THE BROWN DAILY HERALD MONDAY, MARCH 6, 2006
Volume CXLI, No. 27 COCK OF THE WOCK The Jabberwocks took second behind NYU at the regional sing-off of an international a cappella competition ARTS & CULTURE 3
NOTORIOUS C.O.E. The commerce, organizations and entrepeneurship concentration is accepting its first students CAMPUS NEWS 5
SPLIT SUCCESS The women’s basketball team, following a loss to Princeton, beat UPenn to clinch a share of the Ivy title SPORTS 12
REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK
U. hosts first regional campaign kickoff Upscale event features speeches from Simmons, Wood BY STEPHANIE BERNHARD SENIOR STAFF WRITER
Boston-based alums, eager to reminisce about Brown, gathered Thursday night to mingle with University administrators and President Ruth Simmons at the Boston kickoff of the Campaign for Academic Enrichment. Simmons announced the campaign had raised $627 million of the $1.4 billion it needs by 2010. The three-part event — consisting of a colloquium led by Alva O. Way University Professor and Professor of History Gordon Wood, a cocktail hour and a series of speeches featuring Simmons — took place in the aptly-named Great Room on the 33rd floor of 60 State St. in downtown Boston. The event was the first in a series of regional kickoffs for the “Boldly Brown” campaign. Over the next few weeks, the campaign will travel to New York City, Chicago and Washington, D.C. 4:30 p.m. As afternoon faded into evening, smiling, well-dressed guests congregated in the Great Room for pre-lecture schmoozing. Floor-to-ceiling windows provided sweeping views of the Boston Bay and some of the city’s most charming neighborhoods. The atmosphere was cheerfully welcoming to the extent that, despite
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ushers’ patient prodding for guests to take their seats, Wood did not ascend the podium until several minutes after his scheduled 4:30 p.m. starting time. One of Brown’s most high-profile professors and winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Wood is considered one of the nation’s foremost scholars of the American Revolution. He appeared at ease in front of an audience of 200, joking his way through the lecture and garnering laughter from
the crowd right up to his conclusion. Listeners were particularly amused by Wood’s jabs at the French, which he employed to explain his recent book “The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin.” Todd Andrews ’83, vice president for alumni relations, was pleased both by the reaction and number of attendants. “I was really delighted at the turnsee KICKOFF, page 7
Courtesy of Emilio Flores
President Ruth Simmons joined University administrators for the Boston launch of “Boldly Brown,” held at 60 State St. in downtown Boston Thursday night.
U. pulls support for Commencement Pops concert the University’s bicentennial anniversary and grew to serve as the BCRI’s primary fundraising event. A table for 10 Citing a truncated Commencement people at the seated event — which was Weekend schedule and a perceived previously held on the Main Green but waning interest among alums, officials has moved to several venues throughat the Office of Alumni Relations decid- out Providence in recent years — cost ed to cease supporting the Commence- $1,250 last year. Bill Corrigan ’58, a member of the ment Pops concert this year. The decision has sparked an outcry from some BCRI for 40 years and two-time chairalums who claim the University under- man of the Pops concert organizaestimates the event’s popularity and tional committee, said he understands significance. the University’s rationale but is disapThe concert, a 41-year-old Reunion pointed by how the BCRI’s Pops comWeekend tradition, was organized by mittee was notified. the Brown Club of Rhode Island, a volThe committee was five months unteer organization affiliated with the into its planning cycle before members Brown Alumni Association. The Univer- were notified that the University would no longer support the concert. “It was sity did not directly sponsor the event. Last year, the concert featured the hardly a timely delivery,” Corrigan said. Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra “No one seemed to consider whether or and Lisa Loeb ’90, a Grammy award not we may have made any contractual agreements.” nominee. Without the University’s usual help The concert began in 1964 to mark in marketing and guaranteeing the purchase of 12 to 15 platinum tables, the concert was effectively terminated, according to Corrigan. “I don’t think that the University appreciated what financial impact this would have on the BCRI,” Corrigan said. Although Todd Andrews ’83, vice president of alumni relations, acknowledged the concert’s declining popularity — something he said has become alumni.brown.edu The Office of Alumni Relations has pulled apparent over the past five years — he support for the annual Reunion Weekend said the decision to cancel the concert Pops concert, pictured here in 2005, ending stems from the new format of Reunion a 41-year tradition. BY NATHALIE PIERREPONT CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Weekend, which was shortened to three days last year. “There’s not such a strong feeling for the need to fill the space the night before graduation,” Andrews said. Because of the shorter program, more events now compete with the concert, including dance performances, a cappella concerts and a dinner hosted by President Ruth Simmons for those receiving honorary degrees. “Something’s got to give. The event just doesn’t make sense,” said Ginny McQueen ’81, current president of the BCRI. Andrews expressed concerns about falling attendance numbers to the executive board of the BCRI, citing results from a comprehensive survey issued to 868 alums who attended Reunion Weekend last year. The figures revealed that the Pops concert drew the smallest crowd out of all events included in the survey. The concert had smaller attendance figures than individual class gatherings, the Campus Dance, the commencement procession and forums and the memorial service for departed Brown alums. Alums and families of graduates tend to want to go out to dinner with loved ones the night before graduation, when the Pops concert is typically held, according to Andrews. “They want to spend time with each other, in an interactive way,” he said. McQueen said she does not believe many of her classmates attended the concert over the years. Although there
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Reed calls for re-deployment of troops in Iraq R.I. senator does not support deadline, specific withdrawal plan BY SIMMI AUJLA SENIOR STAFF WRITER
The United States must re-deploy its troops and provide “developmental assistance” for Iraqis as they overcome sectarian strife to build their own country, Sen. Jack Reed, DR.I., told a packed List 120 Friday night. Reed criticized the Bush administration’s lack of planning before going into Iraq, its failure to stabilize and rebuild Iraq and its attempt to replace action with rhetoric in the annual Stephen A. Ogden Jr. ’60 Memorial Lecture on International Affairs, titled “President Bush and the Long War: Are Slogans Enough?” “If we are serious about efforts to support building democracies in the Middle East — as the Bush Administration claims — then we should be investing in the social, political and economic institutions that are essential for the functioning of a democracy throughout the region,” Reed said. “Building democracy is about much more than holding elections,” he added. Democratic senators view Reed, who is a member of the Senate Armed Services committee and served in the Army for eight years, as the party’s authority on Iraq. He recently returned from travels in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. In his speech, Reed outlined his problems with Bush’s handling of the war on terror, beginning with the decision to invade Iraq. He opposed the 2002 resolution authorizing the invasion of Iraq because “Iraq was deterrable, and was effectively being deterred,” he said. Reed called for the re-deployment of troops to pressure Iraqis to take control of see REED, page 4
Times columnist David Brooks to speak tonight BY MARY-CATHERINE LADER FEATURES EDITOR
In a Sept. 25, 2005 column, New York Times op-ed columnist David Brooks described American colleges as “one of the great inequality producing machines this country has known.” Tonight, Brooks will visit Brown’s campus to address class in American society as part of the 26th annual Providence Journal/Brown University Public Affairs Conference, themed “One Nation Indivisible? The Persistence of Class in American Culture.” The lecture will be held in Salomon 101 at 6:30 p.m. A graduate of the University of Chicago, Brooks began his journalism career at the City News Bureau wire service in Chicago. He spent nine years at the Wall Street Journal as a Europe correspondent, movie critic and, ultimately, oped editor, before joining the Weekly Standard. He began writing “The Way We Live Now,” his column for the Times, in September of 2003. “David Brooks is one of the most perceptive observers of our culture,” said vice president of public affairs and University relations Michael
see POPS, page 4 see BROOKS, page 4
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