushing that would get Providence to sign its own code of conduct against unfair labor practices for the $1.5 million it spends on apparel per year.

Chris Hu ’06, a leader of the Student Labor Alliance, spoke about the connection of the tour to the Brown community.

“We’re currently meeting with administrators to make sure that Brown apparel is actually manufactured by the list of designated suppliers we submitted to them,” Hu said.

“Everything that is sold with a Brown logo is supposed to be made under fair conditions, but the actuality of it right now is more complicated.”

EDITORIAL/LETTERS THE BROWN DAILY HERALD · WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2006 · PAGE 6

STAFF EDITORIAL

Easy as F-E-C Despite the hastily created signs wielded by students outside last week’s meeting of the College Curriculum Council, we believe students genuinely care about the proposed addition of pluses and minuses to the University’s grading system.

Students who happen by the third floor of Barus and Holley in the next few days should take the opportunity to thank Professor of Physics Robert Pelcovits for emphasizing the need to hear those concerns.

Pelcovits chairs the Faculty Executive Committee, which sent a letter Friday to Dean of the College Paul Armstrong requesting that a University-wide forum be held to discuss the proposal. The CCC, which Armstrong chairs, had previously asked the FEC to approve a faculty forum where student voices would have been conspicuously absent.

The FEC’s letter, as Pelcovits explained at last night’s faculty meeting, will likely prompt a University-wide forum instead of one in which only faculty members have a voice. We look forward to the forum. Any student who pleases should be allowed to voice his or her opinion, even if this means extending the discussion over several days.

The issue of grade inflation will surely come up during the discussion. In the plus/minus proposal that he drafted, Armstrong cited his belief that “introducing pluses and minuses … may encourage broader use of the B by allowing a distinction between B-plus and B-minus work.”

However, at Harvard University, which employs pluses and minuses, grade inflation has been rampant. In 2000, nearly 50 percent of all grades were in the A range and, in 2001, 91 percent of students graduated with some form of honors.

We sympathize with Armstrong, who told The Herald last week that students, in a throwback to junior high, had come into his office crying because they received B’s. But even if pluses and minuses are adopted, those same students, unsatisfied with their B-pluses or B-minuses, will still go teary-eyed to Armstrong’s office. Filtering out grade-grubbers is a problem best left to the Office of Admissions.

Common sense says that the addition of pluses and minuses would help wean Brown from what many faculty members consider an inadequate two-grade system. Indeed, during the 2004-2005 academic year, more than 90 percent of grades given to undergraduates were A’s, B’s and S’s, according to the Office of Institutional Research.

But one can also reason that adding pluses and minuses might chip away at the spirit of academic risk and student cooperation prized by the proponents of the New Curriculum.

The debate over pluses and minuses is multi-faceted, and no one should confine it to the single issue of grade inflation.

D A N I E L L AW L O R

LETTERS Fair Share Health Care plan insufficient To the Editor: Anyone who has witnessed the lottery held at the Rhode Island Free Clinic for open spots for uninsured patients can see that Rhode Island is facing a health care crisis. In a recent article about the Fair Share Health Care bill (“R.I. bill aims to force large companies to pay for health care,” Jan. 31), a Wal-Mart spokesperson stated that of WalMart’s employees, “three-quarters have health care, either through a company plan, a spouse’s plan or Medicare or Medicaid.” As a pre-med, I believe that three-fourths of employee coverage is insufficient.

One would not pass in three-fourths of a homework assignment and expect to get an A. One would not stop treating a patient three-fourths of the way through a drug regimen. The uninsured status of 325,000 Wal-mart employees represents a major failing on the part of the world’s largest and most profitable employer.

The Fair Share Health Care Act requires that the state’s largest employers pay a basic percentage of wages for health care coverage. These companies are not held to higher than normal or unfair standards; they are simply held to the average percentage, a feasible and valid request.

Everyone pays when huge companies don’t pay their fair share of their employees’ health care.

