THE BROWN DAILY HERALD TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2006
Volume CXLI, No. 15 BUMP AND GRIND Accidents on Benefit Street prompt discussion of adding speed bumps to College Hill METRO 3
TRACK AND YIELD “SmartRide Tracker” allows students to follow movements of BrownMed/ Downcity shuttles CAMPUS NEWS 5
Farmer urges that health care be kept ‘front and center’ BY TAYLOR BARNES CONTRIBUTING WRITER
While speaking about his health care initiatives in poverty-stricken areas worldwide to a full Salomon 101 Monday night, Paul Farmer reminded those in attendance that, “You have to have humor to survive in this kind of work.” Farmer, a professor of medical anthropology at Harvard Medical School, gave his lecture, titled “Resocializing Medicine,” as the 12th speaker in the Brown Medical School’s annual Stanley D. Simon, M.D., Lecture and Forum. Guided by the principle that people living in poverty need and therefore deserve “the best care,” Farmer founded Partners in Health, an international charity that provides and improves health care for poor communities, in 1987.
Jonathan Herman / Herald
Paul Farmer spoke in Salomon 101 Monday about his work as a public health advocate in impoverished nations.
YOU GOT SERVED Red-hot m. tennis sweeps Stony Brook 7-0 before blizzard cancels match vs. URI SPORTS 12
That sick people may not have access to health care because they are poor is “shocking,” Farmer said. Farmer emphasized the relationship between human rights and access to medical care, focusing on the rights of the poor, women and victims of racism. He explained that his group hopes to be “making sure that these social inequalities do not become embodied” in patients. Quoting the 19th-century German pathologist Rudolf Virchow and Martin Luther King Jr., Farmer stressed that access to health care is a fundamental human right. Discussing his team’s fight for the availability of quality health care worldwide, Farmer said that “in order to have a significant impact … we have to bring in lots of people who are not involved in health and medicine.” Farmer’s medical initiatives have been successful in part due to his focus on the complete care of patients. Full care entails “good community-based support,” he said. Farmer also emphasized the need for decent living conditions in order to prevent disease. Overall, to counteract the prevailing pessimistic view that health care cannot reasonably be available worldwide, Farmer stressed the strength of individual relationships, adding that community health workers need to “stay close to patients and family.” Though originating in Haiti, Farmer’s health care programs have spread throughout the world, including Rwanda, Russia, see FARMER, page 6
water loop, the University’s primary heating system, has made locating the source of the leak difficult. The facilities management team and temporary workers have located the crack in the external insulating pipe. However, the tear in the pipe carrying hot water remains a mystery because the pipe is nested within the external one, Maiorisi said. “I think that we all feel that once we find the (internal) leak, it’s a couple of days work to prep and bypass the problem and then we would do a temporary solution to the (grounds),” Maiorisi said. “We would put (the Main Green) back to how it looked, before Commencement.” After the leak was first observed, one hole was dug to access and repair the leak. Three additional holes have been dug to
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TOMORROW
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Jacob Melrose / Herald
Alison Michener ‘06 (left) requests a serenade from two members of Mariachi de Brown, Eric Tong ’05.5 (center) and Ana Mascarenas ’06 (right).
Students protest homeless funding cuts Paperwork error costs Rhode Island $2.2 million BY ASHLEY CHUNG CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Brown students and members of People to End Homelessness gathered at the Office of Housing and Urban Development yesterday to protest the 44 percent cut to federal homeless funding in Rhode Island. The state’s grant was cut after Rhode Island’s annual HUD application was rated by the federal government at 81.5 points, half a point below the threshold score of 82 needed to obtain full funding. Rhode Island’s application reportedly lost half a point because one box on the form was left blank rather
U. draws on summer-only oil burner system to provide hot water
The construction set-up that appeared on the Main Green five days ago may remain there indefinitely because of an unfound leak in the University’s main heating system — a system at the “end of its (original) life cycle” and one that is undergoing repairs, said Stephen Maiorisi, acting vice president of Facilities Management. “We were further along than last Wednesday but there is no way of knowing (whether) we are going to find (the leak) today, tomorrow or Wednesday,” said James Coen, director of maintenance services. “We’re looking at alternatives of what happens if we can’t find the leak,” he added. The complicated structure of the high temperature
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Source of Main Green leak continues to befuddle workers BY JONATHAN HERMAN SENIOR STAFF WRITER
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access the other likely locations of a tear in the heating loop, enlarging the fenced-off area on the Main Green, Coen said. Until the source of the leak is identified and fixed, the University’s summer-only oil burner system has been prematurely activated to provide uninterrupted hot water to all affected buildings — now only “half of the buildings on campus,” Coen said. Buildings north of Waterman Street have not been affected, but buildings to the south have lost heat during the past few days, Maiorisi said. The University has stopped repair efforts and turned the main heating system back on each evening to keep residence halls at comfortable temperatures. The lowest temperature in any of the see LEAK, page 6
than marked “Not Applicable.” About 20 Brown students from the on-campus group Housing Opportunities for People Everywhere and about 10 members of People to End Homelessness, an organization of formerly and currently homeless men and women, marched through downtown yesterday afternoon in protest. The pre-Valentine’s Day march began at 2 p.m. as the protesters walked while holding up strings of construction paper hearts made by people at local homeless shelters. The hearts included such messages as “Don’t cut the housing,” “Houses for all” and “Have a Heart, Support Housing.” The group passed out fliers about the funding cuts along with cell phones and the phone number for the federal HUD office, encouraging Providence citizens to “tell HUD you’re worried about homelessness in Rhode Island.” JT Do ’07, co-leader of HOPE,
said that the group wanted to attract media attention and educate the public about the funding cuts. He also said that one of the goals of the protest was to convince Rhode Island’s congressional members to also pressure the federal HUD office to consider the state’s appeal. “We called all four of them, and they responded saying they would personally call HUD,” Do said. “So the protest was really a success before it even began.” After marching, the protesters gathered again in front of the Providence HUD office at 121 South Main St. and entered the building at 4:30 p.m. to meet face-to-face with Providence HUD officials. The group spoke with Nancy Smith Greer, field office director for the Providence HUD office. One member of People to End Homelessness came forward to comment on the decisive half point margin on Rhode Island’s see PROTEST, page 4
SSDP aids campaign to win voting rights for ex-felons BY CHELSEA RUDMAN STAFF WRITER
The Rhode Island Right to Vote Campaign, led by the Family Life Center and supported by Brown’s Students for Sensible Drug Policy, is working hard to convince Rhode Islanders that extending voting rights to exfelons will benefit communities and underscore the state’s commitment to civil rights. In the coming months, both Brown students and campaign organizers will redouble their efforts as they push for a November ballot measure that,
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if approved, would restore voting rights at the end of a criminal’s incarceration period. The campaign has spent the past two years lobbying to enfranchise ex-felons. Since the state constitution was amended in 1987, felons released from prison cannot vote while on probation. Though this period varies for individual cases, probation periods typically last at least the length of a criminal’s prison sentence, according to SSDP Right to Vote Co-Chair Chris Suarez ’07. Currently, see SSDP, page 4
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