Underinsured workers can not find affordable health care, small and large businesses are at a competitive disadvantage because their costs are higher and the public pays when state health programs are left under-funded. Irresponsible companies shouldn’t be allowed to make profits at the expense of Rhode Islanders’ health.

Caitlin Cohen ’07 Feb. 2

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD EDITORIAL Robbie Corey-Boulet, Editor-in-Chief Justin Elliott, Executive Editor Ben Miller, Executive Editor Stephanie Clark, Senior Editor Katie Lamm, Senior Editor Jonathan Sidhu, Arts & Culture Editor Jane Tanimura, Arts & Culture Editor Stu Woo, Campus Watch Editor Mary-Catherine Lader, Features Editor Ben Leubsdorf, Metro Editor Anne Wootton, Metro Editor Eric Beck, News Editor Patrick Harrison, Opinions Editor Nicholas Swisher, Opinions Editor Stephen Colelli, Sports Editor Christopher Hatfield, Sports Editor Justin Goldman, Asst. Sports Editor Jilane Rodgers, Asst. Sports Editor Charlie Vallely, Asst. Sports Editor PRODUCTION Allison Kwong, Design Editor Taryn Martinez, Copy Desk Chief Lela Spielberg, Copy Desk Chief Mark Brinker, Graphics Editor Joe Nagle, Graphics Editor

Jean Yves Chainon, Photo Editor Jacob Melrose, Photo Editor Ashley Hess, Sports Photo Editor Kori Schulman, Sports Photo Editor BUSINESS Ryan Shewcraft, General Manager Lisa Poon, Executive Manager David Ranken, Executive Manager Mitch Schwartz, Executive Manager Laurie-Ann Paliotti, Sr. Advertising Manager Susan Dansereau, Office Manager POST- MAGAZINE Sonia Saraiya, Editor-in-Chief Taryn Martinez, Associate Editor Ben Bernstein, Features Editor Matt Prewitt, Features Editor Elissa Barba, Design Editor Lindsay Harrison, Graphics Editor Constantine Haghighi, Film Editor Paul Levande, Film Editor Jesse Adams, Music Editor Katherine Chan, Music Editor Hillary Dixler, Off-the-Hill Editor Abigail Newman, Theater Editor

Remeber the buffalo, first victims of ecocide.

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OPINIONS

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD · WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2006 · PAGE 7

American occupation exploits Iraq financially A recent audit of American forces in Iraq reveals rampant corruption that hits Iraqis’ wallets

BY ELIZABETH SPERBER

the earlier revelations about Guantan-amo Bay — that I recall my conversations with Professor of Modern Middle Eastern History Engin Akarli. He is a deeply principled, Muslim man. It is my understanding that he actually went to prison protesting a forced curricular change by the Turkish government many years ago. Yet, during the push for war and during the beginning of the war itself, he argued that the removal of Hussein was necessary because he was

GUEST COLUMNIST

A recent official audit by the U.S. government of American financial practices in Iraq revealed that Americans of all stripes continue to pocket Iraqi treasury funds and U.S. tax dollars earmarked for reconstruction, according to a Jan. 25 New York Times article. Then, on Feb. 2, the Times reported that court papers from a separate but related case against seven Americans in Iraq revealed “a maelstrom of greed, sex and gunrunning at the heart of the American occupation of a conservative Muslim country.”

The details of the audit are astonishing. Literally no records were kept as money entered and left the main vault at Hilla, a large southern city that served as a kind of “regional capital” for “a vast swath of southern Iraq,” according to the Jan. 25 Times article. Without record-keeping, one might have cynically expected the rampant pinching of Iraqi funds within the vault. Yet outside of the vault, U.S. auditors found corruption equally rampant; the most striking instances include one official with $2 million stuffed in a safe in his bathroom, another with an unlocked footlocker under his desk containing $678,000 and the story of $60,000 intended for Iraqi reconstruction gambled away by a single soldier in the Philippines.

In fact, it is at moments like these — as when news of Abu Ghraib broke, or even

and, most recently, after 10 years of absurd and deadly neoliberal sanctions on Iraq, there could finally be peace, democracy and freedom for the Iraqi people. Akarli had every right to want better . With all due respect, though, I am baffled at the blind eye people were willing to turn on the specific histories of Bush administration members in advocating the invasion.

It is illuminating to consider the British public’s more realistic approach

threat to British “national security” that threatened to turn Britain into a police state. Eventually, the British had to sit down with anti-colonial radicals and compromise to ensure the safety of their own people.

While the apparently rampant corruption of individuals in Iraq demands our attention this month, I urge you to refrain from placing blame solely on the individuals in Iraq. Ultimately the disaster of Iraq is our collective responsibility; it is, after all, national policy, and our leaders must be held responsible for enabling the structural exploitation of a fellow people — the Iraqi people.

(Remember, Iraqis had no connection to al-Qaida when we “shocked and awed” their country to bits.) Despite its sleek corporate aesthetic, the Bush administration’s model for secretive, authoritarian exceptionalism mirrors the paradigms of countless imperial rulers of the past.

It is time for everyone who does not want their lives merged with this history of inhumanity, greed and destruction of American and Iraqi bodies, minds and resources to stand up and oppose the neocolonial war machine. Bush’s repetition of the words “decline” and “isolationism” throughout his State of the Union Address register his patently colonial anxiety. Let us “save our pessimism for better times.”

Act now.

Despite its sleek corporate aesthetic, the Bush Administration ... mirrors the paradigms of countless imperial rulers of the past. such a terrible man. I never protested his view of Hussein. Rather, I asked Akarli what he thought motivated the Bush administration, given its distinct history. In light of that history, how could he believe that freedom and democracy were possible results of our invasion?

Akarli shrugged his shoulders and, in a voice filled with hope and wisdom, said that we had to hope for the best. He wasn’t “giving up,” he was sincerely trying to believe that finally, after centuries of colonial oppression, brutal exploitation

to the lies and terrors lying just beneath the surface of our “allied” occupation. A crucial difference between the British and American publics is that the British have been through this before. Our so-called coalition partners wrote the rules of the circular games of invasion, detention, torture, massacre and exploitation of labor as well as the exploitation of public opinion at home for nearly two centuries. As recently as the 1970s and 1980s, the colonial occupation of Ireland, begun in the late 1500s, posed a

Elizabeth Sperber ’06 loves Jane Fonda.

Why I am running for Providence City Council

BY ETHAN RIS GUEST COLUMNIST

I am not the smartest person in Ward 1, the city council district that encompasses Fox Point, Wayland Square and most of Brown’s campus. I am not the most charming person in Ward 1 either, and I am probably not the most handsome person, either. I have never pretended to be any of those things.

What I am, however, is the person best suited to be Ward 1’s next city councilman.

If that sounds vain, please remember that I am gladly giving up any claim to the smart-charming-good looking title that anyone, in a fit of generosity and slight vision impairment, might throw my way.

Now that that is clear, let me spell out my reasons for my claim: More than ever, we need leaders who can bring our community together. Ward 1 has some long-standing fractures, and these were exacerbated by the 2002 City Council election. Three years ago, Providence politics once again trumped itself in bizarreness, with a four-way race that featured the nephew of the outgoing councilman (a Democrat), a prominent real estate holder (a Democrat-turnedIndependent), a RISD professor (an Independent-turned-Republican) and a young man who had moved to Providence a few months before the election (a Republican-turned-Green). The Green Party candidate ended up winning with just over 35 percent of the vote, and he has done almost nothing over the last three years to ameliorate the divisiveness caused by his election. The voting split largely along demographic lines. Folks who had long been associated with the neighborhood, largely from traditionally Democratic voting blocs, stood in one

corner; folks who had moved more recently to the neighborhood and represented a slightly wealthier class, stood with the Independent; Brown students for the most part stood with the Green. I have no idea who stood with the Republican. He came in dead last.

Now, here is where I fit in to this three-part scheme. First, I am a recent Brown graduate. I walked through the gates just eight months ago. That is why I am not surprised when people assume I am still at Brown. I don’t mind it – at least they don’t think that I am a smug journalist trying to infiltrate parties on campus. I am still active with much of life at Brown, and I was proud to have then-UCS president Brian Bidadi ’06 as a keynote speaker at my campaign kick-off

supported my campaign. Additionally, in 2004 I was selected as a Mayoral Fellow in Providence’s City Hall. I worked in the city’s Department of Operations, developing policy for a number of crucial urban services that are important to the people of my neighborhood, from public parks to community policing. I am also an active member of the Friends of India Point Park, the Rhode Island Historical Association and the Trinity Brewhouse Mug Club (a fine organization).

Third, I am a Democrat. When I say that, I mean that I am a hardcore Democrat. As in: my fifth birthday party was Michael Dukakis-themed. During my sophomore and junior years at Brown, I served as the president of the Brown Democrats, where I led the charge to build a small club into

More than ever, we need leaders who can bring our community together. in October.

Second, I am an active member of my community. When I was at Brown, I served on the University’s offcampus housing and transportation committees. Largely due to my work there, I became heavily involved with the Fox Point Citizens Association, a terrific organization whose members come from all over the neighborhood to work to improve the quality of life in Fox Point. Last year I was honored to be elected to its board of directors. The FPCA’s vice president, Harry Bilodeau, was the Independent in the 2002 council race, and I am proud to say that he has

a campus powerhouse that engaged in serious lobbying and community service, registered thousands of new voters, threw huge parties and even brought Bill Clinton to campus. Beyond Brown, I have been a part of Democratic campaigns for years, including working as a full-time volunteer for the Howard Dean campaign in New Hampshire and running as a Dean delegate in the Rhode Island primary.

Locally, I am a long-time supporter and friend of Mayor David Cicilline, and I am close with leaders of the city and state Democratic parties. I was proud to have Kyle Diggins, the Democrat in the 2002 council race, as another keynote speaker

at my October event.

On top of all this, I stand the best chance of bringing fresh ideas to a city that needs them now more than ever.

I am in a rare place, with a front-row perspective on the issues that are most daunting for Providence. The biggest is our decaying school system, struggling to serve a rapidly growing student population with unprecedented needs.

It just so happens that I am a teacher at The Met, an inner-city public charter high school on the South Side, and I come face-to-face with the challenges of urban education every day. Next up is the city’s transportation crisis; Providence is rapidly becoming a city clogged with cars, diminishing quality of life in every way. I am a fierce public transit advocate, in no small part because I ride four buses every day to and from work. After this comes city services, as Providence attempts to bring its operations into the 21st century. As a former Mayoral Fellow, I have worked in a number of city departments and maintain close ties to many who are in the trenches of this effort. In all of these realms and many more, I am eager to bring my perspective and insight to the City Council, coupled with the critical thinking fostered by four years of urban studies, political science and history at Brown.

Hopefully, I have done a decent job of convincing you that I am the man for the job. If you must know about my views on national issues, I am pro-choice, promarriage equality and I think George W. Bush should be tried for treason. But if you want to see me really excited, get me started on trash collection!

You can see pictures of Ethan Ris ’05 wearing a suit, kissing babies, etc. at www.ethanris.com.

SPORTS WEDNESDAY THE BROWN DAILY HERALD · FEBRUARY 8, 2006 · PAGE 8

Ski team rights ship at Plymouth State in win

BY STEPHEN COLELLI SPORTS EDITOR

The 2006 season has been an uphill battle for the ski team.

After placing second at the United States Collegiate Ski and Snowboard Association National Championships last year, Brown had managed just one first-place finish this season before last weekend.

After another disappointing finish in Saturday’s giant slalom at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Carnival, where they took fourth place, the Bears held a team meeting to discuss what had been plaguing them on the slopes.

Whatever was slowing it down, Brown managed to shake it on Sunday. The Bears took first place at the University of Connecticut Carnival to move into third place in the Eastern Collegiate Skiing Conference standings, just six points behind first-place Boston College. The win was Brown’s first in five races since the opening competition of the season.

“This year, our team has been shakier than last year,” said Meaghan Casey ’08. “Last year we were a powerhouse, but this year has been more of a struggle as a team. We seem to have some great individual performances every week, but we can’t seem to string together three strong finishes.

On Sunday, we finally did it.”

Behind Casey’s career-best

dspics.com

Kelly O’Hear ’07 took first place at the Plymouth State Carnival.

run in her second attempt on the day — her third-place finish in that run vaulted her from 19th- to 10th-place overall — and another firstplace effort from Kelly O’Hear ’07, the Bears placed four skiers in the top 26. O’Hear also finished second in the slalom on Saturday to cap off another impressive weekend for Bruno’s co-captain.

“I have to remember sometimes that I’m one of the oldest members of the squad even though I’m just a junior,” O’Hear said. “I’m expected to show that senior leadership now. Every weekend I know I have to finish for our team to do well and in six races I’ve only fallen once.”

Also contributing to Sunday’s win was Janet MarleyMauzy ’07, who came in one place behind Casey with a time of 1:22.03, and Mallory Taub ’08, who placed 26th.

The team’s results were even more impressive considering that, once again, the Bears were forced to overcome the elements to win Sunday’s event. The day started off with rainy conditions at Cranmore Moun-tain, threatening to derail the UConn Carnival for a second time after it was postponed from early January.

“We got to the lodge and we were disappointed because it looked like we were … going to get canceled again,” Casey said. “There was just enough (snow) coverage to ski.”

The Bears remain in the hunt for the conference crown after the rousing win and still remain confident that there is a berth in the national competition awaiting them.

“In Saturday’s giant slalom, we didn’t ski horribly,” O’Hear said. “But we were psyched to win on Sunday. We should be in the top three (of the team competition) every time, but (so far) someone has fallen or had a rough day at the wrong time. Now that we’ve reached our potential, we should continue our success going forward.”

Gymnastics continues to improve in splitting Cornell, Cortland meets

The gymnastics team traveled to New York this past weekend to take on Ivy League rival Cornell and Cortland State University. It returned to Rhode Island with two impressive performances but only one win. Brown posted its highest team score of the season in losing its Ivy opener on Saturday 187.325-184.975.

Sunday, Bruno tallied its secondhighest mark of the season by dominating Cortland State in a 186.725-178.975 win. The Bears

see KLONICK, page 5

A tale of two matches: w. tennis wins, loses big in weekend split at the Pitz

BY BART STEIN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

What a difference a day can make. The women’s tennis team cruised to a 5-2 victory Friday over Syracuse University to kick off its spring season but fell flat against

Will attempt return after rehab, but may need season-ending surgery opt for season-ending — and collegiate career-ending — surgery.

“The plan at the moment is just to try to rehab as much as possible,” Ruscoe said. “I can walk comfortably on it, but I can’t break into a run. So (I’ll) give it a couple of weeks and see if it calms down enough to be playable on and then finish up the season and then get surgery after. If it doesn’t (get better), I’ll just get surgery then.”

The diagnosis comes 40 days after Ruscoe first injured his ankle in a home game against the University of Maryland Eastern Shore on Dec. 20. Ruscoe had his ankle x-rayed the next day, but no break was found.

see GYMNASTICS, page 4

Ashley Hess / Herald

Ruscoe ’06’s ankle now broken The struggling men’s basketball team got a break — a bad one.

Tri-captain forward Luke Ruscoe ’06, the team’s lone senior, confirmed that his injured ankle, which has forced him to miss eight games, is broken and will keep him on the bench for at least a couple of weeks.

Ruscoe, who received the news Feb. 1 from Associate Professor of Orthopaedics Christopher Digiovanni, said that he plans to continue rehabilitate the ankle and that he and the team’s trainers will re-assess the injury in a couple of weeks. They will then decide if Ruscoe can return to the court or if he should

are now 4-3 overall and 0-1 in the Ivy League.

The season-high score in the Cornell meet was particularly impressive as “the judging was a little biased,” said Head Coach Sara Carver-Milne.

“I had to have a talk with the team halfway through the meet, because we were performing so well and not getting the appropriate scores,” she said. “I told them to keep up the great performance. ... They were really hitting their routines.”

For the first time in about nine years, I didn’t make it all the way through the Super Bowl. Despite winning a whopping $12.50 on a no-skillsrequired randomly selected gambling grid at the end of the half, I went home at the beginning KATE KLONICK of the fourth KLONICLES quarter to finish some reading, my interest expired. So why was this XL game so boring?

It wasn’t that the teams involved didn’t have compelling stories or competitive skills, which is why I’m left wondering why the alliterative Steelers-Seahawks Super Bowl left so much to be desired.

You can’t say that the game was boring because it was too defensive — if we had just been watching closer, we could have been picking up on the intricacies of strategy. It simply wasn’t.

There was plenty of scoring, but none of it was exciting. No build up, no anticipation, and some of it shouldn’t even have counted.

A recap: The first touchdown, a run by Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, probably wasn’t even a touchdown. The second touchdown, Willie Parker’s 75-yard run, was over in eight seconds. The third touchdown? Seahawks finally

Brittany Anderson ’09 was named ECAC Rookie of the Week for the second straight week after setting personal bests in all four events.

BY MADELEINE MARECKI SPORTS STAFF WRITER

‘Super Bore’ was lacking in entertainment

Ruscoe rehabilitated the ankle and returned to the court to play 30 combined minutes in two games against Yale on Jan. 14 and Jan. 21and 33 minutes in a game against Dartmouth on Jan. 27, in which he hit a shot to force overtime in an eventual double-overtime win.

But after the game, Ruscoe returned to the sideline. Last Wednesday, Digiovanni, an ankle specialist, “took one look at the x-ray and knew it was a break,” Ruscoe said.

In 11 games this season, Ruscoe has averaged 7.8 points and 5.3 rebounds. For his career, he has averaged just under seven points per game and 4.3 rebounds per contest.

— Charlie Vallely

No. 75 Boston College on Sunday in a decisive 7-0 loss.

The Bears seemed inspired to begin their season with a bang against Syracuse. Kelley Kirkpatrick ’08 and Ashley Pariser ’08, playing first doubles, fought back from a 6-5 deficit to defeat Ashley Lipton and Victoria Vaynberg by a score of 8-6 to clinch the doubles point for Brown.

Pariser continued her dominant play less than an hour later. Playing third singles, she overwhelmed her opponent, Maria Vasilyeva, 6-0, 6-3. Pariser, whose unique hitting style involves using both a twohanded forehand and backhand, garnered praise from Head Coach Paul Wardlaw.

“Ashley is playing real well right now. You have to have excellent mobility in order to play with two hands on both sides. Ashley is very fundamentally sound and has great footwork,” he said.

But even Pariser couldn’t do anything to help the Bears against Boston College on Sunday. Her 6-1, 6-3 loss to Dasha Cherkasov was one of the better efforts of the afternoon, as Brett Finkelstein ’09 and Kara Zeder ’07 notched the only Brown victory at third doubles.

Daisy Ames ’07 suffered her

Min Wu / Herald

Ashley Pariser ’08 has been a key player for Brown after missing much of last season. second consecutive defeat playing first singles. Ames had a successful fall season, so her difficult start is a bit surprising, though Wardlaw is not concerned.

“Daisy played some very tough opponents in the Syracuse and Boston College contests. She just needs to become a little more aggressive, because her game is to force players to beat themselves. I am not worried about her at all,” he said.

Amanda Saiontz ’07 was forced to retire in her match against Lana see W.TENNIS, page 4